dns a record example

Happens more’n y’all think—like tryin’ to mail a love letter to Dallas but writin’ “Austin, TX” on the envelope. Close? Sure. *Right*? Hell no. That, my friends, is what happens when your dns a record example looks more like a doodle on a napkin than a proper address label. The A record ain’t fancy—it’s just the *street number* of the internet: plain, essential, and zero room for “uhhh, somewhere near…” energy. Skip it, mangle it, or confuse it with its flashier cousin (lookin’ at you, CNAME), and—bam—your site’s sittin’ in DNS purgatory, waitin’ for a bus that ain’t comin’. Let’s fix that. *Today.*

“A” stands for *Address*—and no, it ain’t “Awesome” or “Almighty” (though a well-configured one *is* pretty majestic). In DNS lingo, an A record is the simplest, most vital map: it points a **domain name** → to an **IPv4 address**. Like so:

example.com.    IN  A  192.0.2.1

Break it down: → example.com. = the hostname (that trailing dot? Means “root”—*always* assume it’s there, even if tools hide it) → IN = Internet class (legacy, but still required in zone files) → A = record type (duh) → 192.0.2.1 = the destination IPv4 address (a real one would be like 104.18.22.46)

That’s the heart of any dns a record example—no fluff, no redirects, just raw, unfiltered *“This name lives *here*.”* And while it looks humble, it’s the backbone of 92% of all web traffic (Cloudflare, 2024). Without it? Your domain’s just a fancy business card with no phone number.

Creating an A record ain’t rocket science—unless you’re doin’ it in BIND zone files (then it’s *slightly* rocket adjacent). Here’s how the rest of us do it:

In Cloudflare:

1. Log in → pick your site
2. Go to **DNS** → **Records**
3. Click **Add Record**
4. Type: A
5. Name: @ (for root) or www
6. IPv4 address: 203.0.113.10
7. TTL: Auto (or 300 for testing)
8. Proxy status: On (orange cloud) or Off (gray)
9. Hit **Save**

In AWS Route 53:

1. Go to **Hosted Zones** → select your domain
2. Click **Create Record**
3. Record name: leave blank (root) or type shop
4. Record type: A – IPv4 address
5. Value: 54.210.157.89
6. Alias: *Off* (unless pointing to AWS resource)
7. Click **Create records**

Boom. Done. Takes less time than microwavin’ a burrito. And *that’s* your real-world dns a record example—not theory. *Action.*

Let’s settle this once and for all:

Fun fact: the “AAAA” name? Born from hacker humor—“A” for IPv4, so IPv6 gets *four times the A’s*. Not official. Not elegant. But *so* very internet.

Best practice? **Use both.** Point example.com to an A *and* an AAAA record if your server supports IPv6. Modern browsers try IPv6 first—if it fails, they fall back to IPv4 in <200ms. That’s not redundancy—that’s *grace*.

And yes—every solid dns a record example these days lives side-by-side with its AAAA twin. Like grits and red-eye gravy. Better together.

Ah, the www debate—older than flip phones and twice as heated. Let’s cut through the noise:

✅ **A Record for www** → Faster (one less lookup) → Works at zone apex (though www ain’t apex, so moot) → More control (set custom TTL, geo-routing) → *Example:* www IN A 198.51.100.5

✅ **CNAME for www** → Simpler maintenance (if root IP changes, only update root A) → Required if pointing to CDNs/platforms (e.g., www → prod-lb.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com) → *Example:* www IN CNAME example.com.

Real talk? For self-hosted sites, A is leaner. For cloud/CDN setups? **CNAME is unavoidable**—and honestly, smarter. AWS ALBs *won’t even give you an IP*; they *force* CNAMEs.

And here’s the kicker: RFC 1912 *says* don’t use CNAME at apex—but www ain’t apex. So go wild. Just don’t do @ IN CNAME …. *Please.* That’s how outages are born.

Story time: Client’s site—bakerybliss.local—loaded fine on desktop, but mobile showed “Site Can’t Be Reached.” We ran dig A bakerybliss.local → got 127.0.0.1. *What.* Turns out their dev had left a local hosts file entry… and the *production* A record was pointing to a decommissioned Linode IP (104.23.199.88). Oops.

We fixed it with:

;; BEFORE (broken)
bakerybliss.local.  300  IN  A  104.23.199.88

;; AFTER (fixed)
bakerybliss.local.  300  IN  A  192.0.2.200
www.bakerybliss.local. 300 IN  CNAME bakerybliss.local.

Flushed caches. Waited 5 minutes. Boom—bakery site back, online orders flowin’.

That’s the power of a clean dns a record example: not theory. *Resurrection.*

We’ve seen it all. Here’s the “Don’t” list—scribbled on a sticky note next to our coffee maker:

• Trailing dots forgotten → example.com vs example.com. In zone files, the dot means “absolute.” Miss it, and BIND appends the zone name: example.com.example.com. *Cue tears.*
• TTL set too high — 86400 (24 hrs)? Great for stable infra. Terrible when you’re migratin’ servers. Lower to 300 *before* the move.
• Using A record for dynamic IPs — Got a home server with DHCP? Use Dynamic DNS—or prepare for weekly “Why’s my camera feed down?” calls.
• Multiple A records ≠ load balancing — Round-robin DNS? Sure, it *distributes*—but doesn’t *detect* failures. One server dies, 33% of users get timeouts. Real LBs (like HAProxy) do it right.

Remember: a dns a record example should be *precise*, *current*, and *intentional*. Not hopeful. Not “meh, close enough.”

Wildcard A: * IN A 192.0.2.100 Translation: *“Any subdomain not explicitly defined? Send it here.”*

✅ Great for: → Dev environments (feature-branch.test.example.com) → SaaS apps with customer subdomains (acme.clientapp.com) → Catch-all for typos (wwww.example.com)

❌ Dangerous for: → Email (MX for *.example.com? Nope—breaks SPF validation) → Security (exposes hidden subdomains to scanners) → Confusion (why’s api.example.com pointing to the *marketing* server?!)

Pro tip: If you use wildcards, *always* define explicit records for critical subdomains (mail, api, admin). Wildcards are last resort—not first instinct.

And yeah—every dns a record example with a wildcard better come with a warning label: *“Handle with care. May contain surprises.”*

Site’s down? Don’t panic. Run this triage:

1. dig A yourdomain.com +short → What’s the *public* answer?
2. dig @ns1.yourhost.com A yourdomain.com → What’s the *authoritative* answer?
3. Compare. Same? → caching/ISP issue. Different? → your DNS provider didn’t sync.
4. Check TTL: dig A yourdomain.com | grep "Query time" — high latency? Try 1.1.1.1.
5. Still stuck? curl -v https://yourdomain.com — see which IP it *actually* connects to.

One client swore their A record was updated—turns out they’d edited the *staging* zone. Always, *always* double-check the zone name in your DNS dashboard. (We now highlight it in neon yellow. No shame.)

Because at the end of the day, the best dns a record example isn’t the fanciest—it’s the one that *works*.

You’ve nailed the A record. But the DNS symphony’s got more instruments—CNAMEs, TXTs, SOAs, oh my! Ready to conduct the whole orchestra? Head over to Peternak Digital for the full sheet music. Explore our Tools section for CLI one-liners and zone file validators—or tune into the A vs CNAME showdown in DNS A Record vs CNAME: Functions, Limits, and When to Use Which. ‘Cause once you master the dns a record example, you don’t just host sites—you *orchestrate* them.

References

• https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1035
• https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/dns-records/dns-a-record/
• https://aws.amazon.com/route53/faqs/
• https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1912