Misconfigured DNS records for your website might be one of the reasons for website downtime.

In troubleshooting an issue with DNS records, you have to check which records were mismatched. In troubleshooting the DNS configuration and in the information-gathering phase of hacking, retrieving the DNS records is the first step.

Have you ever wondered how to check the DNS records of any website quickly?

There are so many online and command-line tools to check DNS records.

But before that…

What are DNS records? 🤔

DNS records are like the instructions that are kept in the zone entries of root DNS servers. Each website’s DNS configuration is mapped via DNS records.

There are many different sorts of DNS records on the internet. But these are the most common sorts of DNS records that are seen on every website.

  • A record – Points website name to IPV4 address
  • AAAA –  Points hostname to IPV6 address
  • NS  –  specifies the authoritative nameservers
  • MX –  responsible for directing an email to a mail server.
  • PTR –  Used for reverse lookups
  • CNAME – redirects one domain to another. For example, even if you just type geekflare.com in the web browser, you will be redirected to www.geekflare.com, which is the DNS record behind that configuration.

We have summed up a list of a few DNS record lookup tools. Let’s get rolling!  😎

Nslookup.io

Nslookup.io  is a handy and excellent web service that can assist you in viewing the DNS records of any given website. Enter the website name you want and click on the ‘Find DNS records’ button to continue.

nsllokup.io

The best thing about this tool is, it consists of an auto-suggestion method.  And it also has an option to choose your desired DNS server to retrieve DNS records.

Geekflare DNS Lookup

Geekflare DNS Lookup is a straightforward way to list the DNS records for any domain name. Besides, one gets associated details like the TTL values, IP addresses, priorities, etc.

geekflare-lookup-dns

The best use case is to verify the changes if you’ve recently updated the DNS records.

Looking for a programmatic way to check DNS records? Try Geekflare DNS API today and get reliable information on A, CNAME, MX, NS, TXT, and other DNS record types.

This DNS Lookup API supports multi-location checks for region-specific DNS configurations.

You can start with a free-forever plan that bundles 500 requests per month with a 1-request-per-second rate limit. The premium subscriptions start with 10k API calls, billing just $10 a month, offering additional perks like rotating proxy and a higher limit of 10 requests per second.

DNS Checker

DNSchecker is a web-based service that allows you to see the DNS records of any website quickly. Simply input the domain name, choose the DNS server to query records, and click on the “Lookup DNS.”

dnschecker

It also has an option to choose the records you want to retrieve. This web service can also query other types of records such as SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DS records, and DNSKEY.

MX Toolbox

MXToolbox DNS lookup is a  powerful tool that can show out all the DNS records. Type its URL into the text box and click ‘DNS lookup.’

mxtoolboxdns

This tool consists of other features such as blacklist check, DKIM, DMARC, ASN, and LOC lookup.

DNS Watch

The DNS Watch lookup tool is a straightforward tool to use. Enter a hostname or website IP address in the input field and select the record type to retrieve.

dnswatch

Using Command Prompt

Alternatively, you can retrieve the DNS records of any website by using the nslookup command-line tool in the terminal.

Just type the following command in the terminal.

nslookup

Here you can provide any web address you want. For example,

C:\Users\geekflare>nslookup
Default Server:  reliance.reliance
Address:  2405:201:c02b:a0c1::c0a8:1d01

> geekflare.com

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    geekflare.com
Addresses:  2606:4700:8dda:e4c7:b100:0:207e:38b5
          104.27.119.115
          104.27.118.115

To retrieve the specific record like NS and MX. Just use the set query method.

> set query=mx
> geekflare.com

Non-authoritative answer:
geekflare.com   MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
geekflare.com   MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
geekflare.com   MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
geekflare.com   MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
geekflare.com   MX preference = 1, mail exchanger = aspmx.l.google.com

> set query=ns
> geekflare.com

Non-authoritative answer:
geekflare.com   nameserver = olga.ns.cloudflare.com
geekflare.com   nameserver = todd.ns.cloudflare.com

You can see the nslookup command provides the DNS records, whichever you want to see.

Conclusion 👩‍💻

I hope you find these tools useful for fast performing a DNS query for your domain. If you need help in implementing the DNS CAA record, do check out our guide on DNS CAA Validation and Implementation.