Editing The DNS

What Is The DNS?

The DNS is the Domain Name Server, and is the backbone that provides the data for your websites. When you want to have more than one website showcase your data, then you can get it to point to another website. This is also known as domain forwarding. You may have read a post from last week’s blog about domain forwarding, but this post has a few extra details on editing the DNS rather than on domain parking, which was one of the primary discussion topics.

The best thing about editing the DNS is that you can have the ability to have it point to any location on the internet! This can be beneficial for people who use mirror sites and other domain re-routing. The Codex writes:

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Adding Custom DNS Records

At the top of the Edit DNS page, you’ll see three records that are set in place by default. These records will be followed by a “handled by WordPress.com” message. In order for your domain to work correctly, you’ll need to leave those in place. If you need to add separate DNS records, you’ll want to add them in addition to the preset records.

Custom DNS records are comprised of several pieces of information that have to be entered in the correct order. The actual information required depends on the type of record you are trying to add.

For example, a domain’s MX Record directs your emails to the right place. Using a custom MX record, you can point any email on your domain to a third-party email provider. This will allow you to create email addresses using your custom domain and use them with your preferred email service provider.

An MX record is comprised of the following pieces of information:

Your domain (or subdomain)
Your provider’s domain
Priority
You can get this information from your email service provider.