Question 1

What is a DNS lookup?

Accepted Answer

A DNS lookup queries the Domain Name System to find the records associated with a domain — such as the IP address it points to (A/AAAA records), where its email is delivered (MX records), or what other domain it's aliased to (CNAME). It's the basic building block of how domain names resolve to servers.

Question 2

Why are my DNS records not showing up?

Accepted Answer

DNS changes can take time to propagate, sometimes up to 24-48 hours depending on the record's TTL (time to live). If you just made a change, wait for the TTL to expire, then try again. If records still don't appear, double check they were saved correctly at your DNS provider.

Question 3

What's the difference between A and AAAA records?

Accepted Answer

An A record points a domain to an IPv4 address (like 192.0.2.1). An AAAA record does the same for IPv6 addresses (like 2001:db8::1). Most domains have at least an A record; AAAA records are increasingly common as IPv6 adoption grows.

Question 4

Does this tool use cached DNS results?

Accepted Answer

Lookups are performed live against DNS resolvers each time you run a query, so you're seeing current data rather than a cached snapshot. That said, DNS resolvers themselves cache results according to each record's TTL, which is normal behavior across the entire DNS system.

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