What is DNS

dns, name server, web hosting, domains

Every website that runs on the public internet is hosted on an IP address, however remembering lengthy strings of numbers is not a feasible way to operate a service as complex as the Internet, so DNS is used instead.

DNS is a collection of human readable records that correspond to IP addresses, which allows for websites to be visited much easier than typing in IP addresses directly. Think of DNS as a phone book for the internet, as they function in basically the same manner. Due to the various types of services available on the Internet, there are many different types of DNS records that correspond to a variety of web services.

A few of the more common 'records' are outlined below.

Record	Description	Example
NS	Name Server	ns1.hostingcloud.com.au
A	'A'	hostingcloud.com.au
MX	Mail Exchange	mx1.mailfilter.com.au
CNAME	Canonical Name	www.hostingcloud.com.au (CNAME of hostingcloud.com.au)
TXT	Text Record	"v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all"

To experiment with DNS use the Dig Web Interface to explore domains that you use frequently, as in doing so you will better understand how they've been set up. All DNS records are stored in a 'zone file', these are accessible for editing through cPanel on our servers.

The most common records that you will encounter are 'A', 'MX' and 'CNAME' however you may need to adjust TXT or NS records occasionally - please contact support if you have difficulty with this.