Kayla

Basics
DNS entries or Zone records tell the server where to look for the actual hosted content.

Types

A Records
An A record points a URL to an IP address.
Example: domain.com points to 66.7.200.82.

CNAME Records
A CNAME record points a URL to an A record.
Example: domain.com - Get online with a domain name and web hosting points to domain.com, which then points to 66.7.200.82.
The benefit of a CNAME is that if the IP address of the A record changes, the CNAME will pick up the change automatically.

MX Records
A MX record is used to point to a mail server. It allows someone wanting to send email to a domain to connect to the correct server. It contains 2 parts - a priority and an A record. A domain can have multiple MX records, the reason being that if you cannot connect to the first server reference by a MX record, you can work your way down the priority list.

Example:
If I am trying to send an email to webmasterdomain.com, I need to find a server capable of handling email for the domain.com domain.
10 mx1.domain.com
20 mx2.domain.com

Those are the machines we will send our email to. If you cannot connect to mx1.domain.com, it will try mx2.domain.com.
The main part of MX record is that the destination IP is capable of handling email.

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