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A Record Lookup
An A record maps a name to an IPv4 address. This lookup asks three public resolvers and the domain's authoritative nameserver at once, so you can see the address a browser will connect to — and whether every cache agrees yet.
About A records
What the answer tells you
- A name can have several A records. Clients pick between them, which spreads traffic as a simple form of load balancing.
- The TTL is how many seconds a resolver may keep serving the answer from its cache. Lower it a day ahead of a migration so the switch takes effect quickly.
- If the name is a CNAME, resolvers follow the alias and return the target's addresses. The authoritative column shows the alias itself.
example.com. 300 IN A 93.184.216.34
Record types
Look up any record type
Each type has a page of its own, explaining what the record does and what to look for in the answer.
- AA Record LookupIPv4 address
- AAAAAAAA Record LookupIPv6 address
- CNAMECNAME LookupAlias
- MXMX LookupMail servers
- TXTTXT Record LookupText, SPF and DMARC
- NSNS LookupNameservers
- SOASOA Record LookupZone authority
- CAACAA Record LookupCertificate authorities
- SRVSRV Record LookupService locations
- PTRReverse DNS LookupReverse DNS (PTR)
Questions
Frequently asked questions
- Why do resolvers show different addresses?
- Either the record changed recently and some caches still hold the old answer until its TTL runs out, or the domain uses geographic or load-balanced DNS that answers differently depending on who asks.
- How long does an A record change take?
- As long as the old record's TTL, counted from when each resolver last fetched it. The authoritative column shows the new value straight away; the resolver columns follow as their caches expire.
- What is DNS propagation?
- DNS does not push changes out. Each resolver keeps an answer for its TTL and only asks again once that runs out, so after a change different resolvers return old and new answers for a while. When every column here agrees with the authoritative one, the change has reached them.
- What does the authoritative column show?
- The answer from one of the domain's own nameservers, which never comes from a cache. It shows what the zone says right now; the resolver columns show what the internet has cached.