As a CWCS Managed Hosting customer, you can manage DNS records for the domains you own using our DNS Manager Tool. The DNS Manager Tool allows you to list, add, modify and remove domains at any time you like and without having to contact CWCS support.
The DNS Manager Tool is easy to use. However, you will need an understanding of DNS records to use it effectively. If you are unsure about any area of DNS management or using the DNS Manager Tool, please contact CWCS Support before proceeding.
Accessing the DNS Manager
You can access the DNS Manager tool from the Client Area in our Billing System.
To use the tool, log in to the billing system and:
- Click the Domains tab. A drop-down menu will appear.
- From the drop down, click ‘My Domains’
- Click the ‘Manage Domain’ button next to the domain you want to manage. A page showing information about your domain appears.
- Click the ‘DNS Manager’ link (above the domain information). This will take you to the CWCS Managed Hosting DNS Manager tool.
Using the DNS Manager
To Add Domains:
Enter the domain name in the box under Add
Choosing Record Types and Targets
Choose the DNS record type(s) from the drop down menu:
- Select ‘A’ (Address) to associate your domain or subdomain with a 32-bit IP address (in other words to point to the server you would like to host the web site on)
- Choose CNAME to specify that the domain name is a canonical name (an alias of another) and point your domain or subdomain to the IP address of the destination host.
- MX records are for email traffic for a domain name. Choose MX for forwarding e-mail to a mail server name
- NS (Nameserver) delegates a subdomain of your domain to a nameserver which is not associated with the actual domain. This is required if your subdomain is hosted separately from the domain.
- The TXT record is for human or machine readable descriptions. It has a variety of uses and is often used to store SPF (Sender Policy Framework) information.
Once you have selected the record type, choose an appropriate target. So, for an A record this will usually be the server IP address.
Priority
The Priority field is for use with MX records. While many domains have just one "MX" record, some domains can have multiple MX records. When a mail server sends email to your domain, it will first try to send it to the MX record with the highest priority (which is the lowest numerical number). If it fails to establish a connection, it will try to send to the next priority MX record, and so on.
TTL
TTL (Time To Live) refers to the amount of time it takes for the DNS to update. A commonly used standard is 86400 seconds (24 hours). This may seem slow but puts relatively little load on a server so is often used when transitioning sites. For MX records the values are usually much shorter – typically as 300 or 600 seconds.
To Remove domains:
- Remove individual domain names by clicking the ‘X’ on the right hand side of each domain listing
- Remove all domains by clicking the ‘Clear All’ button
Further Information
If you need further help managing your domains, using the DNS Manager Tool, or for advice and information, please contact CWCS Support.