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You can update your domain name's DNS directly, or you can use Wizard mode which prompts you for required fields on the type of records you're adding or updating.

To Select a Total DNS Control Update Mode

The Wizard leads you through standard DNS changes.

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name you want to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Select the update mode by clicking one of the following:
   • Wizard Mode — Uses a wizard to guide you through the process of modifying records
   • Advanced Mode — Allows you to directly edit fields on the page

   NOTE: You can only use one update mode at a time.

An A record, also called a host record, is the record in your zone file that connects your domain name to your IP address. This allows a user to enter your domain name in a Web browser to access your website. These are the most common type of zone record.

To Create or Edit an A Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name you want to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add New A Record to add a new record, or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following and then click OK:
   • Host Name — The host name the A record links to. Enter @ to map the record directly to your domain name.
   • Points to IP Address — The IP address used by your domain name for this host record.
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information.

A CNAME is an alias for a host record. With CNAMEs, you can have more than one DNS name for a host record.

CNAME records point back to an A record. If you change the IP address of the A record, all your CNAME records pointed to that record automatically follow the new IP. The alternative solution is to have multiple A records, but that solution is not as simple as using CNAMEs. Using CNAMEs makes your DNS data easier to manage. The most common CNAMEs are subdomains "www" and "ftp".

To Create or Edit a CNAME Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name you want to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click the Total DNS Control hyperlink.
5. Click Add New CNAME Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following and then click OK:
   • Enter an Alias Name — The subdomain name for the alias assignment.
   • Points to Host Name — Your domain name.
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information.

Your domain name's MX or Mail Records control delivery of email sent to your domain name. There is often no need to modify an MX record. But occasionally you have to update the record if you host a website with one network but you have email hosted at another location.

Usually you have multiple MX records assigned to your domain name. For example, you might assign MX10, MX20, and MX30 to a mail server. Each MX number (10, 20, and 30) describes the priority use of the email servers when delivering an email message. This gives you three possible mail servers in the event your primary mail server is unavailable. The alternate mail servers store your email messages until your default server is back online. This prevents loss of email during an outage. This is called MX Priority. The lowest number MX record is the first, or primary, mail server attempted for delivery.

NOTE: To manage MX records through the Domain Manager, your domain name must use our nameservers.

To Create or Update an MX Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name to change.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add New MX Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following, and then click OK:
   • Priority — The priority with which you want to assign the mail server.
   • Host Name — The domain name for the MX record. Enter @ to map the record directly to your domain name, or enter the subdomain of your host name (for example, www, ftp, etc).
   • Enter Goes To Address — The mail server's address.
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information.
7. Click OK.

NOTE: You cannot set up your domain name to use more than one mail provider at a time. If you have an email account through another email provider and change your MX record to point to our mail server, you will no longer have access to your email account. Be sure of this action before making MX Record changes.

An NS record gives management authority for your domain or subdomain DNS to third-party nameservers. When you create an NS record, a subdomain has a different zone file from the main domain name on the third-party nameserver.

In Total DNS Control, you can view your NS records. Nameservers you set through the Domain Manager display as "Informational". You can only change these nameservers through the Domain Manager. The NS records you created through Total DNS display the host name and the nameservers you are using to manage the subdomain.

NOTE: You must set up a corresponding zone file for the domain name with the third-party provider.

To Create or Update an NS Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add New NS Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following, and then click OK:
   • Host Name — The host name or domain the NS record is linked to.
   • Points to Host Name — The nameservers you want to use to manage your domain.
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information.

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) allows you to explicitly define mail servers that can send email from your domain name. Receiving mail servers check this information when they receive email from the domain name, and if the sending server does not match entries in the SPF record, they identify the email as unauthorized.

