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What is a TXT Record

Summary

A TXT (Text) Entry was originally intended for human-readable text. These records are dynamic and can be used for several purposes.

TXT records are commonly used for Google Verification.

The TXT Value is what the record 'points to', but these records aren't used to direct any traffic. Instead they're used to provide needed information to outside sources.
The First record is used for a SPF, Sender Policy Framework, records, those records are used by many email systems to help identify if email is coming from a trusted source, helping filter out spam or messages pretending to be from your domain (called spoofing). More information on SPF records can be found at http://www.openspf.net/
The second record is used for DomainKeys, which is also used to verify that email came from a trusted source. More information on DomainKeys can be found at http://www.dkim.org/

DNS Glossary

Zone File: This is where all the DNS records are stored for a domain.
Host Record: This is the domain or subdomain you wish to use. The @ symbol is used to indicate the root domain itself. In our example the Host Record 'ftp' would be for the subdomain ftp.google.com and '@' would be google.com itself.
Points to: This is the destination server that the domain or subdomain is sending the traffic to.
TTL: The 'time to live' value indicates the amount of time the record is cached by a DNS Server, such as your Internet service provider. The default (and lowest accepted) value is 14400 seconds (4 hours). You do not normally need to modify this value.
Action: This allows you to modify or remove existing records.
Weight: This is similar to priority, as it controls the order in which multiple records are used. Records are grouped with other records that have the same Priority value. As with MX Entries, lower numbers are used before higher numbers.
Port: This is used by the server or computer to process traffic to specific services, ensuring that all traffic comes through the door that it's expected on.
Target: This is the destination that the record is sending the traffic to. This record would send traffic from service.example.com to listerning.otherexample.com over port 5060. SRV records generally require advanced knowledge of server administration to use.