DNS Manager

The main purpose of the Domain Name System (DNS) is to translate user-friendly names to numerical IP addresses. These names are translated with the utilization of DNS resource records. The DNS resource records are stored on a DNS name server. Using the DNS Manager section in the Control Panel, you can modify the following types: Note: There are instructions on adding the DNS records listed below in the parent section of the Online Manual: DNS Manager. A records Using an A (Address) record you can associate a hostname with an IPv4 address. For example, if you have a server at your office and you need to name it office.my_domain.com, you can use an A record to do that. AAAA records You can add AAAA records to point a hostname to a specific IPv6 address. MX records MX (Mail eXchange) records are used to define where email messages for a given domain name will be routed to. It can be either a hostname under your domain name (e.g. mail.my_domain.com), or can be a name of a third-party mail server (e.g. mail.hotmail.com). You cannot add IP addresses as MX records. If you modify the MX records for your domain name, please make sure that the server you have defined as MX for your domain name is configured to accept email messages sent to your domain name. CNAME records The CNAME (Canonical NAME or Alias) records are similar to the A records. While you need to specify an IP address for the A record, for the CNAME record, you need to specify another hostname (for example user.my_domain.com). TXT records TXT (TeXT) records give you the option to associate some text with a host or other name.For example, the TXT record is used to define the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) information record which may be used to validate legitimate email sources for a domain. An example of an SPF record is: my_domain.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx ~all" "v=" defines the version of SPF used. The "a" and "mx" strings specify the systems which are permitted to send messages for the domain. The "~all" string at the end specifies that the mechanisms listed are all that should be used for matching with a SOFTFAIL policy. SRV records SRV (SeRVice) records are more complex records which are used to define the hostname and the port for specific services. SRV records are added in the following form: _service._proto.name TTL class SRV priority weight port target The "service", "proto", and "name" strings define the symbolic name, transport protocol, and domain name of for which the record is valid. The "class" string defines the DNS class field (which is always IN). The "priority" string indicates the priority of the DNS record (lower value means higher priority), and the "weight" string shows the relative weight for records with the same priority. The "port" string can be either TCP, or UDP depending on the port on which the service works, and "target" shows the hostname of the machine providing the service. SRV records are used for services such as XMPP, Client SMTP Authorization, SIP, etc. CAA Records A CAA (Certification Authority Authorization) DNS record lets domain owners specify which Certificate Authorities (CAs) are allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates for their domain. It’s a way to protect your domain from unauthorized certificate issuance. Wildcard DNS records A wildcard DNS record is a record that will match requests for non-existing names. It is specified by using a "*" (asterisk symbol) as the leftmost label (part) of a domain name (e.g. *.my_domain.com). DKIM Records DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email authentication method that uses a digital signature in your email headers, verified by a public key in your domain’s DNS, to prove the message was sent from your domain and hasn’t been altered. DMARC Protection DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is an email security protocol that builds on SPF and DKIM to let domain owners specify how to handle unauthorized emails and receive reports about misuse of their domain.