To Create or Update an SPF Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name you want to edit.
4. Click Total DNS Control.
5. In TXT (Text), click Add New SPF Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. From the This domain sends mail through list, select one of the following options:
   • Us only — Sends email only through us.
   • Us and an ISP — Sends email using us and your ISP.
   • An ISP or other provider — Sends email using your ISP or another mail provider.
   • No email is sent from this domain — Does not send email using this domain name.
7. On the Inbound tab, select All Inbound Servers May Send Mail to allow incoming email sent from any mail servers or do one or both of the following:
   • Select individual servers — Specify the allowed incoming mail servers.
   • Enter Additional MX Addresses — Enter the allowed incoming MX addresses (mail servers).
8. On the Outbound tab, if the IP addresses listed in your A records for the domain name are also outbound mail servers, select All Addresses in A Records. Optionally, you can enter additional A Records for outbound mail servers.
9. On the PTR tab, select Include PTR to allow servers based on your domain name to send email. Optionally, you can enter additional PTR addresses.

   NOTE: A PTR refers to reverse DNS records. In an SPF record, including the PTR tells the receiving SMTP server to complete a reverse DNS lookup on the sending server's IP address, and then expect a match in the response. If you enter additional PTR addresses, responses ending in those domain names are considered valid matches.

10. On the Outsourced tab, if mail from your domain name is sent through an ISP or other third party server, enter the third party domain names you are using.
11. (Optional) To prevent the SPF Record from automatically validating servers not specifically listed, select Exclude all hosts not specified here.
12. Click OK.
13. On the SPF Wizard Step 3 screen, click OK to save the SPF record string as a TXT record.

    NOTE: Clicking the Edit button takes you to the first screen in the record.

Service Records (SRV) are resource records used to identify computers that host specific services. For example, a client issues a request for the SRV Record to find the host name that provides the service for a specific domain name. The service might be used on that domain name or may be called from a different one.

To Create or Update an SRV Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add SRV Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following, and then click OK:
   • Name — The host name or domain name the SRV is linked to. For example, "server1." If you want to link the record to your domain name, enter the @ symbol.
   • Service — The service name of this SRV record. For example, "_ldap", "_ftp", "_smtp".
   • Protocol — The protocol used for the service. For example, "_tcp" or "_udp".
   • Priority — The priority for the SRV record. For multiple records that have the same Name and Service, clients use the priority number to determine which Target to contact first.
   • Weight — The weight of the SRV record. For multiple records that have the same Name, Service, and Priority, clients use the weight number to determine which Target to contact first.
   • Port — The port number of the service. For example, "80" or "21."
   • Target — The host name of the server that provides the service described by this record. For example, "ftp.coolexample.com." Please note that this host name must be an "A" or "AAAA" type in the DNS zone for the domain name that provides the service.

A TXT 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. Using the "name=value" format, where the characters preceding the first "=" sign are the name, and everything after the first "=" sign is the value, you can enter up to 255 characters.

NOTE: You can create multiple TXT records, but the cumulative length cannot exceed 512 characters.

To Create or Update a TXT Record

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name to update.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add New TXT Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following, and then click OK:
   • TXT Name — The host name for the TXT record. You can enter @ to map the record directly to your domain name, or enter the subdomain of your host name (for example, www, ftp, etc.).
   • TXT Value — The value you want to assign to the record.
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information.

AAAA records store a 128-bit Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address. These IPv6 does not fit the standard A record format. Example: 2001:0db8::85a3:0000:0000:6a2e:0371:7234 is a valid 128-bit/IPv6 address. It maps the hostname to an address associated with a domain name and specifies that AAAA records must be processed.

To Create or Update an AAAA Record for Your Domain

1. Log in to your Account Manager.
2. In the My Products section, click Domain Manager.
3. Click the domain name for which you want to create a AAAA record.
4. In the Total DNS section, click Total DNS Control.
5. Click Add New AAAA Record or click for an existing record you want to edit.
6. Complete the following:
   • Host Name — The host name or domain name linked to this AAAA record
   • Points to IPv6 Address — The 128-bit address
   • TTL — How long the server should cache the information
7. Click OK.