NS record lookup
NS records delegate responsibility for a DNS zone to authoritative nameservers.
Enter a root domain or subdomain—no protocol or path needed.
Delegation and zone data
A registrar or parent zone publishes the delegation, while the child zone publishes its own NS set. These should agree. A mismatch can cause inconsistent answers depending on which resolution path is used.
Nameserver hosts also need reachable addresses. When a nameserver lives inside the delegated domain, the parent may publish glue records so resolvers can reach it without a circular dependency.
Nameserver checks
- Use at least two reliable authoritative servers.
- Keep the parent delegation and zone NS records aligned.
- Confirm that every server answers authoritatively for the zone.
- Verify glue records when nameservers are inside the domain.
- Check DNSSEC DS records carefully during provider migrations.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions
Are NS records the same as DNS resolvers?
No. Authoritative nameservers publish a zone’s data. Recursive resolvers look up and cache that data for clients.
Why do registrar and lookup results differ?
A delegation change may still be cached, or the parent and child NS sets may not match.