You will not be able to change the nameservers of your domain name using the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel. You can change the nameservers only using the domain management interface provided by your domain registrar.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. In order to apply changes to existing DNS records, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Edit button next to the record you wish to modify. Apply the necessary changes and click on the Submit button to save them. You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector. This way, you can edit the records for all domain names part of the hosting account.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. In order to restore the default DNS configuration, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Go to DNS Settings. Select the domain whose DNS settings you wish to restore using Apply for selected domains. Click on the Restore default configuration button. Use this feature to restore default DNS settings if something goes wrong or to reset custom records.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To disable the DNS service for a single or all domains on your hosting account, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Go to DNS Settings. Choose the domain to reset its DNS settings using Apply for selected domains. Click on the Disable DNS service. If the DNS service is disabled for a particular domain or all domains parked on your account, you can use the Enable DNS service button instead.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add an A record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose A from the drop-down menu.IPv4 address: Enter the server's IP address for the A record.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add an AAAA record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose AAAA from the drop-down menu.IPv6 address: Enter the server's IP address for the AAAA record.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add an CAA record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose CAA from the drop-down menu.Certificate authority domain: Enter the domain name of the Certificate Authority (e.g., letsencrypt.org).Tag: Select the appropriate tag (issue, issuewild, or iodef).Flag: Set to 0 for standard usage.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add a CNAME record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose CNAME from the drop-down menu.Target: Enter the hostname for the CNAME record.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add a MX record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose MX from the drop-down menu.Mail Server: Type in the hostname of the mail server (e.g. smtp.google.com).Priority: The default value is 0. MX record priority determines the order in which mail servers are tried for email delivery, with lower numbers being attempted first.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add a TXT record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Type the name here (e.g., "www" for www.example.com). Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose TXT from the drop-down menu.Text: Enter the text of the TXT record.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. General info Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is a DNS-based system that allows domain administrators to list the servers that are allowed to send email for their domain. The main purpose of this system is to fight email forgeries on the Internet. A flaw in the SMTP protocol allows anyone on the Internet to use any email address/domain as a sender of the messages they send. This is very often exploited by spammers and virus-spreading botnets - they use real domains as senders to give credibility to their messages. If you add an SPF record for your domain, then all mail servers on the Internet that use SPF checks will know which mail server your messages should come from, and will block as spam messages that use your domain as a forged sender. Note that adding an SPF record in the DNS server for your domain is not generally meant to fight spam sent TO your domain - it is meant to instruct recipient mail servers which is the real sending server for your domain. A commonly used SPF record is:v=spf1 a mx ~all"v=" defines the version of SPF used. The "a" and "mx" strings specify the systems that are permitted to send messages for the domain. In this case, these would be the A and MX records of the domain - the servers that host the web and email services for the domain. The "~all" string at the end specifies that the mechanisms listed are all that should be used for matching. It also defines a SOFTFAIL policy. Detailed information about SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is available at http://www.open-spf.org/. Adding an SPF record through the SPF Protection tool Here is how you can control the SPF protection: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on DNS Settings. Choose the domain or domain names using Apply for selected domains. Click on the Enable button next to SPF Protection. Note: You can also use the SPF Protection toggles next to each domain name in the list below. This will automatically add the following SPF TXT record in the DNS records section:v=spf1 a mx include:SERVERNAME.smtp-spf.sureserver.com ~allReplace SERVERNAME with the specific server name/number associated with your hosting account. This is the first part of your server's full name. For example, if your server's full name is s433.sureserver.com, use s433. If it is server299.com, use server299. The SPF record above lists the following servers as allowed senders for your domain: the server on which your hosting account is on, the current web server of your domain, in case your domain is not pointed to our web hosting service, the current email server of your domain, in case your email service is not pointed to our email server. Removing the SPF protection by clicking the button Disable next to it would remove all existing SPF records for your domain. IMPORTANT: When using the SPF protection tool, you should make sure that you are sending messages only through our server, and not through the SMTP server of your ISP or any other server that is not listed in the SPF record. Otherwise, your messages might be marked as spam. If you are sending messages through other mail servers as well, make sure these servers are added to the SPF record (see below for manually adding/editing an SPF record).   Adding an SPF record in the DNS Manager manually The hosting Control Panel's DNS Manager section allows you to add an SPF record manually. To add an SPF record, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: leave this emptyDomain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Text: v=spf1 a mx include:SERVERNAME.smtp-spf.sureserver.com ~allTTL: Leave the default value: 14440.Note: Don't forget to replace SERVERNAME with the the server name/number associated with your hosting account. This refers to the first part of the server's full name. For example, if the full name is "s433.sureserver.com", use s433, so the SPF string would be "include:s433.smtp-spf.sureserver.com". If the full name is "server299.com", use server299, so the string would be "include:server299.smtp-spf.sureserver.com". The "include" mechanism in the SPF record will ensure that after any server IP changes, the SPF record will provide correct information about the servers allowed sending email for the particular domain. Combining SPF records You shouldn't create multiple DNS SPF records. Instead, you can list multiple mail servers as allowed senders for your domain. For example, if you use the email service of an account on server s433, but your website also sends messages via Google, you will need to have the SPF records for both servers configured for your domain - the SPF record for server s433: v=spf1 a mx include:s433.smtp-spf.sureserver.com ~all and the SPF record for Google (as per their documentation): v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all Since having two separate SPF records is considered a bad practice, you should combine the values of the two SPF records into a single SPF record. To do this, you need to combine the systems that are permitted to send messages for your domain (between the "v=spf1" and the "~all" parts of the SPF record value), so the combined SPF record would look like this: v=spf1 a mx include:s433.smtp-spf.sureserver.com include:_spf.google.com ~all which is essentially the following from the first SPF record: a mx include:s433.smtp-spf.sureserver.com and the following from the second SPF record: include:_spf.google.com

