DNS Lookup

About DNS Lookup

DNS Lookup asks for a domain's A, AAAA, MX, NS and TXT records in one pass and lays them out in five separate tables. It is the quick first check when a site will not load, mail is not arriving or you need to see which nameservers a domain is delegated to.

How to use it

1. Enter a domain such as example.com in the Domain box. A leading http:// or trailing path is stripped for you.
2. Press Lookup to run all five record queries at the same time.
3. Read the A Records and AAAA Records tables for the IPv4 and IPv6 addresses the name points to.
4. Check MX Records for mail exchangers and their priority numbers, then NS Records for the authoritative nameservers.
5. Scan TXT Records for SPF, domain verification tokens and other text entries. Long values are joined into one line.

When to use it

• Confirming a new A record points at the server you just provisioned.
• Checking which company hosts a domain's DNS by reading the NS table.
• Finding a stray verification token in TXT before you clean up old records.
• Comparing the MX list against what your email provider told you to publish.

Questions about DNS Lookup

Why does www.example.com show the records for example.com?

The tool removes a leading www. before it queries, so it always reports the bare domain. If you need the records of a specific subdomain, use the DNS propagation checker or the MX, SPF and DMARC tools, which query the exact name.

Which resolver answers the query?

Our server's own resolver does, so the result reflects what it can see right now. Your domain name is sent to our server to run the queries, and it may return cached data until each record's TTL expires.

Why is a table empty when I know the record exists?

An empty table means that record type returned nothing. Each type is queried independently, so a domain can have A records and no AAAA, or no MX at all. A typo in the domain empties every table.

Does it show CNAME, SOA or CAA records?

Only A, AAAA, MX, NS and TXT are displayed. A CNAME is followed transparently, so you see the final addresses rather than the alias chain. For a specific alias check, use the propagation checker with the CNAME type.

How many lookups can I run?

About 20 per minute per visitor. Each press of Lookup fires six DNS queries behind the scenes, so bursts of repeated checks are throttled to protect the shared resolver.

Related tools

• DNS propagation checkerQuery a domain's DNS records across four public resolvers and see whether they agree.
• WHOIS LookupLook up WHOIS information for a domain
• SSL LookupLook up SSL certificate information for a domain
• IP LookupLook up information about an IP address
• PingPing a domain or IP address
• HTTP Headers LookupLook up HTTP headers for a URL