What Is Canonical Name (CNAME)?
What if you could change the name of your computer to anything? Do you have a favorite person, pet or place that you wish you could name your computer? With a CNAME record, you can. A CNAME record is an extraordinary DNS record that translates one URL into another. When you set up a CNAME record for your website on DreamHost, users can access your site using any domain they like! CNAME is one of the essential records in DNS, identifying a specific hostname on your website. When one hostname (like www) has multiple IP addresses (like a web server and an email server), you need to add CNAME records that point to www to a specific IP address; but not all domain registrars support this feature. They are easily used to point a single domain or subdomain name to multiple IP addresses. This may be useful if you've set up a web server, FTP server or another resource that needs to have access from various URLs. When DNS servers request information about the domain name, they will follow an alternative but equivalent path in the domain name system if they encounter CNAME records while looking for regular records. The records are easy to create using your hosting provider's control panel. It's time to get informed about CNAME. As your DNS infrastructure grows more complex, a single CNAME record might be all that you need to keep track of multiple domains. If you're running an e-commerce site, you will want to learn more about canonical names. They are crucial for ensuring that your domains map correctly to IP addresses. They're also pretty important in ensuring the integrity of your internetworking system. So if you don't have a CNAME record set up, or it doesn't match what you want.
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