Trials and Tribulations – the DNS CNAME wait

Liz — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 15:51:00 +0000

If your messing with your DNS settings, it can take 72 hours to see if what you have done is right, and the same amount of time to correct a mistake. Here is a quick guide to masking your domain using the cname function in your DNS settings.

Rule 1: Do not touch your ‘MX’ records, they control your emails.

Rule 2: Always complete your cname with a FULL STOP! (This one has caused pain, a small thing you might forget but it can mean death to your cname)

Take the current record for example:

Name	Type	Content
@	A	123.456.789
WWW	A	123.456.789

There also might be ‘IN’ between your name and type.

to cname (Canonical Name) this record the information needs to be changed to:

Name	Type	Content
@	A	123.456.789
WWW	CNAME	kidsontalks.com.

This is the basic information that you should see with your hosting provider. Sometimes the information is presented to you in a text file for example:

www IN CNAME mydomain.com.

A CNAME-record should always point to an A-record and never to itself or another CNAME-record to avoid circular references.

Kidsontalks » Canonical-Name

Trials and Tribulations – the DNS CNAME wait