

Understanding DNS Record Types - phikai
https://pressable.com/blog/2014/12/11/understanding-dns-record-types/

======
ulysses
"Blank Name - A record that has nothing in the name slot gets used for all
requests made to the base/naked form of the domain."

No, a blank name uses whatever name was used on the previous record. Near the
top of the zone file, that name is usually the domain name because of the SOA
record. But later on, it won't be.

~~~
grhmc
Seems implementation specific. BIND does this you're right, but many services
don't follow the rule as closely.

~~~
ulysses
Actually, from RFC 1035, section 5.1:

"If an entry for an RR begins with a blank, then the RR is assumed to be owned
by the last stated owner."

[https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt](https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt)

------
drinchev
I don't think this article is technically deep enough to be of any significant
value ( at least for me ).

Not discussed at all ( and that people interested in the topic should know ) :

1\. NS, SOA records

2\. What exactly is TXT record.

3\. What's the difference between CNAME, A Records

Later on I also checked the first article [1], which even doesn't explain what
TLD is.

[1] [https://pressable.com/blog/2014/12/04/dns-management-
basics/](https://pressable.com/blog/2014/12/04/dns-management-basics/)

~~~
phikai
We'll be deep diving on specific record types and their uses next week.

------
welly
A question regarding TTL. If changing the TTL value of a record will speed up
(for want of a better word) when that record is available to the DNS server,
why would you ever set the TTL to 3600 or more? I understand that there is
some kind of caching going on but I don't actually fully understand TTL and
what is ideal.

Any advice/insights/explanations appreciated!

~~~
phikai
A lot of that has to do with costs and service levels provided by your DNS
provider. There's a couple of good points at Server Fault:
[http://serverfault.com/questions/388289/what-are-the-
benefit...](http://serverfault.com/questions/388289/what-are-the-benefits-of-
a-high-ttl-for-dns)

------
tuacker
One thing I've been wondering for a while and haven't found a answer to.

Providers like Digital Ocean let you use their nameservers. Why would I do
this over just using the registrars nameservers?

~~~
phikai
A lot of that has to do with features and quality of the service. If you have
advanced DNS needs (failover, traffic directing, etc) you may need to use a
third party. If you have very basic needs sometimes the host can provide those
easily for you. Additional conversation:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8605200/settings-dns-
reco...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8605200/settings-dns-records-with-
hosting-company-or-registrar)

