Advanced DNS Zone Editor

DNS (Domain Name Service) is the component of the Internet that converts human-readable domain names (for example, example.com) into computer-readable IP addresses (for example, 192.0.32.10). DNS uses zone files that reside on your server to map domain names to IP addresses.

There are several different types of records in a domain’s zone file. This feature allows you to create, edit, and delete A, AAAA, CNAME (Canonical Name Record), SRV (Service Record), and TXT (Text Record) records.

Note: The Advanced Zone Editor has been replaced by the DNS Zone editor in newer versions of cPanel. You can find a guide to the new DNS Zone Editor here.

Accessing the Advanced Zone Editor

First, you will need to access your cPanel account. If you do not know how to access your account, you can find out here.

Once logged into your cPanel, scroll down to the Domains section. You should see the Advanced DNS Zone editor app. Click it to get to the zone file editor.

Reset the Zone File

To reset your DNS zone files to the defaults that your hosting provider specifies, perform the following steps:

  1. If this account owns more than one domain, select the domain that you wish to manage from the Domain menu.
  2. Click more.
  3. Select the Are you sure that you wish to erase all of your entries and revert to the default state? checkbox.
  4. Click Reset Zone File.

Warning

This feature erases any modifications that you made to your zone records, either with this feature or with cPanel’s Simple DNS Zone Editor interface (Home >> Domains >> Simple DNS Zone Editor). The system attempts to save the domain’s TXT entries. We recommend that write down any changes that you wish to save before you use this feature.

Add a DNS record

cPanel configures your DNS records so that visitors can resolve your website and its services, such as FTP and email. Only add A records when you add a service that cPanel & WHM or your service provider does not provide.

To add a record, perform the following steps:

  1. If this account owns more than one domain, select the domain that you wish to manage from the Domain menu.
  2. Select a record type:
    • A
      • A records map domain names to IP addresses
      • A records are essential because they allow DNS servers to identify and locate your website and its various services on the Internet
      • without appropriate A records, your visitors cannot access your website, FTP site, or email accounts
      • every zone file requires at least one A record to be considered valid
    • AAAA
      • AAAA records map domain names to IPv6 addresses.
    • CNAME
      • CNAME records creates an alias for another domain name, which DNS looks up
      • this is used to point multiple CNAME records to a single A record in order to simplify DNS maintenance.
      • you cannot point a CNAME record at an IP address.
    • SRV
      • SRV records provides information about available services on specific ports on your server.
      • the SRV record must point at a domain names with an A (or AAAA) record
      • you cannot point an SRV record at a CNAME record.
    • TXT
      • TXT records contains text information for various services to read
      • these records can specify data for the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) or DKIM (Domain Keys Mail Identifier) email authentication systems.
  3. Enter the appropriate information for the record type that you select.
  4. Click Add Record.

Edit a DNS record

To edit a record, perform the following steps:

  1. If this account owns more than one domain, select the domain that you wish to manage from the Domain menu.
  2. Click Edit next to the record that you wish to edit.
  3. Change the information in the text boxes as necessary.
  4. Click Edit Record to save your changes, or click Cancel to discard them.

Delete a record

To delete a record, perform the following steps:

  1. If this account owns more than one domain, select the domain that you wish to manage from the Domain menu.
  2. Click Delete next to the record that you wish to remove.
  3. Click Delete.

Propagation

Note: It can take up to 24 hours for any changes or updates to your domain name and DNS to fully propagate and take effect. During this time your website traffic and email may be disrupted. If you want to minimize this disruption to your website traffic and email, before making any other changes to your name servers, lower your TTL with your current registrar. Once you lower your TTL, wait 24 hours, and then update your name servers. The change should now happen more quickly.

There are several online tools that you can use to test propagation, such as DNSChecker and Geopeeker.

This process typically completes within four to six hours, but allow 24 hours before the records are fully propagated.

If you are still having issues, and need further support, please reach out to our support team using any of these methods.

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