What is the Difference Between a CNAME Record, A Record, and Redirect?

  • July 11, 2011·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

An A record is the actual record. The name is resolved to the corresponding IP address.

An example of this is www.no-ip.com resolves to 204.16.252.112

CNAME records (short for short for canonical name) map your hostname to another hostname. It is useful for pointing many hosts to the same place and updating them easily.

An example of this is:

www.no-ip.com to www.noip.com

This is a CNAME record because even though the domains are different, they still go to exactly the same place and follow the same rules that are in place.

Redirects are like CNAME records in a way, but different.  Use a redirect if you want one domain to redirect to another.

An example of this is:

www.yourwebsite.com redirects to yourblog.blog.com

Have questions or comments about CNAME records, A records or redirects? Leave them below.

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