Back to DNS and Nameservers

How To Troubleshoot Basic DNS Issues


This tutorial is operating under the assumption that you are using SSH. Details for how to perform similar steps in a browser will be added later.


Step 1. Check the official nameservers for the domain with:

          whois domain.com

Step 2. Check that the DNS records are @ the official nameservers:

          dig +short @[nameserver] domain.com type
          ex.  dig +short @ns1.west-datacenter.net ifurniss.whsites.net 

Step 3. Verify when there may have been a recent change to this domain.

Step 4. Check on DNS propagation to see if this appears to be the issue:

          http://whatsmydns.net/#A/domain.com
          ex. http://whatsmydns.net/#A/ifurniss.whsites.net/

          **Free Proxy servers**
          http://zend2.com/
          http://freeproxyserver.net/

          **Sites to check website**
          http://meormyhost.com/
          http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Other Very Helpful Tools:


dig +short @nameserver domain type
nslookup domain.com
host domain.com
host -t mx domain.com
host ip_address → reverse DNS whois domain.com http://whatsmydns.com/#A/domain.com


Related Articles

What Is DNS
How Does DNS Work
How To Configure DNS
How To Manage DNS
How To Make DNS Changes To A - MX - CNAME Records And More

Can’t Find what you need?

No worries, Our experts are here to help.