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Question #1:

One DNS Look-up service I use states: (BTW, moodle.org is not my website!)

Your website www.moodle.org does not have CName Record which is good.

Why is this "good"?

Introduction to Question #2:

The same Look-up service states the following for our Domain Name:

Your website has a CName Record. Your DNS Servers do not return any A Records (IPv4 Addresses), which causes an extra DNS Lookup, which will slightly delay connections to your website.

Note: You may well be thinking why are my comparing Moodle with our Domain Name? It's because both Moodle and OUR website uses CloudFlare.

Granted, this isn't a fair comparison to make. So, I checked Netblock owner of my IP Address in Netcraft's Toolbar, and found a number of websites Hosted on the same Shared Hosting space. Alas, none seem to be using CloudFlare. Nevertheless, I did a DNS Loop-up of one of these, and got the following Response for CNAME:

Your website has a CName Record. Your DNS Servers also return an A Record (IPv4 Address) for the CName Record, which is good as it does not require an extra DNS Lookup.

Question #2:

Given that the DNS Report for our Domain Name states the following, repeated from above:

Your website has a CName Record. Your DNS Servers do not return any A Records (IPv4 Addresses), which causes an extra DNS Lookup, which will slightly delay connections to your website.

... what change might I need to make to our DNS Record? Please note '1400 TTL'.

OUR current DNS Record:

mydomain.org.uk.            14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###  

localhost.mydomain.org.uk.  14400   IN  A   127.0.0.1

mail.mydomain.org.uk.       14400   IN  CNAME   mydomain.org.uk

www.mydomain.org.uk.        1400    IN  CNAME   www.mydomain.org.uk.cdn.cloudflare.net

ftp.mydomain.org.uk.        14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###  

cpanel.mydomain.org.uk.     14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###  

webdisk.mydomain.org.uk.    14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###  

whm.mydomain.org.uk.        14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###

webmail.mydomain.org.uk.    14400   IN  A   1##.##.###.###      

mydomain.org.uk.            14400   IN  TXT v=spf1 +a +mx +ip4:1##.##.###.### ~all  

cloudflare-resolve-to.mydomain.org.uk.  1400    IN  CNAME   mydomain.org.uk
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  • Can you whittle this question down to be shorter? We don't need that much detail.
    – John Conde ♦
    Oct 2, 2014 at 23:21
  • I think I was spilling my heart out. It was late. I've removed Introduction.
    – user45077
    Oct 3, 2014 at 12:27

1 Answer 1

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A CNAME is basically an alias to another DNS record. A not uncommon setup is something like this:

example.com        A       xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
www.example.com    CNAME   example.com

If someone hits www.example.com and the DNS result isn't cached, resolution of a setup like this is very slightly slower, since two DNS lookups are required (one for www.example.com, , followed by a lookup for example.com). So that's probably why the tool you're using is referring to a lack of CNAME as 'good'.

I'm not familiar with Cloudflare's product offerings, but in your case you may only be able to use a CNAME, so I really wouldn't worry about this. Moodle may have a different Cloudflare setup to you gives them a dedicated IP they can point their records to.

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6
  • To create some perspective, a dig from our network to one of our sites, via our own dns: 79millisec. A dig on google.com took 21millisec. In the worst case, double it for the double lookups.
    – Martijn
    Oct 3, 2014 at 12:36
  • @Tim Fountain - www.mydomain.org.uk CNAME is CloudFlare. So I shouldn't add www.mydomain.com CNAME mydomain.com, in this case - seemingly. So the miniscule difference in performance is not worth worrying about. Echoing my earlier thoughts, there is a perfect & ideal setup, but there is also practical & particular one - those DNS Look-up services focus very much on emphasizing the perfect.
    – user45077
    Oct 3, 2014 at 13:53
  • I see, looking at another DNS Record I'm working on, www. mydomain2 .org.uk resolves to the IP. Just as mydomain .org.uk. points to an IP. In the above case, Hostname www. is being used for CNAME as an alias for the CDN. QUESTION: Might I still add www . mydomain .org.uk A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx?
    – user45077
    Oct 5, 2014 at 13:38
  • I'm not sure if I understand the question. DNS records always resolve to an IP (even if a CNAME is used), that's their purpose.
    – Tim Fountain
    Oct 5, 2014 at 14:10
  • The question is ultimately concerning the most optimum record: Seems it might be necessary to add: www . mydomain . org . uk. 14400 IN A xxx.xx.xxx.xxx to the record, as it is in my original post. On the other hand, I doubt this is right, since the type CNAME is set for www. Seems that there are 2 perspectives in respect of configuration: 'if it works, don't fix it' vs. 'this inconsequential configuration is not correct and must fixed'. It's my fear of not getting everything 100% proper. I think DNS training is due.
    – user45077
    Oct 5, 2014 at 14:46

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