Add a DNS record

A DNS record tells the internet where a name goes. An A record sends a name to an IPv4 address, an AAAA record to an IPv6 address, and a CNAME record makes a name an alias for another name. You add each record on the domain’s page in MyAccount, and E2E’s nameservers answer with it at once.

For email records, see Set up email records. For SRV records, see Add an SRV record.

Before you begin

• The domain is on Manage DNS. See Add a domain.
• You know the value the record needs: an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or the name a CNAME points to.

Open the domain

1. In MyAccount, under Network, click DNS.
2. In the domain’s row, click Actions, then Manage. The domain opens on its Domain Name System Record tab, which lists every record with Host, TTL, Record Type, and Value.
3. Click Add Record, and choose the type under Select Record Type. The type’s fields appear. All of them are required, and Submit is available once they are filled.

Choose the host name

The host name decides which name the record is for:

You enter	The record is for
@, or nothing	The domain itself, example.com.
www	www.example.com.
app.eu	app.eu.example.com.
www.example.com., ending in a dot	www.example.com., exactly as written

A name without a dot at the end gets your domain added once. A name that ends in a dot is used as written, as the note under the field explains: Hostname ending with .(dot) are considered Fully Qualified Domain Name. The short form, such as www, is the safest choice. Typing www.example.com without the final dot gives you www.example.com.example.com..

A full name ending in a dot must be inside your domain. In example.com, the name www.example.net. is refused.

Choose the TTL

TTL(SECONDS) is how long other DNS servers keep a copy of the record before they ask again. The field starts empty. Enter a whole number of seconds, one or more.

• A longer TTL, such as 3600 seconds (one hour) or 14400 (four hours), means fewer lookups and is what Diagnostics expects: it flags any record under 3600 seconds.
• A shorter TTL, such as 300 seconds, makes a change reach everyone sooner. Lower the TTL a day before you move a record to a new address, and raise it again afterwards.

Records with the same host name and type share one TTL. Adding another one with a different TTL changes it for all of them.

Add an A record

An A record points a name to an IPv4 address, such as your website on a node.

1. Under Select Record Type, choose A.
2. In Host Name, enter @ for the domain, or a name such as www.
3. In TTL(SECONDS), enter the TTL, such as 14400.
4. In IPv4 Address, enter the address, such as 203.0.113.10.
5. Click Submit.

An address that is not a valid IPv4 address reads Please enter a valid IPv4 address. eg. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx can be a number from 0-255.

You can add several A records for one host name, each with a different address. Resolvers then return all of them, and clients pick among them, which spreads requests across your servers. Adding the same address twice is refused.

The host name of an A or AAAA record takes letters, digits, hyphens, and dots. It cannot start with a dot, and each part between dots is 1 to 63 characters that cannot start or end with a hyphen. A * is not accepted here; for a wildcard, use a CNAME record, as in Point every subdomain to one place.

Add an AAAA record

An AAAA record points a name to an IPv6 address. Add one when your server has an IPv6 address.

1. Under Select Record Type, choose AAAA.
2. In Host Name, enter @ or a name such as www.
3. In TTL(SECONDS), enter the TTL.
4. In IPV6 Address, enter the address, such as 2001:db8::10.
5. Click Submit.

An address that is not valid reads Please Enter a valid IPv6 address. You can add several AAAA records for one host name, each with a different address, as with A records.

Add a CNAME record

A CNAME record makes one name an alias for another. Visitors to the alias get the answers of the name it points to, so when that name’s address changes, the alias follows. The chain must end at a name that has an A or AAAA record.

1. Under Select Record Type, choose CNAME.
2. In Host Name, enter the alias, such as docs.
3. In TTL(SECONDS), enter the TTL.
4. In Point To, enter the full name the alias points to, such as documents.example.com or app.example.net. MyAccount adds the dot at the end and keeps the name as you typed it.
5. Click Submit.

Host Name and Point To each take up to 253 characters. A CNAME host name takes letters, digits, dots, hyphens, underscores, and *.

A CNAME record must have its host name to itself:

• A host name can have one CNAME record. A second one is refused.
• A CNAME cannot share its host name with a record of another type. The domain itself always has SOA and NS records, so a CNAME on @ is refused. A CNAME on www is refused while www has the A record E2E created with the domain; delete that A record first.

Point a name at another service

A CNAME is the usual way to give your own name to a service that has its own address, such as a hosted app. For example, to give an app hosted at app.example.net the name app.example.com, add a CNAME with Host Name app and Point To app.example.net. Point To takes a host name only, without https:// or a path. To serve a public bucket’s files at your own name, see the E2E Object Storage pages: Make a bucket public and Host a static website.

A certificate authority that checks your domain by CNAME gives you a host name, which starts with an underscore, and a value to point it to. Add them as a CNAME record, keeping the underscore. The CNAME host name accepts it. For example:

Host Name:  _3f2a91c7.www
Point To:   3f2a91c7.validation.example.net

Point every subdomain to one place

To send every name under your domain, such as blog.example.com and shop.example.com, to one place, add a CNAME record with Host Name * and Point To set to the name that has the address, such as example.com. Names that have their own records keep them; the wildcard answers for the rest.

Move several subdomains from another provider

If each subdomain pointed somewhere different at your old DNS provider, add one record for each, of the same type and value. Use a CNAME for each name that pointed to a host name, and an A record for each that pointed to an address.

Check the record

The dialog closes with Domain Record has been created successfully., and the record appears in the list. The list shows five records a page; Items per page shows 5, 10, 15, or 20. Each value has its own row, even when several share a host name.

E2E’s nameservers answer with the new record at once. Ask one directly:

dig @ns50.e2enetworks.net.in www.example.com A +short

The output is the record’s value, such as 203.0.113.10. For a CNAME, ask for CNAME in place of A, and the output is the name it points to. Once the domain points to E2E’s nameservers, dig www.example.com A +short shows the same answer from anywhere. A resolver that looked the name up before keeps its older answer until that answer’s TTL runs out.

If the record is refused with an Error! dialog, see A record is refused with Something went wrong.

The name now points where you want it. To change it later, see Edit a DNS record.