Home / server / Questions / 121932
Accepted
Saif Bechan
Asked: 2010-03-13 07:49:00 +0800 CST

What are DNS TXT records and why are they needed

  • 772

I am creating a server with a primary nameserver and mutliple domains. Do i need to make TXT records for all the domain, they all have there own email, but use the mailserver from the primary.

EDIT:

I am currently on a server running CentOS and Plesk. One option i can choose is to use Domain Keys"

If i enable the domain keys, there are 2 TXT fields created, one with a long key, and one with a o=- value.

If I enable this do i still need to have the SPF records, or is this inferior to the SPF records, in terms of SPAM.

domain-name-system spf domainkeys txt-record

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    TXT records were originally intended to provide an option to place arbitrary user-comments.

    Now, they are generally used for the SPF anti-spam system.

    • 13

  2. TXT records were originally intended just to store arbitrary (small) amounts of text as labels for DNS data.

    However since they were the only free-form record type specified for use in DNS they were subsequently misused greatly as a dumping ground for any old crap that didn't have its own resource record type (i.e. SPF).

    SPF does now have its own record type, but legacy systems still prefer the old TXT format.

    • 6