DNS Lookup Service

Our DNS Lookup service allows you to input a domain name and receive its DNS records as output. These records include important information such as the domain's IP address, mail server, and name servers. Understanding and analyzing DNS records can be useful for a variety of purposes, including troubleshooting website issues, understanding how a domain is set up, and verifying the authenticity of a domain.

• A Record: An A record, or "Address Record," maps a domain or subdomain to an IP address. This allows users to access the website or service associated with the domain by typing the domain name into their web browser.
• AAAA Record: An AAAA record, or "IPv6 Address Record," serves the same purpose as an A record, but for IPv6 addresses. IPv6 is a newer version of the Internet Protocol that allows for more unique IP addresses to be assigned to devices and websites.
• CNAME Record: A CNAME, or "Canonical Name," record maps a domain or subdomain to another domain name. This allows you to use multiple domain names for the same website or service, without needing to set up separate IP addresses for each domain.
• MX Record: An MX, or "Mail Exchange," record specifies the mail server responsible for handling email for a domain. When you send an email to [email protected], the MX record helps determine where the email should be delivered.
• NS Record: An NS, or "Name Server," record specifies the server responsible for a domain's DNS records. When you type a domain name into your web browser, the NS record helps determine which server to query for the domain's DNS records.
• TXT Record: A TXT, or "Text Record," can be used to store any text-based information, such as a domain owner's contact information or a server's administrator. TXT records are often used for verifying the authenticity of a domain, as well as for storing SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) information.
• PTR Record: A PTR, or "Pointer Record," maps an IP address to a domain name. This is the opposite of an A record, which maps a domain name to an IP address. PTR records are often used for reverse DNS lookups, where a user inputs an IP address and receives the corresponding domain name as output.
• SOA Record: An SOA, or "Start of Authority," record specifies the primary name server for a domain, as well as other important information such as the domain's serial number and refresh interval. Every domain must have an SOA record, and there should only be one SOA record per domain.
• SRV Record: An SRV, or "Service Record," specifies the location of a specific service, such as a SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) server or an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server. SRV records allow users to access these services using a domain name, rather than needing to know the IP address of the server.
• CAA Record: A CAA, or "Certification Authority Authorization," record specifies which certification authorities (CAs) are allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates for a domain. This can be used to prevent unauthorized CAs from issuing fraudulent certificates for your domain.
• HINFO Record: An HINFO, or "Host Information," record specifies the type of hardware and operating system being used by a host. This information can be useful for identifying potential compatibility issues with certain software or services.
• SSHFP Record: An SSHFP, or "SSH Fingerprint," record stores the fingerprint of an SSH (Secure Shell) server's public host key. This can be used to verify the authenticity of an SSH server, as well as to automatically trust the server's host key without requiring user intervention.
• LOC Record: A LOC, or "Location," record specifies the physical location of a host, such as its latitude, longitude, and altitude. This information can be useful for mapping or geolocation purposes.
• DNAME Record: A DNAME, or "Delegation Name," record allows a subdomain to be aliased to a different domain. This is similar to a CNAME record, but it can be used to alias an entire subdomain tree rather than just a single subdomain.
• DS Record: A DS, or "Delegation Signer," record specifies the cryptographic key used to sign a domain's DNS records. This is used to secure a domain's DNS information and prevent tampering or spoofing.

What is DNS and How Does it Work?

DNS, or Domain Name System, is a protocol that translates human-readable domain names (e.g. example.com) into machine-readable IP addresses (e.g. 192.0.2.1). This is necessary because computers communicate with each other using IP addresses, but humans find it easier to remember and type domain names. When you type a domain name into your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server to look up the domain's IP address. The DNS server then responds with the IP address, and your computer uses that address to send a request for the website or service associated with the domain.

DNS operates in a hierarchical manner, with root servers at the top level and subdomains below that. When you type a domain name into your web browser, your computer first queries the root servers to determine which top-level domain (TLD) the domain belongs to (e.g. .com, .net, .org). The root servers then respond with the address of the TLD's name servers, which are responsible for the domain and all its subdomains. The TLD name servers then respond with the address of the domain's name servers, which are responsible for the DNS records for that specific domain. Finally, the domain's name servers respond with the requested DNS records.

Examples of DNS in Everyday Use

Here are a few examples of how DNS is used in everyday life:

• When you type a domain name into your web browser, DNS is used to translate the domain name into an IP address and locate the corresponding website or service.
• When you send an email to [email protected], DNS is used to locate the mail server responsible for handling email for the example.com domain, and deliver the email to that server.
• When you make a call using a Voice over IP (VoIP) service, DNS is used to locate the server responsible for handling the call and establish a connection between you and the other party.
• When you use a content delivery network (CDN) to serve static assets such as images and videos, DNS is used to direct users to the nearest CDN server, improving the speed and performance of your website or service.

DNS Lookup in Windows

In Windows, you can use the nslookup command to perform a DNS lookup from the command prompt. Here is an example of how to use nslookup to look up the IP address of a domain:

nslookup example.com

You can also use nslookup to look up other types of DNS records, such as MX records or NS records. To do this, you can use the set type command followed by the record type you want to look up. For example:

nslookup
set type=mx
example.com

This will look up the MX records for the domain example.com. You can use the set type command to look up other types of records as well, such as set type=a for A records, set type=cname for CNAME records, and so on.

DNS Lookup in Unix-Based Systems

In Unix-based systems such as Linux or macOS, you can use the dig command to perform a DNS lookup. Here is an example of how to use dig to look up the A records for a domain:

dig example.com A

Like nslookup, dig allows you to look up other types of DNS records by specifying the record type as an argument. For example:

dig example.com MX

This will look up the MX records for the domain example.com. You can also use the +short flag to display only the requested DNS records, without the additional information provided by the command. For example:

dig example.com A +short