AAAA is a domain record, that is in essence the IPv6 address of the server where the domain name is hosted. The IPv6 system was introduced to replace the present IPv4 system where each IP comprises of 4 groups of decimal numbers which range from 1 to 255 e.g. 5.168.208.143. In contrast, an IPv6 address includes eight sets of 4 hexadecimal numbers - which range from 0 to 9 and from A to F. The cause of this transformation is the significantly smaller number of unique IPs which the current system supports and also the rapid increase of products that are connected to the Internet. A good example of an IPv6 address is 2101:1f34:32e2:2415:1365:4f2b:2553:1345. If you wish to direct a domain address to a machine which uses this kind of an address, you need to set up an AAAA record for it, and not the commonly used A record, which is an IPv4 address. Both records provide the same exact function, yet different notations are used, to distinguish the two types of addresses.
AAAA Records in Website Hosting
If you would like to set up a new AAAA record for any domain name or subdomain hosted in your website hosting account, it is not going to take you more than a couple of easy steps to do that. Our in-house built Hepsia Control Panel is rather intuitive to use and is going to allow you to set up or modify any record easily. When you sign in and visit the DNS Records section, where you can find all present records for your domains and subdomains, you'll simply have to click on the "New" button, pick AAAA from a small drop-down options menu inside the pop-up which will show up, type or paste the needed IPv6 address and save the change - it's as simple as that. The new record shall be 100% active within no more than one hour and the hostname that you have created it for shall start opening whatever content you have with the other company. If needed, you are also going to be able to modify the TTL (Time To Live) value, which signifies the time in seconds the new record will be functioning after you eventually edit it to something different or you simply erase it.
AAAA Records in Semi-dedicated Hosting
Setting up a new AAAA record for a domain name or a subdomain hosted inside a semi-dedicated server from our company involves a few really easy steps, which you'll be able to find in the Help section of your Hepsia hosting CP as well. You will have to choose the hostname for which the new record will be created from a drop-down menu in which you will find your domain names and subdomains. Creating the new AAAA record is as basic as choosing the one that you need and entering the IPv6 address for it. This is achieved with no more than a few clicks, so you can quickly forward any hostname to a different company by using an AAAA record and use it with whatever service they offer. It's going to take mere seconds for the new record to be live and just about an hour for it to propagate around the globe, so you'll be done in no time. The other service provider may also require you to set some TTL value for the AAAA record, which is different from the standard one - 3600 seconds. This feature shows how long it will take for any new value you set for your record to take effect as the old value is still active.