How to check where a DNS Record is pointing to? If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re at the perfect place because as the title might have suggested to you, that’s what this article is about.
It not 2001 anymore where these details used to come under “expert’s arena”, and short forms like DNS automatically made a simple computer guy sound like he owns a couple PhDs in computer science.
In fact I’ve broken down almost everything that there is to DNS records in the following sections.
So okay before getting into the process of How to find out where a DNS record is pointing to, let me clear some basics for you.
What is DNS?
A DNS is the abbreviation for Domain Name Servers. In simpler English, take them to be the contact list, or phonebook of the internet. Just like in a phonebook directory you get numbers and the names of the people corresponding to them, similarly a DNS recrod consists of websites and their “IP Addresses”.
For eg. www.howdiary.com doesn’t exist for browsers and ISPs, they don’t know this site with that name, instead this website will look something like 119.10.220.23 to them, and this is the record, the connection that DNS records maintain.
Now that was the simple explanation of it, if you want a deeper look, then let me tell you a DNS record isn’t as simple as it sounds. It’s made up of quite a number of complex elements, which I’ll explain to you in case you really need to understand the functioning of what you’re dealing with.
NameServers:- I’m sure everyone on this page is aware of nameservers, well you got a domain and that domain is registered with a company, right? So the nameservers just point out the company where your server DNS is registered.
A real life scenario would be, if you register a domain name from Godaddy, and you’ve got your servers with Bluehost. In that case you’d need to point your nameservers for your domain at godaddy to your nameservers from Bluehost. It acts as the connecting link between the two.
CName:- CNames are alike nameservers, but different. They point your subdomain to the server, but they use “names” instead of numbers (IP addresses).
Infact, CNames can’t use IP Addresses even if they wanted to, instead they point to server names directly, like howdiary.com would be pointing to server1.bluehost.com (if it was hosted on Bluehost and it was the CName for Bluehost).
Zone Files:- There must be some place where your DNS records are stored, right? Think of it as the personal cabinet of your domain company where your records are stored, that’s what Zone files are.
So Zone files are the storage spaces of your data, something like the tables and columns you get in the MySQL databases.
A Records:- These are what take care of your primary and subdomains. They help you point your subdomains to specific IP Addresses so that your websites are accessible. They’re almost alike CNames but the big difference is they use IP Addresses and not website names.
MX Records:- Your domain must have Emails, right? It’s optional to use them or not, but if you do, it’s the MX Records’ responsibility to point them to your domain’s email provider.
So those are the actual elements the DNS record comprises of, it’s more like a collection of Nameservers, ZoneFiles, MX Records and everything else on the list above.
How to Check Where a DNS Record is Pointing to?
It’s pretty simple actually, and you don’t need almost any amount of internet expertise so as to say in order to know How do I check where a DNS Record is pointing to?,
The simplest method to do so is head over to IntoDns.
Once you’re there just enter the URL you want to check the DNS record for.
And in the next couple seconds, you’d get the details you’re looking for. Infact IntoDNS holds a lot more information than just the DNS records, it will get you detailed MX records, SOA records, and almost every kind of record associated with the domain.
Method #2 to Check Where a DNS Record is Pointing to:-
The second method is to use ViewDNSInfo.
It’s a tool similar to IntoDNS. You enter your domain in the “DNS Report box”.
And you get the whole of the report listed down for you in simple English.
Method #3 to Check Where a DNS Record is Pointing to:-
I know the above tools do their job well, but hey it’s no harm listing more options, right?
So the other tool which lets you check DNS records is MX Tool Box. Just head over there and enter your URL.
And you’d get the details in around 2-3seconds.
Wellbeing honest, it’s not as elaborate or detailed as the other two tools I’ve mentioned, but it does the job, right?
Final Words:-
So that was all I had on How to check where a DNS Record is pointing to? Hope this piece helped? I’m sure I’ve listed enough options for you to run out of them.
Although if you’re facing trouble or would like me to help you out with something, just make use of the comment box, I check each one of them manually and get back to them, I promise.
And I wouldn’t mind if you think this piece helped and would like to hit the share button and spread the word around.
