IT Learning | Server | A 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 three minutes lesson!

What is A record?

“A” record is one of information about DNS.
“A” record defines IP address(IPv4 address).
“AAAA” record is used for IPv6.

1. “A” record is used for finding IP address

“A” record is one of the information in a handbook for an Authoritative name server. It maps domain names to the IP addresses of computers. You can use this record to find an IP address of a computer connected to the network. If you don’t know the Authoritative name server, please check the following article.

IT Learning | Server | Authoritative name server | Japan Teams

2. There are two DNS roles

There are two DNS servers. One is an Authoritative name server. Another is called Caching DNS Server.

Laptops usually ask Mr Caching DNS server the first question. If Mr Caching DNS server can’t answer the question, he will ask Ms Authoritative name server.

And Ms Authoritative name server checks her job handbook called “Zone file” when she received the question from Mr Caching DNS server. If you don’t know the Zone file, please read the following article.

IT Learning | Server | Zone file | Japan Teams

There is much information in her zone file. And one of those pieces of information is the “A” record which shows an IP address for domain names. For example, how to write A record is as follows:

big.meat.com IN A 192.168.0.1

“big.meat.com” is a domain name, and “A” after “IN” means this record is “A record”. Then “192.168.0.1” is an IP address for “big.meat.com”.

**If A record is in her zone file, Ms. Authoritative answers the IP address.**

If you want to know IPv6 address, the record is different. When you use IPv6, you need to use “AAAA record”.

This article explains A record very simple. So if you need more details, please check the following website.

An A record maps a domain name to the IP address (Version 4) of the computer hosting the domain.
An A record uses a domain name to find the IP address of a computer connected to the internet
The A in A record stands for Address. Whenever you visit a web site, send an email, connect to Twitter or Facebook,
or do almost anything on the Internet, the address you enter is a series of words connected with dots.
What’s an A Record? – DNSimple Help