A Record
Short for Address Record: Maps from an IP address to a domain name. An A Record is also referred to as a host or hostname.

CNAME Record
Short for Canonical Name Record: A special type of DNS record in a DNS database used to create an alias from one hostname to another.
For example: If, www.YourHostedDomainName.com, is a CNAME to, YourHostedDomainName.com - then this means that anyone accessing www.YourHostedDomainName.com will be pointed to the same IP address as YourHostedDomainName.com.

This is useful when your IP address changes, since you will only have to update the YourHostedDomainName.com DNS entry and www.YourHostedDomainName.com will automatically point to the right place.

Note: We recommend the use of individual A Records rather than CNAME aliases. It is recognized as a "best practice" among DNS experts to minimize the use of CNAME aliases.

MX Record
Short for Mail Exchanger Record: This DNS record is an entry in a DNS database that identifies the email server that handles email for a given domain or subdomain.

TXT Record
TXT Record provides the ability to associate arbitrary text with the host or other name. The TXT record is used to define the SPF (Sender Policy Framework) information record which may be used to validate legitimate email sources from a domain. See this Knowledge Base article for more information on SPF records.