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.