Understanding DNS Record Types

What A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, and TXT records do, how to configure them in NameBright, and the common mistakes that cause propagation failures.

GUIDE-1.2 · 1 min · Updated June 2026

The most common record types

Record Purpose Example value
A Points a domain or subdomain to an IPv4 address 203.0.113.42
AAAA Points to an IPv6 address 2001:db8::1
CNAME Alias one name to another shop.example.com → example.myshopify.com
MX Routes email to a mail server 10 mail.example.com
TXT Stores arbitrary text; used for SPF, DKIM, site verification v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
NS Delegates a zone to nameservers ns1.namebright.com

A records

An A record maps a hostname to an IPv4 address. You use A records when pointing a domain or subdomain at a specific server:

  • example.com → 203.0.113.42

  • www.example.com → 203.0.113.42

Most domains use two A records: one for the root ( @ ) and one for www .

MX records

MX records tell other mail servers where to deliver email sent to your domain. They require a priority number (lower = higher priority) and a hostname, not an IP address:

10 mail.example.com
20 mail2.example.com

If both mail servers are equivalent, use the same priority on both.

TXT records for email authentication

TXT records carry SPF , DKIM , and DMARC policies. These three records together tell receiving mail servers whether to trust email claiming to come from your domain.

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