DNS Tool

DNS Check

Run a comprehensive DNS health check for any domain and validate record and authority consistency. Run fast checks, interpret results, and use related tools…

Record Type

DNS-CHECK

Focused record verification for targeted DNS troubleshooting.

Best Use

Migration + incident checks

Validate live DNS answers during change windows.

Operational Context

Use this page to validate live resolver output during DNS cutovers, outage triage, and post-change verification windows.

DNS Check — Start Here

Waiting for input

Enter a domain and run check

How to Use

Use DNS Check in 4 Steps

Enter domain

Input the target domain in clean hostname format (no path or query string).

Run DNS Check

Execute DNS Check to pull live resolver output for this record scope.

Compare expected vs live

Match returned values with your intended DNS configuration at the source.

Cross-check related tools

Validate adjacent DNS layers to isolate cache vs source problems.

What is DNS Check?

DNS Check runs a comprehensive health inspection across all major record types — A, AAAA, MX, NS, SOA, TXT, CNAME — for a target domain in a single pass. It surfaces misconfigurations, missing records, and propagation issues that single-record lookups would require multiple queries to find.

A DNS Check is the recommended starting point when troubleshooting any domain issue. By querying multiple record types together, it reveals cross-record dependencies that are invisible in isolation — such as an MX record that points to a hostname with no A record, or NS records that are authoritative but disagree on the SOA serial.

Best Use

Post-migration validation to confirm all records transferred correctly, pre-deployment DNS health gating, and first-pass triage when users report connectivity or email delivery issues.

Common Mistake

Treating a clean DNS Check as a complete health gate without separately verifying email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and SSL certificate validity — both require dedicated checks.

Validation Path

Start with NS and SOA to confirm authority, then verify A/AAAA for connectivity, MX for email routing, then TXT for authentication policies.

Quick Interpretation Table

Use this reference to diagnose common outcomes when running DNS Check.

Observed Result	Likely Cause	Next Step
NS records disagree on SOA serial	Zone transfer has not fully propagated to all nameservers	Wait for the TTL to expire and re-check; investigate NOTIFY/IXFR failure if it persists
MX present, no A record for MX target	Email delivery will fail — mail servers can't find the exchange host	Add an A record for each MX hostname (e.g., mail.example.com → IP address)
No TXT records at apex	No SPF, DMARC, or ownership verification published	Publish SPF at minimum; add a DMARC policy at _dmarc.example.com

CLI Examples

Run these commands directly from a terminal to verify DNS-CHECK records without relying on a browser-based tool.

dig ANY example.com

Request all available record types in one query (note: some resolvers restrict ANY responses)

dig +noall +answer A MX NS TXT example.com

Query specific record types together and show only the answer section

dig example.com +trace

Trace the full delegation path from root nameservers to authoritative

nslookup -type=any example.com

ANY query using nslookup (cross-platform)

Troubleshooting Workflow

Run this record check first for a scoped signal on the target hostname.
Validate nameserver authority and SOA context if results are unexpected.
Use propagation checks when different regions return different values.
Re-run after applying fixes and compare values against your expected configuration.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does DNS Check verify?

DNS Check queries multiple record types for a domain — typically A, AAAA, NS, SOA, MX, and TXT records — and returns the full picture in one view. It's designed to catch misconfigurations that only become visible when records are compared together, such as an MX record pointing to a hostname with no A record.

How is DNS Check different from DNS Lookup?

DNS Lookup targets a specific record type you choose. DNS Check runs a pre-defined suite of queries automatically, making it faster for initial diagnostics when you don't know where the problem is. Start with DNS Check, then drill into specific record types with DNS Lookup.

What issues can DNS Check detect?

Common findings include: missing A/AAAA records, NS records failing to resolve, SOA serial discrepancies between nameservers, MX targets with no A record, missing SPF or DMARC TXT records, and broken DNSSEC chains. It doesn't replace dedicated SSL or email auth checkers for deep validation.

Why do I see different results from different DNS locations?

Each region queries through different resolvers with independent caches. Differences between locations indicate DNS propagation is still in progress. Use the DNS Propagation Checker to see convergence status across 20+ global regions simultaneously.

When should I run a DNS Check?

Run DNS Check: (1) after any DNS change to verify the update took effect, (2) when users report connectivity or email delivery issues, (3) before a domain migration to document the baseline state, and (4) after a migration to confirm all records transferred correctly and no records are stale.