Walkthrough · Beginner · 5 minutes per record
How to Edit DNS Records
How to add and amend A, CNAME, MX and TXT records without disturbing what already works, without the guessing — the steps in order, the snag ahead of time, and the tip our support team repeats daily.
The short answer
The job: add and amend A, CNAME, MX and TXT records without disturbing what already works. Time to set aside: 5 minutes per record. Skill needed: beginner.
Below is the full run of steps, the error most people trip over, and the short cut worth remembering. On Hosting & Domains plans several steps are already automated away — the guide marks each one.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 18 August 2026
Beginner
Experience required
5
Stages, start to finish
Free
Support included
Proven
On the platform itself
No technical background needed. This walkthrough was written for first-timers, proven on our own hardware, and honest about which parts are genuinely tricky rather than merely unfamiliar.
A promise before step one: nothing here is a one-way door. Any step with teeth is flagged, and the way back is printed beside it.
The whole job in one view
Over the whole job, you will open zone editor in cpanel, learn the four that matter, paste values, never retype them, deal with the ttl first and verify it from somewhere else.
No part of this needs code or a terminal unless the guide says so plainly — and where it does, the exact commands are printed. The step-by-step is below, with the surrounding sections supplying the context that makes it hold.
Where it comes off, and how to stay on
Adding a second record when you meant to change the first. Two A records against one name send visitors alternately to the old server and the new, which shows up as an intermittent fault rather than a plain error.
It earns a section of its own because it is no obscure edge case — it is the single commonest reason this task reaches a support queue. Knowing it in advance turns the whole job from risky into routine.
A habit worth borrowing
Keep a short text file beside the zone saying what each record is for: this TXT is Google's verification, that CNAME serves the newsletter platform. Clearing out 'records nobody recognises' during a tidy is how working integrations get killed.
Habits this small are what separate the people who find hosting effortless from the people who find it draining. The same tools on both sides — a different way of working.
The parts that look after themselves here
Steps that never deserved your time are taken out: certificates issue and reissue themselves, the installer handles application setup, the daily copy absorbs the what-ifs, and per-site settings live in a panel rather than a configuration file. The guide covers the remainder — the part that is actually about your site.
Stopped mid-guide at an awkward hour? That is exactly what round-the-clock support is for — say which step you are on and we take it from there.
The hosting these steps were tested on
Every walkthrough in this library is run on the platform we actually operate — cPanel, LiteSpeed, NVMe, one-click installs — so the instructions match your screen rather than gesturing at it from a distance.
NVMe storage and LiteSpeed caching sit under every tier, the smallest plan included — that is the floor here, not an upgrade.
- Every step checked exactly as published
- The snag named before it arrives
- The dull steps taken out of your way
- People reachable at any hour you stall
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
The dull parts automated
SSL, backups and installs look after themselves here, leaving the guide to cover only what is genuinely yours.
Taken from real tickets
These guides came out of the support queue, so every snag flagged is one people genuinely hit.
5 steps, nothing padded
Each stage is a few minutes of steady clicking, and the fiddly moments are labelled fiddly.
Honest about how big it is
Add and amend A, CNAME, MX and TXT records without disturbing what already works is a beginner-level job — set aside 5 minutes per record, with the platform-absorbed steps marked.
Jargon never charges you
Every term is defined on the spot or linked to the jargon buster — nothing assumes prior knowledge.
Help that keeps your hours, not ours
Stuck on step three at midnight? Support answers at any hour, mid-walkthrough included.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Open Zone Editor in cPanel
Zone Editor shows every record your domains carry. Read each row as one answer your domain gives back whenever the rest of the internet puts the question.
- 2
Learn the four that matter
A points a name at an IP. CNAME makes one name an alias of another. MX directs incoming mail. TXT carries verification strings and mail policy. Almost nothing you will ever need to do reaches beyond those four.
- 3
Paste values, never retype them
Take the value exactly as the issuing service wrote it. A stray space, a missing trailing dot on a CNAME or two digits swapped over fails silently and costs an afternoon of searching.
- 4
Deal with the TTL first
TTL sets how long the rest of the internet may keep an answer. Bring it down the day before a planned edit and put it back afterwards, so changes land on your timetable rather than a cache's.
- 5
Verify it from somewhere else
Query the record from a machine other than your own, using dig, nslookup or a web lookup, before you ask the waiting service to try its verification again.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- People on the support desk every hour of every day
- WordPress Toolkit, with the updates seen to for you
- A daily copy, with restores you run yourself from the panel
- cPanel, which is what most of the industry already runs
- 99.9% uptime as the target, watched around the clock
- The name's first year included when you order annually
- DDoS filtering absorbed at the network edge
- Webmail in the browser plus IMAP, POP and SMTP for any client
- Mailboxes that answer at the name you hold
- WebP image optimisation built in, at no extra charge
Frequently Asked
The questions that come up most
A record or CNAME — which one?
An A record ties a name straight to an IP address. A CNAME says 'this name follows that one' and tracks the target wherever it goes. Use a CNAME where a service publishes a fixed hostname and moves the IPs behind it.
My DNS change has not taken — why?
It is nearly always one of three things: a cache still handing out the old value until its TTL runs down, an edit made at a provider the domain does not actually delegate to, or a typo in the value. Check delegation first, because queries only ever reach the nameservers in charge.
What does round-the-clock support actually cover?
A reply from a person at any hour, covering the practical jobs: setting up a mailbox, a DNS record, a WordPress fault, a restore. Not 'server is up, closing ticket'. Put a hard question to us before you buy — the answer is a fair sample of what follows.
Can I choose the PHP version myself?
Yes — PHP is set per site from the control panel, so a legacy application and a current one can run side by side in one account. Extensions and per-site tuning are on the same screen, and none of it goes near a support ticket.
Keep reading
How to Choose a Domain Name
Land on a name that still sounds right after years of saying it every day — beginner level, about an evening of thought.
How to Monitor Website Uptime
Hear about an outage from a monitor rather than from a customer — beginner level, about 20 minutes of setup.
DNS Propagation (Glossary)
The plain-English definition this page rests on, with a worked example.
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