DNS A vs CNAME vs *

[matthew@]

Sorry for the repost on this - think it got lost at the end of an older thread about DNS...

jamesyeeoc said:

Host Record type Value
<domain>. NS ns1.<domain>.
<domain>. NS ns2.<domain>.
<domain>. A <ip>
webmail.<domain>. A <ip>
mail.<domain>. A <ip>
ftp.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
www.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
*.<domain>. CNAME <domain>.
<domain>. MX (10) mail.<domain>.
<domain>. TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all"

Thanks for this post which I too have found helpful. However, I have a couple of things that I don't understand...

1. Assuming that you are using the same IP address for all, why create A records for webmail.<domain> and mail.<domain> as opposed to CNAMEs?

2. Given that you have a CNAME for *.<domain>, why do you also need ftp.<domain> and www.<domain>?

TIA, Matthew

 

[hardweb]

First, the MX handler requires an A record. Then, in the above example you don't need A records for ftp and www, but they are recommended if you change IPs or for consistency purposes.

 

[matthew@]

Originally posted by hardweb
First, the MX handler requires an A record. Then, in the above example you don't need A records for ftp and www, but they are recommended if you change IPs or for consistency purposes.

Aha, that makes sense now... thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Regards, Matthew