DNS Records control where your domain sends information and visitors. This includes directing customers to your website or making sure that emails sent to your domain reach your inbox. If all your services are with us, we'll usually do all the domain configuration automatically.
DNS records we support
A Record
Used to direct your domain or sub domain to an IP address. For example, if your website is with us the 'www' and '@' (blank) records for your domain would be directed to the IP address of our web hosting server, 209.235.144.9.
CNAME Record
Used to direct your domain or sub domain to a URL.
DomainKey Record
Used for email verification. If you require one of these please contact us.
FRAME or URL Record
Both are used to redirect visitors to your domain to another site. For example, if you've renamed your company, you might want your site to be used with a new domain name but have any visitors to your old domain name forwarded onto your new domain name.
We'd strongly recommend using URL rather than FRAME. Whilst FRAME will mean the URL of your website won't change, it can have significant impact on your search engine rankings so should be used only if required.
MX Record
Used to direct your email and can either be a URL or IP address. Unlike other records you can have multiple MX records with different priorities for the same domain or sub-domain.
SRV Record
Used by some services (including Microsoft Office 365) to direct traffic to another location on a specific port. If you need to set one of these up, please contact us.
TXT Record
Usually used to verify your domain or aspects of your domain. It's now commonly used to help prove you own a domain or as verification for your email.
How to change your DNS records
- Sign in to Manage services.
- In the Domains section, click on the Manage your domain names link. The BT Domains Centre opens with the Domain Maintenance page showing a list of your domain names.
- Click on Manage next to domain name you wish to change.
- From the left select Advanced domain manager.
- You can now add or modify your DNS Records.
- If you change any records keep a note of what they were in case you need to change them back. Taking screenshots can be quite good for this.
Some DNS Records may be greyed out. If this is the case, you might need to contact us to make the change for you.
I can't change some of the DNS records for my domain name
Unless your domain name has been used with one of our web hosting packages you should have full control over the DNS records. If you've got a hosting package, any records associated with the primary domain name are disabled to prevent accidental changes.
If you want to edit the locked DNS records of your primary domain name, please get in touch with our technical helpdesk. You'll find their details by clicking the contact us link on this page.