DNS is the address book of the internet. When someone types your domain, DNS tells their browser which server to visit and tells email services where to deliver your mail. When DNS is wrong, your website disappears or your emails bounce, even though nothing seems broken on your hosting. A clothing brand in Lahore once lost two days of orders because a new developer changed the DNS records and forgot the email settings. A quick DNS check would have shown the problem in seconds.
What our DNS checker shows
The DNS Checker looks up all the main record types for any domain:
- A records, the IPv4 address of your website
- AAAA records, the IPv6 address
- CNAME records, aliases that point one name to another
- MX records, which control where your email is delivered
- NS records, the name servers that manage your domain
- TXT records, used for SPF, DKIM, DMARC and site verification
- SOA records, with technical details about the zone
- CAA records, which control which authorities can issue SSL certificates
How to use it
- Open the DNS Checker.
- Enter your domain, such as yoursite.pk.
- Click Look Up DNS.
- Review each record type in the results.
When to check DNS
- After moving hosting, to confirm the A record points to the new server
- After connecting a CDN like Cloudflare, to confirm the name servers changed
- When email stops working, to check MX records
- When verifying Google Search Console with a TXT record
- When emails land in spam, to check SPF and DMARC TXT records
- Before an SSL certificate is issued, to check CAA records
Understanding email records
Email problems are the most common DNS issue I see. Your MX records must point to your email provider, such as Google Workspace or your hosting mail server. Your SPF TXT record should list the services allowed to send email for your domain. A DMARC record tells receivers what to do with emails that fail checks. Missing or wrong records are a common reason business emails land in spam folders.
DNS changes take time
When you update DNS, the change can take from a few minutes to several hours to spread across the internet. This is called propagation. If a change does not show yet, wait a little and check again. Lowering the TTL value before planned changes can make updates spread faster.
Related tools
To see who registered a domain and when it expires, use the Whois Lookup. To confirm your site loads securely over HTTPS after DNS changes, use the HTTPS Checker. To check that pages return the correct status, use the HTTP Status Code Checker.
A real example
A software house in Islamabad moved its website to a new host but kept seeing the old site. The DNS checker showed that the domain still used old name servers, so the new A record in the hosting panel had no effect. After updating the name servers at the registrar and waiting a few hours, the new site appeared everywhere and email kept working because the MX records were copied correctly first.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Deleting MX records when changing website hosting.
- Adding two SPF records. A domain should have only one SPF record.
- Editing DNS in the wrong place when name servers point somewhere else.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I see different results than my hosting panel
Your domain may use different name servers than the panel you are editing, or a recent change is still propagating.
Is DNS lookup safe for any domain
Yes. DNS records are public information.
What is TTL
Time to live tells servers how long to cache a record before checking again.
Check your records now with the free DNS Checker.