DNS Terms Cheatsheet

There are a lot more domain record terms than this, but these are the ones I most frequently encounter. I’ll add more as I run into them.

Records

Record | Description | Use
A | Address Record | Point a domain to a specific IP address
CNAME | Canonical Name Record | This is an alias of one name to another. Example: A CNAME of www.cagrimmett.com to cagrimmett.com tells the server to look for the WWW version wherever the non-WWW version’s A record resides. CNAME records must always point to another domain name, never directly to an IP address.
MX | Mail Exchange Record | Direct’s a domain’s email to the server hosting the accounts. I most frequently use this for setting up Google Apps.
NS | Name Server Record | Determines which servers will communicate DNS info for a domain. You usually have a primary and secondary. This site uses Cloudflare’s name servers.
DNSKEY | DNS Key Record | The key record used in DNSSEC.

Terms

Term | Full Name | Description
DNS | Domain Name System | Basically a phone book for the web. When you try to go to a domain (e.g. google.com) in your browser, the domain name system tells your browser where to find that domain, usually an IP address.
TTL | Time To Live | How long it will take any change you make now to go into effect
@ | Self-referential character | You don’t use the actual domain name in your DNS settings. Instead, you use the @ symbol to indicate the domain name.
DNSSEC | Domain Name System Security Extensions | A set of protocols that add a layer of security to the DNS lookup and exchange processes.