DNS records tell the internet where to find your website, email, and other services for your domain. Here's a quick reference for the most common record types.
A Record
Points a domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address, such as your hosting server.
Example: yourdomain.com → 192.0.2.1
AAAA Record
The IPv6 equivalent of an A record.
CNAME Record
Creates an alias that points one name to another name (not an IP address). Commonly used for www subdomains or third-party services.
Example: www.yourdomain.com → yourdomain.com
A CNAME cannot coexist with other record types for the same name.
MX Record
Tells other mail servers where to deliver email for your domain. Multiple MX records can be configured, each with a priority value — lower numbers are tried first.
TXT Record
Stores text-based information about your domain. Most commonly used for:
- SPF — lists servers allowed to send mail as your domain.
- DKIM — contains the public key used to sign outgoing mail.
- DMARC — sets a policy for how receiving servers handle mail that fails SPF or DKIM checks.
- Domain ownership verification for services like Google Workspace.
NS Record
Defines which nameservers are authoritative for your domain. Set at your registrar rather than in the DNS zone.
TTL (Time to Live)
Each record has a TTL value (in seconds) that controls how long DNS resolvers cache it. Lower values mean changes propagate faster, but increase the number of DNS queries. 3600 (1 hour) is a common default.
Managing Records
If your domain uses our nameservers, you can manage DNS records directly from the Webfort control panel under your website's domain settings.
