DNS Records... -[RESOLVED]-

[Electroman]

Can someone give me the low down on DNS records. Like what are:
A Records
MX Records
CNAME Records

And which do I need to use if I wanted to make a domain point at a certain IP address......I can guess A Records would be for that and MX & CNAME have somethign to do with email but I'm not all that sure :).

Thanx for any help :D.

EDIT: If you could also explain what TTL is please.

[Electroman]

To add a little more info I added a A Record to see if i could get it working but it dont :(.

The A Records that already exist are:Name TTL CLASS TYPE DATA

Fixed Records:
electromanuk.com 86400 IN A 64.xxx.xxx.xxx
*.electromanuk.com 86400 IN A 64.xxx.xxx.xxx

Custom Records:
testing.electromanuk.com 86400 IN A 81.xxx.xxx.xxx
This doesn't work because I think the wildcard is catching it when I put testing.electromanuk.com in, anyone think I'm doing something wrong or should I be asking my host if they can alter the order the records occour.

[dglienna]

TTL is Time To Live (for the record) I think that you have to sync things with the DNS server. I don't remember how, though.
I had DNS server on my W2K machine, that is offline and packed up at the moment.

[mendhak]

Originally posted by Electroman
Can someone give me the low down on DNS records. Like what are:
A Records
MX Records
CNAME Records

And which do I need to use if I wanted to make a domain point at a certain IP address......I can guess A Records would be for that and MX & CNAME have somethign to do with email but I'm not all that sure :).

Thanx for any help :D.

EDIT: If you could also explain what TTL is please.

A Records - the ip address for the domain to point to.
MX Records - Mail server
CNAME Records - Canonicalized, or aliases to another domain you want to point to. Generally ignored.

Use A for pointing to IP address.

TTL is Time TO Live, used when pinging. ;)

[seismicweasel]

Originally posted by mendhak
TTL is Time TO Live, used when pinging. ;)

Um, no.

The TTL is the length of time that the DNS should be cached for before being requested again.

A DNS record with a high TTL would be cached by other DNS servers (and your local DNS cache) for a long period of time. Its the reason that DNS records can take days to propagate around the internet when they get updated since most DNS servers will rely on their cached information until the TTL expires.

[plenderj]

Originally posted by mendhak
MX Records - Mail server


Mail Exchanger to be precise ;)

[visualAd]

When you make a change to your DNS records you need to give it a least 72 hours for the changes to propegate. It may be less depending on the TTL's of the name servers.


Hey Mend, I can't believe you forgot SND records (Sandpaper Records)

[plenderj]

I made a product called "WhoWiz", that's basically a reverse dns utility. Our slogan was:

WhoWiz - The Award Winning SND.

... nobody got it :rolleyes:

[Electroman]

Posted by plenderj
I made a product called "WhoWiz", that's basically a reverse dns utility. Our slogan was:

WhoWiz - The Award Winning SND.

... nobody got it :rolleyes: ...and there is a file not found error when I try to download it :(.


Also BTW there is an update to my progress: I just tested it again and the URL does send me to my IP address but the funny thing is it seems to be working cos it asks for my username and password but when I enter them correctly I get to see the welcome screen for my websites server :lol:. I guess this is just a cache issue but refreshing doesn't help...I have a few other things to try first though.

[dglienna]

don't you want to flush the cache?

[Electroman]

Posted by dglienna
don't you want to flush the cache? normally usign the refresh button should force it to use a new version of the page but its still the same. When I goto the url it is pointing me to my Router which then asks for a username & password....If I give the correct ones then it shows me the page that is on the server and isn't where the url should point but is where it would point if the record didn't exist. Very strange.

[plenderj]

You trying this from behind your router?
... and what are you still doing up?

[Electroman]

Posted by plenderj
You trying this from behind your router?
... and what are you still doing up? Yea I'm behind my router, didn't think of that, I could try it from outside, will give that a go in a sec.....

Yea I finished work at 1 and i ain't got Uni tomorrow :D. But your still up and your in the same time zone :p.

[Electroman]

Yea that was the one, I just connected to a Uni PC and made it visit the URL, It worked correctly :D.

[mendhak]

Originally posted by seismicweasel
Um, no.

The TTL is the length of time that the DNS should be cached for before being requested again.

A DNS record with a high TTL would be cached by other DNS servers (and your local DNS cache) for a long period of time. Its the reason that DNS records can take days to propagate around the internet when they get updated since most DNS servers will rely on their cached information until the TTL expires.

My mistake. :)

[mendhak]

Originally posted by plenderj
Mail Exchanger to be precise ;)

Oh yay :D

[visualAd]

Originally posted by Electroman
Yea that was the one, I just connected to a Uni PC and made it visit the URL, It worked correctly :D.
I had to put a name server on my LAN to get my domain name working inside my LAN.

[plenderj]

You see you cannot test NAT from inside your network. And if you'd a name server setup inside the network, it was probably pointing at the LAN address for your server, not the WAN...

[visualAd]

Originally posted by plenderj
You see you cannot test NAT from inside your network. And if you'd a name server setup inside the network, it was probably pointing at the LAN address for your server, not the WAN...
I seem to remember discussing this topic with you in another thread. I was going to post a link but I can't find it. :(

[Electroman]

Posted by visualAd
I seem to remember discussing this topic with you in another thread. I was going to post a link but I can't find it. :( http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=300591

:D

[visualAd]

Nope, not that one. It was in this forum, I can remember having a heated discussion with Jamie before he finally proved me wrong. But it still boils down to the fact, Netgear Suck, becuase they port forward/NAT requests to the external IP address.

[plenderj]

Of course I proved you wrong - didn't you know I'm always right ;)

[Electroman]

Posted by plenderj
Of course I proved you wrong - didn't you know I'm always right ;) It took you over a week to come up with that? :D