DNS turns your domain name into your server's address. Each record says one thing about the domain: where the site is, where email goes, or which port a service runs on.
The types you will use
| Type | What it does | Example content |
|---|---|---|
A | Points a name to an IPv4 address | SERVER_IP |
AAAA | Points a name to an IPv6 address | 2001:db8::1 |
CNAME | Makes a name an alias of another name | yourdomain.com |
MX | Says where email is delivered | mail.yourdomain.com |
TXT | Free text, used for verification and SPF | v=spf1 mx ~all |
SRV | Says which host and port a service runs on | 0 5 25565 play.yourdomain.com |
Record names
@means the domain itself,yourdomain.com.wwwcreateswww.yourdomain.com.- Any other name creates a subdomain:
playbecomesplay.yourdomain.com.
TTL
TTL (time to live) is how many seconds other servers cache the answer. Cloudflare's Auto value is right almost every time. Before you move a site to another server, lower the TTL to 300 so the change shows up quickly.
Check a record
Run this on your computer, in Command Prompt, PowerShell or a terminal:
nslookup yourdomain.com
nslookup -type=MX yourdomain.com
nslookup -type=SRV _minecraft._tcp.play.yourdomain.comOn Linux and macOS you can also use dig:
dig +short yourdomain.com AIf the answer still shows the old value, wait for the TTL to pass and try again.