When using Rocket Domains, you might need to update your domain's DNS settings. On this page you'll find some of the most common terms you should be familiar with, along with how they apply to Rocket Domains services. See also Domain name basics.
- DNS
- MX Record
- TXT Record
- CNAME Record
- A Record
- NS Record
- Time To Live (TTL)
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
- Example DNS configuration
DNS
DNS stands for Domain Name System which is is essentially the telephone directory of the Web that organizes and identifies domains. While a telephone directory translates a name like "Citizen Lawyers" into the right telephone number to call, the DNS translates a web address like "spacesuite.com" into its corresponding physical IP address—such as"35.214.172.149"—of the computer hosting that website.
When using Rocket Domains services, you may need to change your DNS settings to configure various tools and services such as Cloud Hosting, parking pages, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365. For example, you change your domain's MX records to direct email for your domain to your chosen mail servers.
MX Record
Mail Exchange (MX) records point your domain's email to the servers hosting the domain's user email accounts. To set up email if you're using Rocket Domains' Email services or if you have set up Google Workspace on your Rocket Domains account, you need to point your MX records to Rocket Domains or Google mail servers respectively. Multiple MX records can be added to a domain, each with a different priority. If mail can't be delivered using the highest priority record, the second priority record is used, and so on.
For details, see How to add MX records for Google Workspace and Gmail.
TXT Record
A TXT record is a DNS record that provides text information about your domain to external sources. The TXT record can be used for various purposes. The record's value can be human- or machine-readable text. For example, TXT records can be used to verify domain ownership and to implement email security measures such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
To add and modify TXT records for your domain, simply login to Rocket Domains, go to your domain settings by clicking on DNS Management and then add TXT Records.
CNAME Record
A CNAME or Canonical Name record connects an alias name to another true or canonical domain name. For example, www.spacesuite.com might link to spacesuite.com.
To add and modify CNAME records for your domain, simply login to Rocket Domains, go to your domain settings by clicking on DNS Management and then add/amend CNAME Records.
A Record
An A or Address record (also known as a host record) connects a domain to the physical IP address of a computer hosting that domain's website or application. With Rocket Domains Cloud hosting services, you can add an A record to link your root domain to your hosting server.
To add and modify A record for your domain, simply login to Rocket Domains, go to your domain settings by clicking on DNS Management and then add/amend A Record.
NS Record
Name server (NS) records decides which servers will transmit DNS information for a domain. Generally, you have primary and secondary name server records for your domain. When using Rocket Domains Cloud services, you may configure NS records that point to Rocket Domains servers for DNS queries.
In other words, NS records determines which DNS server is authoritative for your domain name (i.e. which server hosts the actual DNS records ). Basically, NS records tell the Internet where to go to find out a domain's IP address. A domain often has multiple NS records which can indicate primary and backup nameservers for that domain.
To add and modify NS records for your domain, simply login to Rocket Domains, go to your domain settings by clicking on Name Servers and then add or amend Name Servers.
Time To Live (TTL)
The TTL is a value in a DNS record that determines the number of seconds before any changes to the record become effective. Your domain's DNS records, such as an MX record, CNAME record, and so on, have their own respective TTL values. A record's current TTL determines how long it will take any change you make now to go into effect. For example, if a DNS record has a TTL of 86400 seconds, any change to it will take up to 24 hours to become effective.
We recommend a TTL value of 3600, which tells servers on the Internet to check every hour for updates to the record. The shorter TTL will only take effect after the prior period expires. This means that next time you update the record, your change will take up to one hour to go into effect. To make subsequent changes happen faster —for example, if you think you might want to quickly revert a change—you can set a shorter TTL, such as 300 seconds (5 minutes). Once the records are configured correctly, we recommend setting a TTL value of 86400, which tells servers across the Internet to check every 24 hours for updates to the record.
Please note that a shorter TTL means more queries will be made to your DNS which can be an issue if your DNS queries are capped by your DNS service provider.
To add and modify TTL for a DNS record for your domain, simply login to Rocket Domains, go to your domain settings by clicking on DNS Management and then add/amend TTL and hit save.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
A URL is the web address of a website or application on the Internet. This is the address you type in a browser to visit your desired web site. For example, the URL of the Google Workspace Sign Up page is https://rocket.domains/product/google-workspace.
Example DNS configuration
Below are sample DNS settings for a domain used with Rocket Domains Google Cloud Hosting and Workspace services.
Please note that you don't use the actual domain name in your DNS settings. Instead, you use the @ symbol to add settings for the root domain name.
| Name / Host / Alias | Record Type | Priority | Value / Answer / Destination |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blank or @ | A | NA | 35.214.172.149 |
| Blank or @ | MX | 1 | ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| Blank or @ | MX | 5 | ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| Blank or @ | MX | 5 | ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM. |
| Blank or @ | MX | 10 | ASPMX2.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. |
| Blank or @ | MX | 10 | ASPMX3.GOOGLEMAIL.COM. |
| CNAME | NA | ghs.googlehosted.com. | |
| Blank or @ | TXT | NA | google-site-verification=6t00TAbpg2QTKzGYEuZ_Ls4 |
| Blank or @ | TXT | NA | v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all |
| www | CNAME | NA | dnsnaut.com. |
Just so you know, you can verify your domain ownership and apply Google Workspace MX Records with one click from inside your Mission Control Dashboard by logging into Rocket Domains. All you have to do is go into your Domain Name settings, click Web Apps and then activate Google Workspace.
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