Frequently Asked Questions
Most common types of DNS Records
DNS Record Types
<hr />Most common types of DNS Records
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| A | The record holds the IP address of a domain. |
| AAAA | These are records that contain the IPv6 address for a domain (as opposed to A records, which list the IPv4 address). |
| CNAME | Forwards one domain or subdomain to another domain, does NOT provide an IP address. |
| MX | Directs mail to an email server. |
| TXT | Lets an admin store text notes in the record. These records are often used for email security. |
| NS | Stores the name server for a DNS entry. |
| SOA | Stores admin information about a domain. |
| SRV | Specifies a port for specific services. |
| PTR | Provides a domain name in reverse lookups. |
Less commonly used DNS Records
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| APL | The ‘address prefix list’ is an experiment record that specifies lists of address ranges. |
| AFSDB | This record is used for clients of the Andrew File System (AFS) developed by Carnegie Melon. The AFSDB record functions to find other AFS cells. |
| CAA | This is the ‘certification authority authorization record, it allows domain owners to state which certificate authorities can issue certificates for that domain. If no CAA record exists, then anyone can issue a certificate for the domain. These records are also inherited by subdomains. |
| DNSKEY | The ‘DNS Key Record’ contains a public key used to verify Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) signatures. |
| CDNSKEY | This is a child copy of the DNSKEY record, meant to be transferred to a parent. |
| CERT | The ‘certificate record’ stores public key certificates. |
| DCHID | The ‘DHCP Identifier stores info for the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), a standardized network protocol used on IP networks. |
| DNAME | The ‘delegation name’ record creates a domain alias, just like CNAME, but this alias will redirect all subdomains as well. For instance, if the owner of ‘example.com’ bought the domain ‘website.net’ and gave it a DNAME record that points to ‘example.com’, then that pointer would also extend to ‘blog.website.net’ and any other subdomains. |
| HIP | This record uses ‘Host identity protocol’, a way to separate the roles of an IP address; this record is used most often in mobile computing. |
| IPSECKEY | The ‘IPSEC key’ record works with the Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC), an end-to-end security protocol framework and part of the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). |
| LOC | The ‘location’ record contains geographical information for a domain in the form of longitude and latitude coordinates. |
| NAPTR | The ‘name authority pointer’ record can be combined with an SRV record to dynamically create URIs to point to based on a regular expression. |
| NSEC | The ‘next secure record’ is part of DNSSEC, and it’s used to prove that a requested DNS resource record does not exist. |
| RRSIG | The ‘resource record signature’ is a record to store digital signatures used to authenticate records in accordance with DNSSEC. |
| RP | This is the ‘responsible person' record and it stores the email address of the person responsible for the domain. |
| SSHFP | This record stores the ‘SSH public key fingerprints’; SSH stands for Secure Shell and it’s a cryptographic networking protocol for secure communication over an unsecured network. |
Last updated 03/22/2023 11:03 pm
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