A Record
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
An A Record is the most basic DNS record — it just says 'this domain name = this IP address.' It's the phonebook entry itself. Point your domain's A record at your server's IP and boom, your website works.
Real Talk
An A (Address) record is a DNS record type that maps a hostname to an IPv4 address. Multiple A records can exist for the same domain (for load balancing), and they have a TTL value that controls how long DNS resolvers cache the result.
Show Me The Code
# Example DNS zone file
example.com. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.10
www.example.com. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.10
blog.example.com. 3600 IN A 203.0.113.20
When You'll Hear This
"Add an A record pointing the subdomain to the new server IP." / "The A record is wrong — it's pointing to the old IP."
Related Terms
CNAME (Canonical Name Record)
A CNAME is a DNS record that's like an alias or nickname. Instead of pointing to an IP address directly, it points to another domain name. So 'www.
DNS (Domain Name System)
DNS is the internet's phonebook. You type 'google.
IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4)
IPv4 is the original address format for the internet — four numbers separated by dots, like 192.168.1.1. The problem?
Nameserver
A nameserver is the specific server that actually knows all the DNS records for your domain — it's the authoritative source of truth.
TTL (Time To Live)
TTL is how long DNS resolvers are allowed to remember (cache) your DNS records before checking again. A TTL of 3600 means 'remember this for 1 hour.