What Information Does the DNS Record Contain?

The DNS records for a domain contain dozens of individual types of Resource Records (RRs), but only a few of them are of general importance for most web hosting customers.

The most important RRs are:

• A — This is the primary record associated with a domain name. It contains the IP address that domain-specific requests should be sent to.
• CNAME — “Canonical name,” this record maps the domain as an alias onto another domain. Can be used instead of HTTP redirects to send traffic from one domain to another.
• DNAME — “Delegation name,” this record works like CNAME, but includes subdomains as well.
• MX — “Mail Exchange,” specifies the IP address of the domain’s mail server.