Sometimes the little things can get your online business in trouble. Each time someone comes to your website they go through a Domain Name Server, part of the Domain Name System. The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet resources and users in a meaningful way, independent of each entity's physical location. Internet domain names are easier to remember than raw IPv4 and especially IPv6 addresses.

We provide several free DNS Tools to help out with some important questions:

• What’s the IP behind this domain name? With the HostName test you immediately get the IP behind a domain. This is also a great way to verify that the DNS records are correct and specific domain points to the correct IP address.
• Where did this email come from? The MX Lookup testreturns a list with servers responsible for delivering e-mail to that address and their priority relative to each other. You can now see where this nasty spam came from.
• Who is in charge of this domain name? If you are curious to know who owns a domain, you should use Whois. Nevertheless, you can also take advantage of the NS records lookup test. It will return the NS servers managing the domain name records for that certain domain. It is a great tool to verify DNS records when transferring a domain from registrar to another. Also if you are purchasing a domain it is good to double check on the name servers, once you set them.
• What is the host behind this IP? The Reverse DNS test is the exact opposite of the HostName test. You enter any IP and you get the host associated with it.
• How can I trust that IP address? Every now and then you will face a site you don’t actually trust. You can use the HostName tool to check the IP behind a website. You can then copy the IP and paste it in our Blacklist Check tool. We query the major DNS Blacklists - Sorbs, Spamhaus, NJABL, DSBL, CBL and PSBL for specific IP address and returns whether it is listed for sending spam, as an open proxy relay or for other possibly malicious activities.

These tools will help you troubleshoot common problems and find problems where you would rarely look. Even if your server is working perfectly and the sites are beautifully written, it would not mean a thing if something as simple as your DNS server goes down. In a world without DNS we would had to type in 69.20.11.136:80 just to reach www.websitepulse.com. Now, give the tools a try and let us know what you think about them. We hope you find the useful!