Help
Running a Diagnosis
Running a check on a domain or IP address is very simple. Enter the domain or IP you want to check in the search box on the home page and click "Query".
The website will automatically retrieve the DNS information and the WHOIS information for the queried item.
Type example.com in the search box and press Query. Results appear instantly below.
Running a Ping / Resolve
After querying a domain, click the "Ping / Resolve" tab to run a DNS resolution check. This determines if the domain resolves to an IP address and how quickly the lookup completes.
Interpreting the DNS Results
The DNS results are broken down into different sections to make it easier to diagnose any faults:
| Section | Description |
|---|---|
| A Records | Shows the IPv4 addresses the domain points to, including the "www" subdomain. |
| MX Records | Shows all current mail exchange records with their priorities. |
| NS Records | Shows the current nameservers. These should not be confused with the registrar nameservers shown in WHOIS. |
| TXT Records | Shows any TXT records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, etc.). |
| SOA Record | Shows the Start of Authority record including serial, refresh, retry, expire, and minimum TTL. |
WHOIS Results
The WHOIS tab shows any publicly available registration information for the domain or IP address. This includes the registrar, registration dates, nameservers, and contact information (when not privacy-protected).
What is the "Start of Authority (SOA) Record"?
This record contains information about the domain and the DNS server. It is the first record in any DNS response and is used to determine the authority of the DNS data.
The "serial" returned in the SOA contains a string that should represent the date the DNS zone was last updated. The format of the results may look like this:
2014121404
The first 4 digits represent the year (2014), the next 2 the month (12), the next 2 the day (14), and the last 2 the iteration (04). This means the DNS was altered four times on the 14th December 2014.
Note: The serial can contain any 32-bit signed integer between 1 and 4,294,967,295, and providers can choose what value they want to use to meet their own needs.