PTR
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Pointer (record) |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
PTR stands for Pointer (record), a networking abbreviation.
Maps an IP address back to a hostname in DNS. For IPv4 the address is reversed and placed under the in-addr.arpa domain, so 203.0.113.7 is looked up as 7.113.0.203.in-addr.arpa; IPv6 uses ip6.arpa.
Example: Ask the hosting company to set the PTR for our mail server to mail.example.com.
Usage notes
PTR records live in zones controlled by whoever owns the IP block, usually the ISP or cloud provider. A missing or generic PTR, such as one containing "dynamic" or "dsl", often gets outgoing mail flagged as spam. The dig -x command performs a PTR lookup.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- PoE – Power over Ethernet
- PoP – Point of presence
- POP3 – Post Office Protocol version 3
- PPPoE – Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet
- PPTP – Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
- PSK – Pre-shared key
- QoS – Quality of service
- QUIC – QUIC (originally Quick UDP Internet Connections)
- rDNS – Reverse DNS
- RDP – Remote Desktop Protocol
- RFC – Request for Comments
- RIP – Routing Information Protocol