How to check the DNS settings of your domain online
Continuing from the previous article about the necessity to have a reliable DNS service at hand when running your own website, let’s now take a look at the options you have to keep yourself informed of your domain’s DNS settings. When managing your own web presence, there are so many things you need to have in mind that your current DNS details seem to remain in the background. However, without knowing your name servers you will not be able to perform basic operations like transferring your site to another web hosting provider, if not happy with your existing one.
When in a DNS-check-requiring situation you have to basic options – to contact your domain registrar or hosting provider and check that information with them (another option is to take this information from the account you have with them) or simply use a free DNS tool that can give you the requested information in an instant. The second option is a recommended choice due to its quickness in generating results and the possibility it gives users to check the DNS information for any active domain on the web.
You may need to use DNS check tools for various purposes such as verifying the status of your domain’s delegated DNS server entries and whether they serve the correct DNS zone. It can also help you check if your hosting service is available online and your web server – running. You can also test if you are receiving emails and whether your mail server settings, the SMTP server and the POP3/IMAP server, are reachable across the Internet.
There are two basic types of DNS tools – web based and desktop based. The most popular DNS tool is the DNS lookup tool, which performs domain name/hostname searches, returning the domain’s matching IP address. To use it, you simply need to specify the domain name you wish to locate the IP address for and hit the action button. The more advanced tools also offer a simultaneous DNS check of several domains. If you wish to perform a reverse DNS search action i.e. retrieve the domain name/hostname that corresponds to a certain IP address – you will need to make use of a Reverse DNS tool.
Tags: DNS check, DNS lookup, DNS server, DNS service, DNS settings, DNS tools, DNS zone, reverse DNS