DNS records for your domain
Add the A or CNAME record and the _aula-challenge TXT record at your DNS provider.
When you add a custom domain, the Site page lists the records to create, each with a type, a name and a value. You create them where your domain's DNS is managed: usually the company you bought the domain from, or Cloudflare if you moved the DNS there.
The records
- A or CNAME. Points the domain at Aula. A bare domain such as
anateaches.comuses an A record; a name such aswww.anateaches.comuses a CNAME record. - TXT named
_aula-challenge. Proves the domain is yours. Its value belongs to this domain only, and adding the domain again gives a new one. - Other TXT records. Some domains also show a TXT record named
_vercel. Add it too when the page lists it.
If you also added the www or bare version, it has its own records, listed under it.
Steps at any provider
Open the DNS settings
Sign in at your DNS provider, open the domain and find its DNS records (sometimes called the DNS zone or advanced DNS).
Clear the way
A name can have only one CNAME record, and an old A record for the bare domain (often a parking page) keeps visitors away from your site. Delete or edit any A or CNAME record with the same name as the one Aula shows. Leave other TXT and MX records alone; your email needs them.
Add each record
Choose the type, then copy the name and the value from the Site page exactly. The name is relative to your domain, the way most providers ask for it: www means www.anateaches.com, and @ means the bare domain. Where a provider asks you to leave the name empty for the bare domain, leave it empty instead of typing @.
Check the full name
After saving, most providers show the full name. It should read like _aula-challenge.www.anateaches.com. If your domain appears twice, as in www.anateaches.com.anateaches.com, the provider had already added it: edit the name back to what Aula shows.
Check in Aula
Back on the Site page, choose Check now. New records can take from a few minutes to a few hours to reach everyone, and Aula also checks by itself every few minutes. Check now works once every 30 seconds per domain.
What each provider calls the fields
Menus move over time. These are the names each provider's form used when this page was written.
| Provider | Where | Name field | Value field | Bare domain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudflare | DNS, Records, Add record | Name | IPv4 address (A), Target (CNAME), Content (TXT) | @ |
| GoDaddy | Domain, DNS, Add New Record | Name | Value | @ |
| Namecheap | Domain List, Manage, Advanced DNS, Add New Record | Host | Value | @ |
| IONOS | Domains & SSL, DNS, Add record | Host name | Points to, or the value field for TXT | @ |
| OVHcloud | Domain names, DNS zone, Add an entry | Subdomain | Target | Leave empty |
| Porkbun | Domain Management, DNS | Host | Answer | Leave empty |
| Squarespace Domains | DNS, DNS Settings, Custom records | Host | Data | @ |
| Amazon Route 53 | Hosted zones, Create record | Record name | Value | Leave empty |
Cloudflare
Set Proxy status to DNS only (the grey cloud) on the A or CNAME record. A proxied record points at Cloudflare instead of Aula, so the domain never goes live, or stops answering if it was live.
If it does not go live
- Still waiting after a few hours. Compare each record with the Site page character by character, especially the TXT value, and check the full name as in the steps above.
- Not answering after it was live. A record was deleted or changed, often when the domain moved to another provider or a website builder took it over. Put the records back; the domain is live again at the next check.
- Still waiting after 14 days. Aula takes the domain off. Remove it on the Site page and add it again once the records are in place; the TXT value changes, so copy the new one.