What DNS record points a domain at a website?

The A record (or AAAA for IPv6) points a domain at the IP address of the server hosting your website; it's the core record behind whether your site loads at all.

What DNS record do I need for email to work?

The MX record tells the internet which mail servers handle email for your domain. Without a correct MX record, email addressed to your domain has nowhere to go, even if your website works fine.

What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and do I need all three?

They're TXT records that prove your outgoing mail is legitimate: SPF lists which servers may send mail for your domain, DKIM signs messages cryptographically, and DMARC tells receiving servers what to do if a message fails those checks. All three together give the strongest deliverability, though SPF and DKIM alone cover most small business needs.

What's the difference between an A record and a CNAME record?

An A record points directly at an IP address; a CNAME points at another domain name, which is then resolved in turn. CNAMEs are typically used for subdomains that should follow another domain, like pointing www at your root domain.

Where do I actually edit these records?

Through your domain's DNS zone editor, usually in cPanel or your registrar's control panel. Register.rw manages this through client.register.rw; contact support if you're unsure where a specific record lives for your domain.

Will changing a DNS record take effect immediately?

No. Any DNS record change is subject to propagation, the delay before every server on the internet picks up the new value. See our guide to DNS propagation for how long that typically takes.

DNS Records Explained: A, CNAME, MX, TXT, SPF, DKIM, and DMARC

Why These Records Matter

Every domain's behavior, where its website loads from, where its email goes, and how it proves its own legitimacy, is controlled by a short list of DNS records sitting in its DNS zone. Getting one wrong is one of the most common reasons a website won't load or business email lands in spam, even though nothing about the actual website or mail server is broken. This is a practical reference for what each record does and what a real value looks like. For how DNS resolution works end to end, see How Domains Work first if you're new to the concept.

A Record: Points a Domain at a Server

An A record maps a domain name to an IPv4 address, the numeric address of the server hosting your website:

register.rw.    A    192.0.2.10

This is the single most important record for a working website: if it's missing or points at the wrong server, the domain won't load, or will load someone else's site.

AAAA Record: The IPv6 Equivalent

An AAAA record does the same job as an A record, but for IPv6 addresses, the newer, longer address format that's gradually replacing IPv4. Most hosting setups don't strictly require one, but it's common to have both if your host supports IPv6.

CNAME Record: Points at Another Domain Name

A CNAME record points a domain or subdomain at another domain name, rather than an IP address directly:

www.register.rw.    CNAME    register.rw.

This is the typical way to make www.yoursite.rw follow whatever yoursite.rw resolves to, without having to update two records every time the underlying IP address changes. A CNAME can't share a name with any other record type, which is the most common reason a CNAME setup throws an error.

MX Record: Routes Email

An MX record (Mail Exchanger) tells other mail servers where to deliver email addressed to your domain:

register.rw.    MX    10    mail.register.rw.

The number is a priority value; lower numbers are tried first if you have more than one. A missing or incorrect MX record is the single most common reason business email stops arriving, even when the mailbox itself is set up correctly. See our email hosting guide for how this fits into setting up a mailbox end to end.

TXT Record: Verification and Email Security

A TXT record holds arbitrary text, and is used for several unrelated purposes that happen to all rely on the same record type:

Domain verification: proving to a third-party service (like Google Workspace or a marketing tool) that you actually control the domain, usually by adding a specific string the service gives you.
SPF: see below.
DKIM: see below.
DMARC: see below.

Because several tools may each ask for their own TXT record, it's normal for a domain's DNS zone to have several TXT entries at once.

SPF: Who's Allowed to Send Mail for You

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a TXT record listing which mail servers are authorized to send email on your domain's behalf:

register.rw.    TXT    "v=spf1 include:_spf.register.rw ~all"

Receiving mail servers check this record against the server that actually sent a message. If it doesn't match, the message looks suspicious, even if it's genuinely from you, and is more likely to be filtered as spam.

DKIM: Signing Your Mail Cryptographically

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature to outgoing mail, stored as a public key in a TXT record and matched against a private key on the sending mail server. It proves a message wasn't altered in transit and genuinely came from a server you control. DKIM records are typically long, machine-generated strings you copy directly from your mail host rather than write by hand.

DMARC: What to Do When SPF or DKIM Fails

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a TXT record that tells receiving servers what to do with a message that fails SPF or DKIM, reject it, quarantine it as spam, or let it through, and optionally where to send reports about failures:

_dmarc.register.rw.    TXT    "v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:reports@register.rw"

DMARC is the record most often skipped, since a domain can send mail fine without it. It matters most for protecting a domain against being impersonated in phishing attempts, since it's the record that actually enforces what happens on a failed check rather than just reporting one.

NS Record: Who's Authoritative for Your Domain

An NS record (nameserver) declares which servers are authoritative for a domain's DNS, meaning they're the ones that actually hold every other record listed here. This is usually set once, when a domain is registered or its DNS provider is chosen, and rarely touched again afterward.

Where to Actually Edit These

In cPanel hosting, DNS records typically live in the "Zone Editor." On Register.rw, most of this is set up automatically for you, cPanel configures SPF and DKIM automatically when a mailbox is created, and the A record is set correctly when hosting is provisioned, but it's worth knowing where to look if you're troubleshooting mail deliverability or pointing a domain at a different service. Contact support if you're unsure which record needs changing for a specific problem.

Changes Aren't Instant

Any edit to these records is subject to the same rule: it doesn't take effect everywhere immediately. See our full guide to DNS propagation for why, and how long to expect before a change, especially an MX or A record change, is visible to everyone.