What is DNS?
Be aware that even the smallest of changes can lead to your domain not being operative for up to 24 hours. In case you do not have any experience with DNS-control, you should be very careful with using the system.
With the DNS tool at One.com you are able to edit and change many settings. You can redirect your domain to a server or domain of you choice. Or you can forward your mails to your own local mail server. In short you can change the following:
Web-forward, Web-alias, A-record, CNAME and MX-record.
To find the DNS-tool, log on to the control panel and click "DNS Advanced".
Index
Web-forward and web-alias
A Web-forward is used to redirect visitors from one domain to another. For example, if you make a web-forward from yourdomain.com to anotherdomain.com, everyone who writes yourdomain.com will be redirected to anotherdomain.com automatically.
A Web-alias does the same, except that the URL in the browser would still be yourdomain.com even though the contents would be that of anotherdomain.com.
To make a Web-forward/alias, first activate the advanced DNS settings:
You should now see a list of sub-domains tied to your domain. If you wish to add a web-forward/alias to a name showing on this list, you will have to disable it.
Then type the desired sub-domain in the box to the left, choose Web-forward or Web-alias in the drop-down menu and fill in the domain to which you wish to redirect (without www or http://) in the box at the right. Finally click Add DNS setting.
Example: Forwarding your domain to another domain
Choose Advanced web DNS settings and click "Update".
Disable yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com in the list.
Leave the left field blank, choose either Web forward or Web alias * in the drop-down box, write the domain you wish to forward to in the right box (without http:// or www), and click Add DNS Setting:
Repeat the above, but this time, write www in the left box:
A-record
An A-record is the primary tool that is used at DNS-level. An A-record is used to pass on requests on your domain or sub-domains to a different IP-address.
In short: an A-record ties a name to an IP-address.
To make an A-record, select "Advanced web DNS settings".
You should now see a list of sub-domains tied to your domain. If you wish to add an A-record to a name on this list, you will have to disable it.
Type the desired sub-domain in the box to the left, choose A in the drop-down menu and type the desired IP in the box to the right. Finally click "Add DNS setting".
Example: Forwarding your domain to an IP address
Choose Advanced web DNS settings and click "Update".
Disable yourdomain.com and www.yourdomain.com in the list.
Leave the left field blank, choose A in the drop-down box, write the IP you wish to forward to in the right box, and click Add DNS Setting.
Repeat the above, but this time, write www in the left box:
Please note: it may take up to 90 minutes before changes take effect.
CNAME
A CNAME is an IP-alias. With this you can avoid having to change many A-records, if this should become necessary. In short: A CNAME ties a name to an A-record. If you at some point would have to change the IP-address of your server, all you would have to do is change the IP-address of the A-record to change the IP for the CNAME as well.
Let us assume you made the A-record web.yourdomain.com and that this is referring to the IP-address 123.123.123.123 (the IP-address of your own test server).
Type the desired sub-domain in the box to the left, choose CNAME in the drop-down menu and type the desired A-record to point to in the box to the right. Finally press "Add DNS setting".
MX Records (Mail DNS)
An MX-record is a different central DNS-tool. It could be relevant to change an MX-record in case you want to use your own mail server, like for example Microsoft Exchange Server. In this example we assume that you have your mail server on the following fictitious IP-address: 123.123.123.123.
First create an A-record, as explained in an earlier chapter (e.g. mail.yourdomain.com pointing to 123.123.123.123).
Click "Switch to Mail DNS settings".
Select "Setup different mail servers (advanced)" and click "Update".
In the Server field, type in the name of the A-record you made before (e.g. mail.yourdomain.com) and in Value type 10.
Finally click "Add DNS setting".
NB: MX record changes will take 24 hours to update.
