What is a wildcard record?
DNS is like a phone book for the internet. It turns names into numbers. A subdomain is a front part added to your domain, like blog.example.com.
A wildcard record uses a star, written as *. The star means "anything". So *.example.com catches blog.example.com, shop.example.com and any other name you did not set up on its own.
Wildcards are useful for sites that make a new subdomain for each user. They are also used when you want any typo subdomain to land on your site.
Good to know
- A wildcard only works for names that have no record of their own. If
mail.example.comhas its own record, that one wins. - The server itself must also accept these names. In cPanel, the server must have a matching wildcard subdomain, or your web app must handle them.
- A wildcard does not cover the bare domain,
example.com.
Steps in cPanel
- Log in to cPanel.
- Open Zone Editor in the Domains section.
- Click Manage next to your domain.
- Click Add Record.
- In Name, type
*. cPanel will fill in the rest of the domain name. - Choose the type A. An A record connects a name to an IP address, the number of a server.
- In the address box, type the IP address of your server. Your welcome email has it, or you can ask Hostvento support.
- Click Add Record.
If you want the star name to be an alias of another name, use a CNAME record instead and enter the target name.
Make the server accept the names
- In cPanel, open Domains or Subdomains.
- Create a subdomain called
*. - Set its folder to the one that holds your site files.
Some hosts limit this. If cPanel does not allow it, ask Hostvento support at https://secure.hostvento.com/submitticket.php.
Test it
Wait a few hours for DNS to spread. Then type a random name, like anything.example.com. It should open your site.
Quick recap
- A wildcard record uses
*as the name. - It catches all subdomains that have no record of their own.
- Add it in Zone Editor as an A record with your server IP.
- Also set up the wildcard subdomain on the server.