Newbie DNS: 'A' record vs 'CNAME' record?

[cnm]

My whatever.com is on a dedicated server.
In DA DNS Management it has the record
whatever.com. A nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

I have purchased a new domain somethingelse.com.
I want it to be the exact same site.

I am confused about whether I should add this:
somethingelse.com. A nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

or this:
somethingelse.com. CNAME whatever.com

Thanks for any help.

 

[nobaloney]

You should use a CNAME record if you don't have control of what you're pointing to, or if you won't remember to change the A record when you change the A record of the target domain.

But A records are preferable if you can use them, because they result in exactly half as many DNS lookups to resolve the domain.

However, unless the target site is on a dedicated IP#, you'll also have to create something at the target site so the new domain will resolve.

Jeff

 

[cnm]

Thank you, jlasman. Very clear and helpful reply.

Yes, we're on a dedicated server. So I have used the 'A' record.

 

[cnm]

I need more help!

When I go to my new domain somethingelse.com, I get apache test page.

Somehow I need to have somethingelse.com use the public_html of my old whatever.com. In other words, I want somethingelse.com to be no more than an alias for whatever.com.

Via FTP I have created a new /somethingelse.com/ domain under my root/domains/. But do I have to copy the public_html etc from /whatever.com/ to /somethingelse.com/? Is there not some way to just make a link? or a mirror?

The root/public_html/ is the same thing as /domains/whatever.com/public_html/ so that makes me think there is a way.

Note that I know even less about html and web site structure than I do about DNS.

 

[nobaloney]

This is a DirectAdmin forum for the community support of the DirectAdmin hosting control panel. If you're using DirectAdmin you should undo whatever you did under FTP and create an alias under the DirectAdmin control panel; if not we really can't help you.

Jeff