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. To add an SRV record, you should: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:_Service._Protocol: Enter the service and protocol (e.g., _sip._tcp).Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose SRV from the drop-down menu.Target: Enter the hostname of the server providing the service (e.g., sipserver.example.com). Port: Enter the port number on which the service is running.Priority: Set the priority for the service.Weight: Set the relative weight for records with the same priority.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

DKIM provides a method for validating a domain name identity that is associated with a message through cryptographic authentication. It protects your mailboxes from sender forgery and helps with avoiding your messages being filtered as spam. It requires server-side signing of the messages and a DNS record. To enable DKIM signing of your outgoing messages, please follow the steps: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on DNS Settings. Click on the toggle switch next to DKIM protection so that it turns blue and points to the right. When you enable the DKIM protection, our mail server will generate a private key and start to sign your messages delivered to remote servers with it by adding a header to them. The The public key needs to be stored in a DNS record as it is used by the remote servers to verify the messages. When enabling the DKIM protection, the DNS record will be automatically created on our DNS servers. The DNS record will look like this (the actual key will be different for your account): If you are using third-party DNS servers, you need to replicate the DNS record on them. You can only enable or disable the DKIM protection for your whole hosting account. You can't do that per domain name. Disabling the DKIM protection through the toggle next to it would remove all automatically generated DKIM records for your domains. If you have disabled your DNS service, you will need to temporarily enable it to be able to manage the DKIM protection.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. General information Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) is a system of DNS records that extends the functionality of DKIM and SPF by allowing domain owners to set policies for messages that fail authentication checks. DMARC also allows the ability to specify where and if reports of such failures should be sent. If there is a DMARC record for your domain, all recipient servers that check such records will know what to do with messages that claim to be coming from your domain, but fail authentication checks. Please note that a DMARC record does not reduce SPAM sent to YOUR domain; instead, it instructs recipient servers on how to handle messages that fail authentication checks. A commonly used DMARC record is:v=DMARC1; p=none;"v=" defines the version of DMARC used. The "p=" string at the end specifies the policy that should be used for the domain. Detailed information about DMARC is available at https://dmarc.org/. Adding a DMARC record through the DMARC protection tool To add a DMARC record for your domain name, please follow the steps: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on DNS Settings. Click on Enable next to DMARC protection. The DNS Manager section of the hosting Control Panel allows you to add a DMARC record for your domain with a single click. Just use the Enable button in the DNS Settings section. This will automatically add the following DMARC TXT record in the DNS records section:v=DMARC1; p=none;The DMARC record above specifies that no particular policy for bounced messages should be used. Since most email providers simply require the existence of a DMARC record, this record should be sufficient to increase the deliverability of the messages you send. Removing the DMARC protection by clicking the button Disable next to it would remove the existing DMARC record for your domain. Adding a DMARC record in the DNS Manager manually If you are an advanced user, you might wish to add a different DMARC record for your domain. The hosting Control Panel's DNS Manager section allows you to add a DMARC record manually. To add a DMARC record, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Click on the Create button to the right of the interface. Fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Set to _dmarc unless provided another subdomain.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose TXT from the drop-down menu.Text: Type your desired DMARC record.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After applying all values, click on the Submit button.

When making changes in the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel, you can choose to apply them to a single domain, multiple domains, or all parked domains using the Domain select box. If you select All Domains, the changes will be applied to the DNS configuration of the main domain and all parked domains on the account. DNS records When adding a DNS record for All Domains, it will also apply to all parked domains, regardless of existing records of the same type for the same hostname (subdomain). If the target of the new record differs from an existing one, the hostname may end up with two records of the same type.For example, if you have an A record for test.your_parked.domain.com pointing to 1.2.3.4, and you add another A record for the test subdomain for All Domains pointing to 2.3.4.5, then test.your_parked.domain.com will have two A records: one pointing to 1.2.3.4 and another to 2.3.4.5. Mail Delivery status When applying changes to the Mail delivery status for All domains, the existing mail delivery status of the main and all parked domains will be overwritten with the new setting.

You may find it useful to export your DNS records when switching your DNS service provider. In order to export your existing DNS records, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Go to DNS Settings. Select the domain whose DNS records you want to export using Apply for selected domains. Click on the Export DNS records button. A text file containing the DNS records in the TinyDNS format will be saved to your computer.

