Managing Domains

In order to manage domains using CeraNet DNS services you must add our nameservers to your domain.  This must be done through your Domain Registrar (CeraNet, GoDaddy, eNom, etc.). The DNS names are as follows:
 
DNS1.CERA.NET
DNS2.CERA.NET
 
After adding these nameservers to your domain you may need to wait up to 24 hours before they are fully propagated.
 
Next, Sign In to our website and complete the following steps:

1. Click on Services at the top of the screen

2. Click on Manage Services in the dropdown box

3. Highlight and click on the appropriate account

4. Click on Manage Cloud Services

5. You are now in the control panel.  

6. Click on the Domains icon.  You will see a list of domains as shown in the example below:
 
Domains
 
7. Click the Add Domain button to add a new domain name to the DNS.
 
Add Domain
 
8. Click the Domain link to a new domain name.
 
Add New Domain
 
9. Specify the domain name without the host name in the beginning (i.e. mydomain.com) and tick the Enable DNS box.  Other options may be available depending on the types of services provisioned for your account.  If you are adding a domain that will point to a dedicated, cloud or VPS server then the only box that should be ticked is the Enable DNS. Next, Click the Add Domain button.
 
Edit Domain
 
10. Your domain is now in the CeraNet DNS but you will you need to add DNS zone records to make it functional. Click the Edit DNS zone records link in the Edit Domain page.
 
IMPORTANT NOTE: Clicking Disable DNS will remove all of your DNS records for the domain so if you want to re-enable it you may be required to manually add all of your entries.  It is recommended that you make a backup of your DNS configuration prior to modifying or disabling the zone records.
 
DNS Zone Records
 
11. From this page, you add a new a record by clicking the Add Record button (shown below), edit an existing record by clicking the pencil icon in the left column, or delete a record by clicking the red x in the right column.
 
Add DNS Zone Record
 
The following is a synopsis of the various record types.  After adding a record you will need to click the Save button to make it active.  Adding new records should take effect immediately. However, modifying an existing record could take over an hour to fully propagate.

A records

A records translate your website's URL into an IP address. An example of a A-record would be www.cera.net > 75.98.224.9?.

If you are hosting a web site then you will likely want to create two A records as follows:

For the first record, you will leave the Record Name empty and simply specify the IP address of your web site. This will allow your web site to come up if somebody types just the Top level domain in the address bar (i.e. mydomain.com).

For the second record, specify "www" for the Record Name and specify the IP address of your web site.  This will allow your web site to come up if somebody type the fully qualified domain in the address bar (i.e. www.mydomain.com).

NS records

NS Records dictate the name servers to be queried. These are required and should already be in place with names dns1.cera.net and dns2.cera.net.

MX records

MX Records point to the service that handles email traffic. They are also associated with a priority, in case there are more than one.

CNAME records

CNAME records translate one URL into another. For example, ftp.domain.com > domain.com would be practical if your server had both FTP and HTTP functions.

TXT records

TXT Records are places to store arbitrary text information. Most commonly used to validate the source of emails and other communications in the form of an SPF record, so that other senders can't fake their email address to look like someone else.

Here is a good explanation via Wikipedia: If a domain publishes an SPF record, spammers and phishers are less likely to forge e-mails pretending to be from that domain, since the forged e-mails are more likely to be caught in spam filters which check the SPF record. Therefore, an SPF-protected domain is less attractive to spammers and phishers. Since an SPF-protected domain is less attractive as a spoofed address, it is less likely to be blacklisted by spam filters and so ultimately the legitimate e-mail from the domain is more likely to get through.

You generally will want to leave the Record Name blank.  Specify the actual SPF record in the Record Data field.  An example may look like the following:

v=spf1 a mx ip4:10.10.50.0/29 a:mail.mydomain.com mx:mydomain.com -all

Where, 10.10.50.0/29 is your assigned subnet from which you will be sending email.  This is just a simple example and you should create a properly formed SPF record based on your requirements.  Microsoft offers a really nice online SPF creation wizard to help you.  It can be found here.

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