Easy! IT | Server | WKS record

Everything might be not exactly correct in this article but it’s very useful for beginners to understand IT terms. If you want to learn IT but you don’t have any experience to work in the IT industry, I wish it helps you to understand IT and you like to study IT more.

Let’s start our 3 minutes lesson!

What is a WKS record?

WKS record is written in a zone file.
WKS record shows the well-known services supported by a host.
WKS record is not used in practice.

I suggest you read the following articles before you read this article if you don’t know DNS well.

DNS: IT Learning | Network | DNS | Japan Teams

Secondary DNS: IT Learning | Server | Secondary DNS | Japan Teams

1. WKS records are used by Authoritative name server

WKS record is a resource record in the Domain Name System (DNS). It’s written in a zone file.

There are two DNS servers. One is “Authoritative name server”. Another is called Caching DNS Server. Laptops usually ask Mr Caching DNS server the first question. If he can’t answer the question, he will ask Ms Authoritative name server.

Authoritative name server: IT Learning | Server | Authoritative name server | Japan Teams

**Mr Caching asks Ms Authoritative when he doesn’t have information in his cheat sheet.**

When Ms Authoritative receives the question from Mr Caching, she checks her job handbook called “Zone file”. There is much information in a zone file, and one of the information is “WKS record”.

Zone file: IT Learning | Server | Zone file | Japan Teams

**Ms Authoritative checks her zone file when she answers the question from Ms. caching DNS.**

2. How to write WKS records?

How can you write a WKS record in a zone file? Here is the format of the WKS record in a zone file.

“Domain Name” IN WKS “address” “protocol-list-of-services”

“Domain name” is the target domain, and WKS after IN means that it is a WKS record. And “address” is the IP address of the targeted server. And you might already find it out that WKS is the abbreviation for Well Known Services if you know IT knowledge. So yes, “protocol-list-of-services” is for specifying the service information of the targeted server.

Then the sample is as follows,

meat.com. IN WKS http TCP

3. For what is a WKS record used?

Actually, a WKS record is not used in practice. It’s said that a WKS record is not recommended because of security reasons. It seems to be the same reason as the HINFO record’s one.

Record to describe well-known services supported by a host. Not used in practice. The current recommendation and practice is to determine whether a service is supported on an IP address by trying to connect to it. SMTP is even prohibited from using WKS records in MX processing.
List of DNS record types – Wikipedia