DNS records added via the DNS Manager section of the Control Panel take effect only when the domain name uses the DNS service of your hosting account. In order to point the mail service to another provider, you need to: Go to the DNS Manager section. Find the existing MX record, if there is one. You can use the Type: drop-down menu to filter the records. Choose MX: Click on the Edit button next to the record. If there is no record, click on Create instead. Change the Mail Server value, and point it to the hostname provided by your new mail provider. If you're creating a new record, fill in the following fields:Subdomain: Leave blank for example.com.Domain: You can choose to apply the changes to one or more domain names through the Domain selector.Type: Choose MX from the drop-down menu.Mail Server: Enter the hostname of your new mail server.Priority: 0 is the default value. Leave it to the default unless instructed otherwise.TTL: This is the time-to-live value of the record. The default is 14400 seconds. We would recommend leaving the default in most cases. After pointing your mail service to another provider, you need to update the Mail delivery status setting. It is available in the DNS Manager > DNS Settings section. It allows you to configure how our mail server handles email messages sent to your domain name(s). The mail delivery should only be modified in case you are using external mail service provider for your domain name(s). Don't forget to click Save after choosing the new mail delivery status. There are three configuration options available:• We are Mail Server (default)When this option is selected, our mail server will accept email messages sent to your domain name and will deliver them to the mailboxes you have created on your account. This is the default configuration option.• We are backup MXWhen this option is selected, our mail server will act as a backup mail server. It will accept email messages for your domain name, and then queue them for delivery to your primary mail server as defined in your DNS configuration. Please make sure that you have your DNS records configured properly before selecting this option.When this option is selected, you will not be able to use our Webmail, nor will you be able to access your mailboxes which exist on our server. Also, you will not be able to use our mail server as outgoing/SMTP server.• External MX, External Mail ServerWhen this option is enabled, our mail server will not accept email messages for your domain name. This option should ONLY be used if you are using another mail server which is configured to handle email for your domain name. Basically, with this option enabled, the email service for your domain name at our mail server will be completely disabled. If any incoming email messages for your domain name reach our mail server, they will be rejected.

There are four DNS records that affect email delivery: The MX record; The A record of the subdomain that the MX record points to; The SPF record (a TXT record); The DKIM record (also a TXT record). The information that is contained in those records needs to be present in your DNS configuration in order to ensure the proper operation of your email. The records are created automatically on our servers. You can review the values of these DNS records on the DNS Manager page of the Control Panel of your hosting account. Records for incoming email MX record The most important type of DNS record for email is the MX type. MX records determine where email for the domain is going to be delivered. For example, the default MX record on our servers is similar to this: example.com. 14400 IN MX 0 mail.example.com. This tells mail servers that email for example.com (for instance, when a message is sent to [email protected]) should be delivered to mail.example.com. It is possible to have more than one MX record; for our servers, this is not necessary. A record for the mail host A mail server would then check the A record for mail.example.com: mail.example.com. 14400 IN A 192.252.159.138 The sending mail server knows to which IP address (192.252.159.138) to deliver the message this way. This IP address will be different for your hosting account, so you should get it from the DNS Manager page of the Control Panel. Records for outgoing email Basically, the records above are sufficient for incoming email delivery. However, there are a couple of other records, all implemented as TXT records, that are now widely used to reduce the amount of spam delivered over the Internet. They can help your outgoing email reach its destination without being blocked by spam filters. SPF record The first one is the SPF record. On our servers, the default SPF record looks something like this: example.com. 14400 IN TXT "v=spf1 a mx include:sXXX.smtp-spf.sureserver.com ~all" The sXXX.smtp-spf.sureserver.com part varies depending on the hosting server your account is on. This record tells other mail servers that legitimate email from example.com may come from the IP addresses that the A and MX records point to, as well as all servers in the SPF record for sXXX.smtp-spf.sureserver.com. This helps other servers detect spam that falsely claims to be sent from your domain. DKIM record The other TXT record that is needed for email sent from our servers is the DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) record. Our servers sign outgoing messages using DKIM. This record is defined for the "dkim._domainkey" subdomain, and is similar to this: dkim._domainkey.example.com. 14400 IN TXT "v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=1RxyKBp/fDaGUQw2bdMpbe3E9HgBXATjTH/QfSA3dqvjp3QEIM+cjHXwVNQpWp/2aTYCbJ1CADB6Tu/FBI4H03hmtY1Ab3xCMMoGvbqbB+GrgcfYbEI+kGxAJAPUqvQOSs03hIGQA13PLsVOQRCVdMBhwxS6BxjrAuQ1gCqjs/M7KstbABsXxLt4BCGrSY9KpavSQDtDtZNMRgBXvEqImaig" The DKIM record contains a cryptographic key that lets receiving servers ascertain that the message was indeed sent from your domain.