DNS Customization Guide

“If you registered your domain name through DomainPeople or one of our Full Service resellers, you can access this free service through your Account Manager." Simply select the domain you want to apply customer DNS settings to, click the edit link, then click on the “Advanced DNS Settings” link to open the Customer DNS form and configure the DNS as required.

The DNS customization tool enables customers with advanced technical domain knowledge to make and manage unlimited changes to a Domain Name Zone File. Be aware that your name servers must be pointing to DomainPeople's name servers in order to use this service.

What You Can Do

The Domain Name Zone File is a text file stored on a name server that contains all the information pertaining to a domain. The Customizable DNS service allows you to specify the following zone file additions and modifications:

  • A records
  • CNAME records
  • MX records
  • Sub domains
  • TTL of each record
  • Special host entries (No-host and Catch-all)

A Records

These records are the basis of the zone. They are used to set an IP address to correspond with a web host. The purpose of this is to set where the host will be "redirected", such as setting the "your-domain.COM" host to point to the IP of the web server where the files are stored. They are also used with MX records to set up a host, "mail.your-domain.COM," that points to the IP address of the mail server that will be accepting e-mail related to this domain.

CNAME Records

Creates an alias of a host name. The alias gains all properties of the original, including IP addresses and mail routes. An example of a CNAME record would be "www.your-domain.COM," which would point to "your-domain.COM."

MX Records

MX Records set the location of the server that all electronic mail will be sent to. A domain name can have multiple mail routes, each one with its own entry, and each given a numerical priority. The lower the number, the higher the priority. If one fails, the request goes to the next in the list. MX records can only point to a host, never an IP.

Sub Domains

A sub domain, such as "whatever.your-domain.COM" is set to an IP, using an A record, or a host, using a CNAME record. Two examples that almost all domains have set up are "www.your-domain.COM" (typically, this is set up, and the "your-domain.COM" record is not) and "mail.your-domain.COM".

TTL of Each Record

Time To Live (TTL) refers to the number of seconds remaining on a cached record before it is purged. The act of caching involves recording the response of DNS record queries to increase speed of delivery for future reference.

Special Host Entries (No-host and Catch-all)

The No-Host option enables requests for specific sub domains to be forwarded to a specific page. For example, "ftp.your-domain.COM" can be set to forward to a page that explains that this service is not supported. The Catch-all option forwards any non-existing hostname to a specific location.