DNS Lookup
See what the Domain Name System currently says about a domain. Choose the record types you care about and get every answer in a clear table, with the time each record may be cached.
- Encrypted connection
- No sign-up
- Free to use
How to use DNS Lookup
- Enter a domain or host name such as example.com or www.example.com.
- Tick the record types you want; the most common ones are selected already.
- Select Look up DNS.
- Read the records grouped by type, or follow the links to check mail servers, SPF, DMARC or WHOIS for the same domain.
DNS Lookup features
Nine record types
A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT, SOA, CAA and SRV in one request.
TTL for every record
Shows how long resolvers may keep each answer before asking again.
Readable SOA details
Serial number, refresh, retry and expire timers are labelled instead of shown as a raw line.
Reverse lookups
Enter an IPv4 or IPv6 address to see the host name published for it.
Tells missing from non-existent
Distinguishes a name that simply has no such record from a domain that does not exist.
International names
Domains with non-English characters are converted to their ASCII form automatically.
When to use DNS Lookup
- Confirming that a DNS change you made is being served.
- Finding out where a domain's website and email are hosted before a migration.
- Checking that a verification TXT record for a service has been added correctly.
- Diagnosing why a subdomain does not load by seeing whether it has an A or CNAME record.
DNS Lookup FAQ
What do the DNS record types mean?
A and AAAA map a name to IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. CNAME makes a name an alias of another name. MX lists the mail servers of a domain. NS names the authoritative name servers. TXT carries text such as SPF policies and verification codes. SOA holds administrative details of the zone, CAA restricts which certificate authorities may issue certificates, and SRV points to the host and port of a service.
Why do I not see my change yet?
Resolvers keep an answer for as long as its TTL allows. If the previous record had a TTL of one hour, some resolvers will return the old value for up to an hour after the change. The TTL shown here is the remaining time in our resolver's cache, so a low number means a fresh answer is about to be fetched.
What is TTL?
Time to live: the number of seconds a resolver may cache a record. Short values such as 300 make changes visible quickly at the cost of more queries. Long values such as 86400 reduce load but slow down changes. Lower the TTL a day before a planned migration.
Why are there no records for www?
www.example.com and example.com are separate names with their own records. If www has neither an A, AAAA nor CNAME record, it will not load in a browser even when the bare domain does. Look up both names when troubleshooting.
Can a name have a CNAME and other records?
No. A name with a CNAME record may not have any other record type, which is why the root of a domain, which needs NS and SOA records, cannot be a CNAME. Many DNS providers offer an ALIAS or flattening feature to work around this.
Where does the lookup come from?
From our server, through its recursive resolver. Results normally match what the rest of the world sees, but DNS can differ by location when a domain uses geographic routing.
How to read DNS results
DNS is the directory that turns names into the technical details computers need. When you open a website, your device asks a resolver for the A or AAAA record of the name and connects to the address it gets back. When someone sends you email, their server asks for your MX records. Almost every problem described as “the site is down” or “email is not arriving” begins with a look at these records.
Start with NS. The name servers listed there are the source of truth for the domain; if they are not the ones you expect, changes made at another provider will never take effect. Next, A and AAAA show where web traffic goes. A domain behind a CDN usually returns addresses belonging to the CDN, not the origin server. MX records then show where mail is delivered, with the lowest priority number tried first.
TXT records have become a general-purpose noticeboard. The SPF policy lives there as a record starting with v=spf1, and services from search consoles to certificate authorities ask you to add a verification string. Because many TXT records can coexist on one name, a long list is normal. What matters is that there is only one SPF record, since two cause mail authentication to fail.
The SOA serial number is useful when comparing name servers: it should increase with every change to the zone, and all name servers of the domain should report the same value. CAA is worth setting if you want to limit certificate issuance to the authorities you actually use; without any CAA record, every authority is permitted.