Quick DNS Lookup
Concise single-line Domain Name System (DNS) lookups.
Monitor Quick DNS Lookup automatically
Concise single-line Domain Name System (DNS) lookups. NetTests can run this check on a schedule, preserve historical results, compare changes over time, and alert you the moment something breaks.
Start monitoring free → See all monitoring productsFrequently Asked Questions
What makes host different from dig or nslookup?
host is built for concise, single-line output — one line per record, no header or footer noise. That makes it the easiest of the four to pipe into a script or grep for a specific value, at the cost of the detail dig provides (no AUTHORITY/ADDITIONAL sections, no TTL shown by default).
Why use host instead of dig when scripting?
host's terse one-record-per-line format needs no parsing beyond splitting on whitespace, whereas dig's output is formatted for humans and needs flags like +short to get comparably simple output. If a script just needs "the current A record for this name," host's default output is usually the least work.
What DNS record types should I know?
- A — IPv4 address of the domain.
- AAAA — IPv6 address.
- CNAME — alias pointing to another hostname.
- MX — mail server(s) for the domain.
- TXT — free-text records; used for SPF, DKIM, domain verification.
- NS — nameservers authoritative for the domain.
- SOA — start-of-authority; holds the primary NS and serial number.
- PTR — reverse DNS; maps an IP to a hostname.
What is TTL and why does it matter?
Time To Live (TTL) is the number of seconds resolvers are allowed to cache a Domain Name System (DNS) record. A TTL of 300 means the record may be cached for up to 5 minutes. Lower TTLs allow faster propagation of changes; higher TTLs reduce DNS query load but mean old records stick around longer after a change.
Why do I get different results from different resolvers?
Results can differ due to caching (each resolver may have cached a different version), geo-DNS (some Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) return different IPs based on the resolver's location), or propagation delays after a recent Domain Name System (DNS) change. Use the DNS Propagation tool to query many resolvers simultaneously.