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This document
explains
What
is DNS?
DNS can be considered
something similar to a phone book. When you move from one location
to another, your name stays the same, but your phone number may
change. In order to point your name to the new phone number, you
must contact the telephone service provider so they assign you the
new phone number and update all directory information to reflect
you as pointing to this new phone number.
In this way,
the IP number can be compared to a phone number: When someone calls
http://www.example.com/, your ISP looks at the DNS server, and asks
"how do I contact example.com?" The DNS server responds:
"It can be found at 198.105.232.4". As the Internet understands
it, this can be considered the phone number for the server, which
houses the http://www.example.com web site.
The DNS records
for your domain are kept on your hosting server in the place called
DNS zone. When you register a domain by means of the control panel,
all DNS records are automatically created for you, but in some rare
cases you may need to add custom records to your DNS zone. An example
would be when you want all email to be processed by an external
mail server rather than by the built-in mail system. However, such
user intervention requires knowledge of DNS configuration and clear
understanding of what is to be done.
How
Do I Create Custom DNS records?
To create a
custom record to your DNS zone, do the following:
- Select Domain
info in the Domain Settings menu.
- On the page
that appears, click the Edit icon in the DNS Configuration
field:
- This link
will take you to the DNS Configuration page:
On this
page you can see several blocks of DNS records. Some are built-in
and non-removable; others are user-defined and can be deleted.
Built-in MX records require special consideration: they can
be removed by disabling mailservices for this domain., but all
e-mail resources, including mailboxes, forwarders, and autoresponders
will also be deleted. The removal of H-Sphere 2.x email services
was made possible to enable the use of e-mail services provided
by other mail servers.
You can
add any type of DNS records by clicking an appropriate link.
You will be asked to enter corresponding DNS data.
Adding
Custom A Records
Normally, A
records are used to map domain names and web server IP's.
If you have
selected A record, the following page appears:
- Name:
enter the string to map to the web server.
- TTL:
set how many seconds will elapse before the record is refreshed
in the DNS cache.
- Data:
enter the IP of the web server.
WARNING: Please
pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add an A record.
Adding
Custom MX Records
This type of
DNS records MX may be applied if you want to map domain names and
their mail server IP's.
If you have
selected MX record, the following page appears:
In the case
of MX records, the Data field contains the preference and
the mail domain name. If you leave the Name field blank,
all mail will be redirected for this zone.
IMPORTANT: To
add an MX record for the base domain, leave the Name field empty.
WARNING: Please
pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add an MX record.
Adding
Custom CNAME Records
Finally, CNAME
records are used to map aliases with domain names.
If you have
selected CNAME record, the following page appears:
In the case
of CNAME records, the values have the same format as in the A record
with the exception of the Data field. In the Data field you
have to enter the name of the server to which you are creating the
alias record.
WARNING:
Please pay attention to $ORIGIN when you add a CNAME record.
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