A CNAME record serves as a substitution, so once a domain has been set with a CNAME record, no other records can be set (such as A records and MX records) to prevent conflicts. For example, if foo.com points to bar.com, and both domains have their own MX records that are inconsistent, problems may arise. Since top-level domains usually require MX records to be set, users are generally not allowed to set CNAME records for top-level domains.