NS Lookup
Query Nameserver (NS) DNS records for any domain — see authoritative name servers and SOA data
Frequently Asked Questions
example.com, it first queries the NS records to find out which server to ask.anita.ns.cloudflare.com). Changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate globally.ns.cloudflare.com = Cloudflare, awsdns = Amazon Route 53, domaincontrol.com = GoDaddy, dnsimple.com = DNSimple, googledomains.com or ns-cloud = Google Cloud DNS, name.com = Name.com. You can also cross-check against their published nameserver lists.A recursive nameserver (also called a resolver) does not hold zone data — instead, it performs lookups on behalf of clients by querying root servers, TLD servers, and finally authoritative servers. Examples: 8.8.8.8 (Google), 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare). When your browser looks up a domain, it queries your recursive resolver, which in turn queries the authoritative servers.
anita.ns.cloudflare.com and boris.ns.cloudflare.com. Changes propagate within 24–48 hours globally, though often much faster. During propagation, some users may resolve to the old DNS while others see the new one.
ns1.example.com for example.com), a resolver can't look up the NS record without first knowing the IP of ns1.example.com — which requires looking up example.com. The glue record is an A record stored at the TLD registry level (not in your zone) that provides the IP address of your nameservers directly, breaking the circular dependency. Glue records are only required when your nameserver hostnames are within the domain they're serving.
About This NS Lookup
This free NS Lookup tool queries DNS Nameserver and SOA records in real time for any domain. It returns all authoritative nameservers with their IP addresses, and includes SOA (Start of Authority) zone metadata such as the serial number, refresh interval, and admin contact — useful for verifying DNS hosting and diagnosing zone propagation.
When to use this tool
- Verify that nameserver changes have propagated after an update
- Identify the DNS hosting provider for any domain
- Check NS records after a domain transfer or registrar change
- Audit the SOA serial number to confirm zone updates
SOA Record Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| mname | Primary nameserver for the zone |
| rname | Admin contact email (dot-encoded) |
| serial | Zone version number — incremented on each change |
| refresh | How often secondaries check for zone updates (seconds) |
| retry | Retry interval if a refresh fails (seconds) |
| expire | How long secondaries serve the zone without a refresh |
| minimum | Default TTL for negative (NXDOMAIN) caching |
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