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NS Lookup
NS records name the servers that are authoritative for a domain's zone — the DNS provider actually answering for it. They are the first thing to check after moving a domain to a new DNS host.
About NS records
What the answer tells you
- The nameservers set at your registrar are the ones the rest of the internet uses. Changing them moves the whole zone at once.
- Nameserver changes are slow: the parent zone (.com, .se and so on) is often cached for a day or two.
- The authoritative column is answered by the first of these nameservers, so you can compare the zone's own answer with what the caches hold.
example.com. 86400 IN NS ns1.example.net.
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
- I changed nameservers but nothing happened
- The change is made at the registrar and published in the parent zone, whose delegations are cached for up to 48 hours. Until every resolver column shows the new nameservers some visitors still reach the old zone, so keep it serving the same records until then.
- How many nameservers should a domain have?
- At least two, on different networks, so the domain still resolves when one of them is unreachable. Most DNS providers give you two to four.
- 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.