No A Record — Your Domain Isn’t Resolving

Updated May 2026 · DNS · 4 min read

When GuardHound reports “Domain has no A records,” your domain doesn’t resolve to any server — which usually means the site is offline for everyone, not just our scanner.

What an A record does

An A record maps your domain (yourdomain.com) to an IPv4 address (e.g. 203.0.113.42). Without one, browsers literally don’t know where to send the request, so they fail with NXDOMAIN or DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN. AAAA records are the IPv6 equivalent — either is enough to resolve.

CDN-backed sites often use a CNAME at the apex instead (Cloudflare, Vercel, Netlify), which silently flattens to A records. If GuardHound reports no A records but your site loads in a browser, you’re probably using a CNAME provider that the scanner sees through.

Add an A record (or equivalent)

1. Log into your DNS provider (Cloudflare, Route 53, Namecheap, GoDaddy, etc.).
2. Add a record of type A, name @ (or yourdomain.com), value = your server’s IPv4. For www, repeat with name www.
3. If you use a CDN, add the CNAME they provide instead (e.g. cname.vercel-dns.com).
4. Wait 5–10 minutes for propagation, then verify with dig yourdomain.com or dnschecker.org.
5. Re-scan with GuardHound to confirm the warning clears.

When the record exists but the warning persists

• TTL too long: changes can take up to 24 h to propagate if the previous TTL was high. Wait or flush local DNS caches.
• Wrong nameservers at registrar: confirm your registrar points at the DNS provider that holds your records.
• Apex CNAME limitations: classic DNS forbids a CNAME at the apex; if your provider uses a CNAME-flattening hack and the scanner can’t see through it, switch to ALIAS or use the provider’s recommended A-record fallback.