www a-record vs cname-record

Posted by Sorin Buturugeanu on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Sorin Buturugeanu
Published on 2011-01-17T22:47:07Z Indexed on 2011/01/17 22:55 UTC
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dns

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cname

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a-record

Hi!

I have a website that I will be hosting DNS for (testing purposes at first and then it will have some limited traffic).

I have set up DNS so that site.tld has an A record to the actual IP but I don't know what to do about www.site.tld.

Both site.tld and www.site.tld will point to the same server / application so my logic tells me to add a cname record so that www.site.tld becomes an alias for site.tld,

BUT, I've been checking my settings with intodns.com and if I only add a CNAME for the www.site.tld it gives me the following error:

ERROR: I could not get any A records for www.cexa.ro!

(the error clears once I do an A record for www.site.tld to point to the actual IP)

I don't know if there is a "rule" that "www." should always be an A record even though it's actually pointing to the same IP / application.

Thanks for helping me understand this!

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