CNAME - Alias

CNAME-records are domain name aliases.

Often computers on the Internet have multiple functions such as web-server, ftp-server, chat-server etc.

To mask this, CNAME-records can be used to give a single computer multiple names (aliases). For example computer "xyz.com" may be both a web-server and an ftp-server, so two CNAME-records are defined: "www.xyz.com" = "xyz.com" and "ftp.xyz.com" = "xyz.com".

Sometimes a single server computer hosts many different domain names (take ISPs), and so CNAME-records may be defined such as "www.abc.com" = "www.xyz.com".

The most popular use the CNAME-record type is to provide access to a web-server using both the standard "www.clickit.no" and "domain.com" (without the www). This is usually done by creating an A-record for the short name (without www), and a CNAME-record for the www name pointing to the short name.

CNAME-records can also be used when a computer or service needs to be renamed, to temporarily allow access through both the old and new name.

A CNAME-record should always point to an A-record to avoid circular references.

You can use the CNAME-record in the normal form or the raw form on our servers. The format in which to enter the data is as follows:

Standard form:
www CNAME domainname.com
@ A 1.2.3.4

Raw form:
www 43200 CNAME domainname.com.
@ 43200 A 1.2.3.4

Where 'www' is a subdomain CNAME pointed to '@' which is an A-record for the root zone name. 43200 is the TTL in seconds.

Var dette svaret til hjelp?

Relaterte artikler

A - Host Address

The A-record is the most basic and the most important DNS record type. They are used to...

MX - Mail Exchanger

MX-records identify mail server(s) responsible for a domain name. When sending an e-mail to...

TTL (Time To Live)

All DNS records have a TTL, specifying the number of seconds other DNS servers and applications...

Raw Zone Form

The Raw zone form is used for advanced DNS customers. This gives you the ability to create a zone...

3. Backup Mail Service

Our Backup Mail Service is truly powerful.  In addition to simply using it as a backup for...