What are rDNS/PTR records?

PremiumN

Title says it all. Im sort of confused as to what they are really used for.

Thanks for all responses!

NodePing

We can monitor PTR records with our DNS check.

joereid

Simply: it's a dns record to map an ip address to a hostname.

Bella

@joereid said:
Simply: it's a dns record to map an ip address to a hostname.

So if I ask my VPS provider to set a ptr record for server1.mydomain.com then when someone looks up the IP address on a site like http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/ it will show server1.mydomain.com under "Host of this IP"?

DennisdeWit

@Bella said:
So if I ask my VPS provider to set a ptr record for server1.mydomain.com then when someone looks up the IP address on a site like http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/ it will show server1.mydomain.com under "Host of this IP"?

Yup.

ben78

Mostly needed for mail servers...