What is an A Record?

November 27, 2019 / Web Hosting

An A or Address record is used for pointing a domain or subdomain to an IP address (IPv4). An A record can be used for finding the IP address of the computer that is connected over the Internet from a name.

What are A records?

An A record is going to map a fully qualified domain to an IP address. And these are the most often used record type for any DNS configurations. The address records configured in a domain for a specific host or at times. It is even represented using an @ symbol.

Name:

This is the hostname for the address record and typically the server with your domain. It becomes important to note that the domain name automatically appended to the Name field of the record. If the hostname defined like- www.example.com in your DNS. Then it will be creating an address or A record having the name in the field of www in the domain.

In case the field Name is blank, then used for representing the root record of the domain. The domain from the root record is termed an apex record. However, some domain providers tend to use an @ in the record.

IP:

The IPv4 address defines the fully qualified domain name. An IP address contains a 4-octet 32-bit address

TTL:

TTL refers to the amount of time that the record is going to resolve the name servers in the web browsers. The remote systems refer to the DNS record. TTL is lowered to make the changes in the traffic volume. And it is required for a record having high TTL will raise back again.

Setting up an A Record for Domain

You can set up an A record for domains. Following are the steps that you need to follow for setting up the A record for your desired domain-

1. log in to your account and then choose the domain list from the sidebar
2. Click the manage button placed next to the domain
3. Navigate to the advanced DNS tab on your page
4. You need to find the host records sections in the domain and then click on the add new record button
5. From this select, an A record for type and you need to enter the host that is pointing to an IP Address

The symbol @ indicates that a root domain is pointed to the IP address and you need www to point to the IP address. Any hostname could be inserted in the subdomain pointing to the IP address.

Once you have inserted all the details, save them using the Save Changes icon. Once finished, you need to make sure that there will be records for the same host. If any, just remove them.