Every domain name has to be translated into a numeric IP address before your browser can actually connect to it, and DNS is the system that does that translation. When you search a domain here, a resolver checks its cache first and, if it does not have an answer yet, works its way from the root servers down through the domain's authoritative name servers until it finds the record you asked for. This tool queries those authoritative servers directly and shows you the raw records it gets back.

Both point a domain name to a server's IP address, just for different address formats. An A record maps a domain to an IPv4 address like 192.0.2.1, while an AAAA record maps it to the longer IPv6 format like 2001:db8::1. A domain can have both at once, and modern browsers pick whichever type your connection supports.

NS, short for Name Server, records list which servers are the authoritative source for a domain's DNS records, the servers everyone else ultimately asks when they need to resolve that domain. They are set at the domain registrar and point to the name servers run by whoever hosts the DNS, often the same company as the web host, or a separate dedicated DNS provider. Changing a domain's NS records is how you switch it from one DNS provider to another.

MX, short for Mail Exchange, records tell other mail servers which server is responsible for receiving email on behalf of a domain. Each MX record points to a mail server hostname and carries a priority number, the lower the number, the higher the priority, so if the top server is unreachable, sending servers automatically fall back to the next one on the list.

A TXT record just holds a piece of arbitrary text attached to a domain, and what that text means depends entirely on who put it there. The most common uses are proving domain ownership to a service like Google or Microsoft, and configuring email security: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, which tell receiving mail servers which servers are allowed to send email for a domain and how to handle messages that fail that check, are all stored as TXT records.

TTL stands for Time To Live, the number of seconds a DNS record is allowed to be cached before it has to be looked up again. A low TTL means changes, like pointing a domain to a new server, propagate quickly, but the record gets requested more often. A high TTL reduces DNS traffic but means updates take longer to reach everyone, since resolvers keep using the old cached answer until it expires.

This tool looks up records for a domain or IP address you already have. To see the public IP address your own connection is using right now, head over to What's my IP address? here on ToolsByTek.com, it detects and displays it automatically the moment the page loads.