Domain basics

• 03 May 2023
• web,
• domain,
• dns records,
• dns

Domain Name Basics #

If you're deploying a website or web service, you'll want to set up a human-friendly name for it. To do this, you need a domain. A domain is a human-friendly mapping of the IP address of your website or web service. Here are some basics about domains.

Records #

• A (Address record) is used to map a name to an IP address.
• CNAME (Canonical Name record) is used to map one name to another name. This is commonly used for redirecting the www subdomain to the same A record as the root domain.
• TXT (Text record) is used to attach a line of text to the domain.
• NS (Name Server record) is used to set up the name server.
• MX (Mail Exchange record) is used to route mail traffic.
• ALIAS (Alias record) is used when you want to set an alias for your root domain (CNAME cannot do that).
• URL (URL record) is used to redirect to a destination instead of resolving.
• AAAA (IPv6 Address record) is used to map a name to an IPv6 address.
• SRV (Service record) is used to define a network service associated with a domain.
• PTR (Pointer record) is used to map an IP address to a name (reverse DNS lookup).
• SPF (Sender Policy Framework record) is used to specify which hosts are allowed to send mail on behalf of a domain.
• SOA (Start of Authority record) is used to identify the primary authoritative DNS server for a zone.

There are more types of records, but these are the basics.

A name server is responsible for handling various requests on the internet and redirecting them to the appropriate IP.

To check your domain's records, you can use the official ICANN Lookup or a DNS propagation checker. Some providers of TLDs (Top Level Domains) offer custom search tools, Eurid.

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