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Creating CNAME Records

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Last Updated: March 3, 2009 11:17 AM

A CNAME is an alias for a host record. CNAMEs allow you to have more than one DNS name for a host record.

CNAME records point back to an A record. So if you change the IP address of the A record, all your CNAME records pointed to that record automatically follow the new IP of the A record. The alternative solution is to have multiple A records, but then you would have multiple places to change the IP address which increases the chances of error. Using CNAMEs makes your DNS data easier to manage. The most common CNAMEs are subdomains "www" and "ftp".

To Create a CNAME Record

  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 CNAME record.
  4. In the Total DNS field, click the Total DNS Control and MX Records hyperlink.
  5. Click Add New CNAME Record.
  6. Complete the following:
    Enter an Alias Name
    The subdomain for which you want to create the record.
    Points to Host Name
    Your domain name.
    TTL
    The time increment for which the server should cache the information.
  7. Click OK.