--- title: "Add or edit DNS records in cPanel's Zone Editor" description: "Add A, CNAME, MX, and TXT records in cPanel's Zone Editor, understand TTL, and avoid the trailing-dot mistake everyone makes once." date: 2026-04-21 updated: 2026-04-21 tags: [dns, cpanel] url: "https://drivenhost.com/kb/kb-add-dns-records" author: DrivenHost --- Sooner or later you'll need to add a DNS record: a TXT record to verify a service, an MX record for an email provider, a subdomain pointing somewhere. This guide covers doing that in cPanel's Zone Editor. One prerequisite matters: your domain's nameservers must point at your hosting. If DNS is managed elsewhere, records you add here do nothing. ## The four record types you'll actually use - **A** points a name at an IPv4 address. Example: `shop.yourdomain.com` to `203.0.113.10`. Use it for subdomains and for the bare domain itself. - **CNAME** points a name at another name, which is then looked up in turn. Example: `www` to `yourdomain.com`. Use it when a service says "point your subdomain at ourapp.example.net". Never put a CNAME on the bare domain itself; DNS doesn't allow it alongside the other records the bare domain needs. - **MX** tells the world where email for your domain gets delivered. Each MX has a priority number; lower numbers are tried first. If you switch to an outside email provider, their MX records replace yours. - **TXT** holds arbitrary text. In practice that means verification strings ("paste this record to prove you own the domain") and email authentication records like SPF and DKIM. ## Add a record 1. Log in to cPanel and open **Zone Editor** under the Domains section. 2. Click **Manage** next to your domain to see every existing record. (The quick Add buttons work too, but Manage shows you the whole picture.) 3. Click **Add Record**, choose the type, and fill in the fields. 4. In the **Name** field, enter the host. Typing `shop` becomes `shop.yourdomain.com`; cPanel usually appends the domain for you. Check what it saved. 5. Enter the value: an IP for A records, a hostname for CNAME and MX, the text string for TXT. 6. Save. Editing works the same way: find the record under Manage and click Edit next to it. Be careful deleting records you don't recognize; some of them (mail-related ones especially) are doing quiet, important work. ## TTL in plain words Every record has a TTL, "time to live", in seconds. It's how long other networks are allowed to cache the answer before asking again. A TTL of 14400 means a resolver that just looked up your record won't check for changes for up to four hours. The practical use: if you know a change is coming (say, moving your site to a new IP next week), lower the TTL to 300 a day beforehand. The change then takes effect nearly everywhere in minutes instead of hours. Afterward, put the TTL back up; very low TTLs just mean more lookups for no benefit. ## The two classic gotchas **The trailing dot.** In zone files, a name ending in a dot (`mail.example.net.`) is complete, and a name without one gets your domain appended. Get this wrong and you create records pointing at `mail.example.net.yourdomain.com`, which resolves to nothing. cPanel handles most of this for you, but when a provider's instructions show a value with a trailing dot, that dot is not a typo. After saving, reopen the record and read what actually got stored. **Propagation.** Your change is live on the server the moment you save, but networks holding a cached answer keep using it until the old TTL runs out. If a verification service can't see your new TXT record, the usual fix is waiting an hour, not adding the record a second time. ## If it didn't work - **The record has no effect at all.** Your nameservers likely point somewhere else, so nobody is reading this zone. Confirm where the domain's nameservers point. - **A subdomain resolves to something weird.** Almost always the trailing-dot problem. Check the stored value for your domain accidentally appended at the end. - **Mail broke after editing records.** Compare your MX, SPF, and DKIM records against what your email setup expects; deleting or shadowing one of these is the usual culprit. If a record is misbehaving and you can't see why, send the details to [/support](/support) and we'll take a look at the zone with you.