What Is PTR?

A DNS PTR record is an address for a domain name. You need one if you want to send email to a domain name. This article explains what a PTR record is, as well as  how to set up a PTR record.

What Is PTR

What Is A PTR DNS Record?

A DNS PTR record is used to link an IP address and a hostname.

You need to create a new A record for your domain name pointing to your server IP address. Then you need to create a CNAME record pointing to your website URL. Finally, you need to fix your email settings.

How Does A PTR Record Work?

To understand the PTR record we can look at how the A record works in the DNS. Almost everyone who owns a domain will have seen the A record, so this helps us understand PTR records too. If you take a close look at the DNS zone, the A record points to the IP address.

A reverse PTR record does the opposite, pointing example.com to 1.1.0-0.0.0.0/32. Reverse lookups are done by servers looking up the IP addresses of domains.

The output should be the same as the input.

About Reverse Lookups

Reverse Lookup is used to check whether the IP address is authorized to send mail from the sending domain. A reverse lookup reveals the domain name(s) associated with the IP address.

Reverse DNS isn’t just for stopping spam, but it can also be used any time an IP address needs to be translated into a domain name.

Do I Need A PTR DNS Record?

You need a PTR record set up to prevent your email messages from being sent to spam.

A successful lookup means that the reverse DNS entry was found. In this case, it says that the IP address belongs to an Amazon EC2 instance.

You’ll now see the opposite result. The domain name points to the IP address. This confirms that the reverse lookup matched the PTR record.

If the initial reverse lookup failed, you don’t have a PTR record, and you may need to create it or ask your host to create it for you.

Yes, PTR records can save you time and prevent problems. Emails are an integral part of business. It’s crucial to prevent any issues. Google recommends PTR as part of its best practice. 

Not only does PTR records help make the email process smoother by providing verification, but it also helps provide credibility to users.

You don’t want your emails to bounce or go into spam. It harms your reputation and your customers will wonder if your emails were delivered.

Email servers use them to make certain emails come from the location they say they do. Most mail servers search PTRs in their anti-spam checks.

DNS is an important part of setting up a website. It helps ensure that visitors to your site are directed to the right place.

You should set up your domain name (like example.com) correctly when registering it. Also check if you need to add any additional subdomains (like www or mail). Remember to make sure that your host provider is using the correct settings for your website.

How To Make A PTR Record

You need to contact your web host or email service provider and request them to add a PTR record for your domain.

This guide explains how to create a PTR (Permanent Pointer) record for an email address.

What Is PTR (1)

Transactional email providers are companies who provide email services to businesses. Their job is to make sure your emails get delivered to the right people. To do this, they need to know where your business is located.

For example, if you’re sending out newsletters, they’ll want to know what city or state your company is based in.

Seeking this information is called a reverse DNS lookup. A reverse DNS lookup tells them where your business is located by looking up the IP address of your website.

Your web host may be able to tell you where your site is hosted (for example, Amazon Web Services). You can also check the Whois database to see where your domain name is registered.

.arpa is the first top level domain name ever created. This means that it was the first domain name ever registered. It originated from the ARPANet, which existed before the Internet we use today. Nowadays, the .arpa domain is reserved as a network domain.

Creating DNS Records In WP Mail SMTP

If you’re using WordPress’ built-in SMTP service, you’ll likely need to set up one (or more) A records for your domain to improve email delivery.

The SPAM record indicates which IP addresses are not allowed to send email from your domain. It’s important to keep just one spam record. If you have more than 1 spam record, they may all be ignored.

Check out this guide to merging multiple SPF records to fix this.

DKIM is an Internet standard for signing emails as they pass through email servers. This ensures that emails aren’t tampered with during transmission.

DMARc is a protocol that helps protect against unwanted emails being delivered to users’ mailboxes by giving them a way of telling if an email has been tampered with along the route.

Once your DNS settings are configured, you should notice improved email deliverability. You’ll also see less spam from ‘spoofed’ senders.

To make it easy to verify your DNS in WordPress, there is an automatic Domain Checker in the WP Mail SMTP plugin. This tool will notify you if there are any problems with your DNS settings when you send a test message.

Fixing your WordPress emails is easy! Once you’ve installed WP Mail SMTP, the Setup Wizard walks you step by step through the process to make setting up your new email provider as simple as possible.

You’ll also learn how to configure your WordPress email settings.

Conclusion

Hopefully this article has helped you to learn about PTR and how it can improve your emailing!

Matthew Jacobs