DNS Lookup
Section titled “DNS Lookup”Enter a domain name and select Search to view its DNS records.
DNS record types
Section titled “DNS record types”| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| A | IPv4 addresses for a domain name. |
| AAAA | IPv6 addresses for a domain name. |
| MX | Mail servers that receive email for a domain. |
| NS | Authoritative DNS servers for a domain. |
| CNAME | An alias pointing to another domain name. |
| SOA | Administrative information about a DNS zone. |
| TXT | Text information, including SPF policies and domain verification. |
| DNSKEY | Public keys used to verify DNSSEC signatures. |
| CAA | Certificate authorities allowed to issue SSL/TLS certificates. |
| DS | Delegation signer information linking the DNSSEC chain of trust. |
How to read the results
Section titled “How to read the results”Each line shows Domain Name, TTL, IN, Type, and record values, in that order. IN is the Internet class. TTL and SOA time intervals are in seconds. Examples follow.
example.com. 300 IN A 192.0.2.1| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | Record type. A identifies an IPv4 address. |
| Domain Name | The domain that owns the record, such as example.com. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, such as 300 seconds. |
| Address | The IPv4 address for the domain, such as 192.0.2.1. |
example.com. 300 IN AAAA 2001:db8::1| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: AAAA. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Address | The IPv6 address for the domain, such as 2001:db8::1. |
example.com. 300 IN MX 10 mail.example.com.| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: MX. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Priority | Mail server priority. Lower numbers are preferred, such as 10. |
| Mail Server | The domain name of the receiving mail server, such as mail.example.com. |
example.com. 300 IN NS ns1.example.com.| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: NS. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Name Server | An authoritative DNS server for the domain, such as ns1.example.com. |
www.example.com. 300 IN CNAME example.com.| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: CNAME. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Target | The domain name the alias points to. Here, www.example.com. points to example.com. |
example.com. 300 IN SOA ns1.example.com. hostmaster.example.com. 2026101801 3600 600 1209600 300| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | Record type. SOA contains DNS zone administration information. |
| Domain Name | The domain name of the DNS zone, such as example.com. |
| TTL | Remaining time the SOA answer may be cached, such as 300 seconds. |
| Primary NS | The zone’s primary DNS server, such as ns1.example.com. |
| Responsible Email | The administrator’s email address. hostmaster.example.com. represents hostmaster@example.com. |
| Serial | A number identifying the zone version, such as 2026101801. |
| Refresh | How often secondary DNS servers check for updates, such as 3600 seconds. |
| Retry | How long to wait before retrying a failed update check, such as 600 seconds. |
| Expire | How long secondary servers may use zone data without a successful refresh, such as 1209600 seconds. |
| Minimum | An upper limit for caching negative answers. The smaller of this value and the SOA TTL is used, such as 300 seconds. |
example.com. 300 IN TXT "v=spf1 -all"| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | Record type. TXT contains text information. |
| Domain Name | The domain that owns the record, such as example.com. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, such as 300 seconds. |
| Record | Quoted text used for SPF policies, domain verification, and other purposes. |
DNSKEY
Section titled “DNSKEY”example.com. 300 IN DNSKEY 257 3 13 AQIDBA==| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: DNSKEY. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Flags | Flags indicating the key’s role. Commonly 256 for a zone-signing key or 257 for a key-signing key. |
| Protocol | The DNSSEC protocol value, which is 3. |
| Algorithm | The signature algorithm number. For example, 13 means ECDSA P-256 / SHA-256. |
| Public Key | The Base64-encoded public key. AQIDBA== is a dummy value illustrating the format. |
example.com. 300 IN CAA 0 issue "letsencrypt.org"| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: CAA. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Flags | Processing flags, usually 0. |
| Tag | The property: issue authorizes certificate issuance, issuewild covers wildcard certificates, and iodef specifies a reporting destination. |
| Value | The certificate authority or reporting destination, such as letsencrypt.org. |
example.com. 300 IN DS 12345 13 2 0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Type | The record type: DS. |
| Domain Name | The domain name that owns the record. |
| TTL | Remaining time the answer may be cached, in seconds. |
| Key Tag | A number used to identify the corresponding DNSKEY, such as 12345. |
| Algorithm | The signature algorithm number of the corresponding DNSKEY, such as 13. |
| Digest Type | The digest hash algorithm. For example, 2 means SHA-256. |
| Digest | A hexadecimal hash derived from the DNSKEY. The example is a dummy value illustrating the format. |
Command examples
Section titled “Command examples”Windows includes nslookup. Use dig for DNSKEY, CAA, and DS. You may need to install dig and host separately.
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com A +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com AAAA +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com MX +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com NS +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com CNAME +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com SOA +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com TXT +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com DNSKEY +dnssec +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com CAA +noall +answer
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com DS +dnssec +noall +answernslookup
Section titled “nslookup”nslookup -type=A example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=AAAA example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=MX example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=NS example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=CNAME example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=SOA example.com 1.1.1.1
nslookup -type=TXT example.com 1.1.1.1host -t A example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t AAAA example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t MX example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t NS example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t CNAME example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t SOA example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t TXT example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t DNSKEY example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t CAA example.com 1.1.1.1
host -t DS example.com 1.1.1.1