What is a DNS lookup?

A DNS lookup typically refers to the process of converting easy to remember names called domain names (like www.google.com) into numbers called IP addresses (like 8.8.8.8).

Computers use these numbers to communicate with each other on the Internet, but these numbers would be difficult for humans to remember and can change from time to time when network configuration changes are required.

What DNS record types can be looked up?

A DNS lookup typically refers to the process of converting easy to remember names called domain names (like www.google.com) into numbers called IP addresses (like 8.8.8.8).

The DNS lookup tool lets you perform a DNS lookup for any domain name on the below record types.

A Record Lookup - Address or IPv4 DNS records, these store IP addresses for domain names.

AAAA Record Lookup - Address v6 or IPv6 DNS records, same as A records but store IPv6 IP addresses.

CAA Record Lookup - Certificate Authority Authorization DNS records are used to store which certificate authorities are allowed to issue certificates for the domain.

CNAME Record Lookup - Canonical Name or sometimes known as Alias records are used to point to other DNS records. Often used for subdomains like www.

MX Record Lookup - Mail Exchanger DNS records are used to store which email servers are responsible for handling email for the domain name.

NS Record Lookup - Nameserver DNS records store the authoritative nameserver for a domain name.

PTR Record Lookup - Pointer or reverse DNS records. This is the opposite of A or AAAA DNS records and is used to turn an IP address into a hostname.

SOA Record Lookup - Start of Authority DNS records store meta details about a domain name such as the administrator contact email address and when the domain last had changes made to its DNS configuration.

SRV Record Lookup - Service DNS records store protocol and port numbers for services offered by the domain name, for example VoIP or chat server.

TXT Record Lookup - Text records are used to store notes as DNS records, however they are typically used to store configuration settings for various services like SPF records which are used to define which email servers are allowed to send email from the domain or verification codes for some webmaster tools.