DNS stands for Domain Name Service and/or Domain Name Servers. The Domain Name Service (DNS) can be thought of much like a phone book. If you need to call someone on their phone but only have their name, you can always check the phone book for their number. The same thing happens on the Internet, although, it all happens in the background.
Like a person’s name, it’s easier to remember a domain name like rocketspark.com as opposed to their online internet address (IP), the IP address is where all the files are located that make up a website. So when you type in rocketspark.com, it checks the directory to find the (IP) address of where all the files are stored before making the connection to retrieve and display the website.
Rocketspark has different domain settings for each of its NZ, AU, US and UK servers.
View NZ DNS settings
View AU DNS settings
View UK DNS settings
View US DNS settings
What are MX records:
What are TXT records:
A TXT (Text) record is an informational record you can use to provide additional information about the named service. You can use a TXT record to include notes about a host, or you can format it to provide technical information to servers.
What is an A record:
An A Record (or 'Address Record') specifies which IP is assigned to a particular domain. This is a setting that can point your domain to your website without changing anything else on your domain. So if you’re not wanting to change all settings on your domain in one swoop (such as changing the nameserver settings), using an A Record will allow you to just dictate where your domain is pointing and leave everything else as is.
What is a CNAME record:
CNAME stands for Canonical Name. CNAME records are used to map a subdomain such as www or mail to the domain hosting that subdomain's content. For example, a CNAME record can map the web address www.rocketspark.com to the actual web site for the domain rocketspark.com.
These two below are not used often:
What is a SRV record:
An SRV record is like a signpost on the internet that tells computers where to find a specific service (like calling, chatting, or gaming) and what port to use to connect. It also helps choose the best server if there are several options, kind of like picking the fastest line at a checkout. This makes sure your computer talks to the right server in the right way for that service.
What is a AAAA record:
An AAAA record is like an address card on the internet that tells computers where to find a website using a newer type of address called IPv6. Just like a home has a street address so mail can get to it, websites need an IP address so computers know where to connect. The AAAA record stores that address in the newer, longer format (IPv6), which allows for way more addresses than the old system (IPv4).
This is a very important step as putting this in place will make sure that you can be found at both www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com.