The easy DNS lookup tool

The A record is the most fundamental DNS record type. It maps a domain name directly to an IPv4 address, telling browsers and other services exactly which server to connect to. When you type a domain in your browser, the A record translates that human-readable name into the numerical IP address that computers use to communicate. Multiple A records can exist for load balancing and redundancy.

The AAAA record is the IPv6 equivalent of the A record. As the internet transitions to IPv6 due to IPv4 address exhaustion, these records become increasingly important. IPv6 addresses are 128-bit (compared to IPv4's 32-bit) and provide a vastly larger address space. Websites often have both A and AAAA records to support both IPv4 and IPv6 clients.

CNAME records create an alias from one domain name to another domain name (the canonical name). This is useful for pointing multiple subdomains to the same location without duplicating A records. For example, www.example.com can point to example.com. Important: CNAME records cannot coexist with other record types for the same name, and the root domain cannot be a CNAME.

MX records specify which mail servers are responsible for receiving email for your domain. Each MX record includes a priority number (lower numbers have higher priority) and the hostname of the mail server. When someone sends you an email, their mail server looks up your MX records and attempts delivery starting with the highest priority server. Multiple MX records provide redundancy and load distribution for email delivery.

NS records delegate authority for a domain or subdomain to specific name servers. These records tell the internet which DNS servers are authoritative for your domain and should be consulted for DNS queries. NS records are crucial for the hierarchical structure of DNS - they create the chain of authority from root servers down to your domain's specific DNS servers. Typically, you'll have multiple NS records for redundancy.

TXT records store arbitrary text data and are incredibly versatile. They're commonly used for domain verification (proving you own a domain), email security (SPF, DKIM, DMARC records), site verification for search engines, and various other services. TXT records have become essential for modern web security and service authentication. Each TXT record can contain up to 255 characters per string, with multiple strings allowed.

The SOA record contains administrative information about your DNS zone and is required for every DNS zone. It specifies the primary name server, the email address of the domain administrator, and various timing parameters that control how other DNS servers interact with this zone. These parameters include the serial number (for tracking changes), refresh interval, retry interval, expiration time, and minimum TTL. There can only be one SOA record per zone.

PTR records perform reverse DNS lookups - they map IP addresses back to domain names, which is the opposite of A and AAAA records. These are essential for email servers (many mail servers reject emails from IP addresses without proper PTR records), logging systems, and security applications. PTR records are stored in special reverse DNS zones and are typically managed by your ISP or hosting provider rather than in your domain's DNS zone.

CAA records specify which Certificate Authorities (CAs) are authorized to issue SSL/TLS certificates for your domain. This is a security feature that helps prevent unauthorized certificate issuance, which could be used for man-in-the-middle attacks. CAA records include flags, property tags (like "issue" or "iodef"), and values. If no CAA records exist, any CA can issue certificates, but if CAA records are present, only authorized CAs can issue certificates.

SRV records specify the location (hostname and port) of specific services for a domain. Unlike other records that just point to servers, SRV records can specify which port a service runs on and include priority and weight values for load balancing. They're commonly used for services like VoIP (SIP), instant messaging (XMPP), email (IMAP/SMTP), and Microsoft Active Directory. The format includes service name, protocol, priority, weight, port, and target hostname.