DNS Name, IP Address Resolver, and Whois Tool
Unlock the DNS and IP information you need with a dynamic tool
Easily look up and create detailed domain resolver reports to jump-start DNS name resolution
Whois records hold a lot of valuable information, but they can be difficult to track down given the sheer number of registrars and Whois servers out there. SolarWinds® Engineer’s Toolset™ (ETS) makes DNS name resolution much easier by giving you a place to start. The DNS Whois tool is built to receive information about domain names and IP addresses and clearly display information about the specified name or address. You can also look up and report on domain names, URLs, IP addresses, network addresses, and email addresses. This domain resolver gives you everything you need to jump-start DNS name resolution.
Dig deeper into DNS name resolution with a powerful domain resolver
In addition to forward and reverse DNS lookups, the DNS resolver tool in ETS helps you determine who owns or controls a domain name, network, or IP address. If a hostname has multiple IP addresses, the domain resolver is designed to look up and display all IP addresses for each hostname. It also looks up and displays all hostnames for a specified IP address. The domain resolver takes DNS name resolution a step further by uncovering more than just the standard information. You can uncover administrative and technical contact names, network providers, domain expiration dates, and much more.
View a cache of resolved names in a feature-rich domain name resolver
The IP resolver tool in ETS is built to maximize your time and effort by keeping a cache of all the hostnames and IP addresses resolved by the Whois tool. When a hostname or address has been resolved, the IP resolver tool will create an HTML file, populate it with all discovered results, and store it in the DNS-Cache directory. To save your results, just copy the files into another directory.
Use specialized DNS tools to supplement your enterprise-grade DNS Whois tool
In addition to a DNS Whois tool, SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset also offers several other tools specific to DNS. The DNS Analyzer visually depicts the hierarchy of DNS resource records, queries your DNS servers, and graphically represents the results. With the DNS Audit tool, you can easily locate DNS database errors by scanning a range of IP addresses and performing reverse DNS lookups for each IP address. Any errors found during the scan are highlighted, and you can filter through those results to find exactly what you need. With ETS, you have everything on hand to support your DNS needs.
Take control of your environment with additional IP and DNS resources in Engineer’s Toolset
You need easy access to the right tools to monitor and quickly troubleshoot your network. With more than 60 tools in SolarWinds Engineer’s Toolset, you can comprehensively and effectively manage your network. ETS offers tools across a variety of categories, including network monitoring, diagnostics, discovery, configuration management, log management, IP address monitoring, and SNMP. These tools are built to be easily accessible from a unified, easy-to-use web console to ensure you have the best of Engineer’s Toolset wherever you are.
Get More on DNS Name Resolution
Do you find yourself asking…
The domain name system (DNS) is a naming database that makes it possible to locate internet domain names and translate them into IP addresses. If someone types www.solarwinds.com into a web browser, for instance, a server can use DNS behind the scenes to map the same name to the corresponding IP address, which would be something similar in structure to 121.12.12.121. Web browsers rely on DNS to quickly provide the information needed to connect users to the right host.
Thanks to DNS, a user only needs to remember the domain name of a site instead of the entire IP address. When a user types in the name of any website, the DNS name resolution process starts. To get the IP address, the server must use a domain name resolver to send queries to the name servers. The first answer the browser will get is the root server, and then it’ll get the top-level domain (TLD). The servers of the TLD the user wants to visit (like .com, .net, and .org) will refer their queries to the next step in searching for authoritative servers that know the complete IP. At this point, the domain name is resolved.
DNS name resolution can be recursive or iterative. With recursive DNS name resolution, the client relies on the local server to either give the requested mapping or an error message. An application generates a DNS query and sends it to the domain name resolver so it can find the destination IP address. Afterward, the query is forwarded to the local DNS server. If the server knows the IP address, it’ll send a response to the domain resolver, and if not, it sends the query to the root name server.
With iterative DNS name resolution, each server that doesn’t know the mapping sends the IP address of the next server to the one that requested it. This allows the client to return the best answer it can. Iterative DNS name resolution follows the same protocols as recursive DNS name resolution until the query is sent to the root name server. From there, the root name server returns the IP address of the TLD to the local server. The local server then contacts the TLD server and either returns the destination host’s IP or its local DNS server. If it returns the server’s address, the user can find the IP address of the destination host by contacting the destination’s local DNS server. Finally, the mapping is passed from the host’s local DNS server to the domain resolver and back to the host. At this point, the domain name is resolved.
The domain name system (DNS) is a naming database that makes it possible to locate internet domain names and translate them into IP addresses. If someone types www.solarwinds.com into a web browser, for instance, a server can use DNS behind the scenes to map the same name to the corresponding IP address, which would be something similar in structure to 121.12.12.121. Web browsers rely on DNS to quickly provide the information needed to connect users to the right host.
Thanks to DNS, a user only needs to remember the domain name of a site instead of the entire IP address. When a user types in the name of any website, the DNS name resolution process starts. To get the IP address, the server must use a domain name resolver to send queries to the name servers. The first answer the browser will get is the root server, and then it’ll get the top-level domain (TLD). The servers of the TLD the user wants to visit (like .com, .net, and .org) will refer their queries to the next step in searching for authoritative servers that know the complete IP. At this point, the domain name is resolved.
DNS name resolution can be recursive or iterative. With recursive DNS name resolution, the client relies on the local server to either give the requested mapping or an error message. An application generates a DNS query and sends it to the domain name resolver so it can find the destination IP address. Afterward, the query is forwarded to the local DNS server. If the server knows the IP address, it’ll send a response to the domain resolver, and if not, it sends the query to the root name server.
With iterative DNS name resolution, each server that doesn’t know the mapping sends the IP address of the next server to the one that requested it. This allows the client to return the best answer it can. Iterative DNS name resolution follows the same protocols as recursive DNS name resolution until the query is sent to the root name server. From there, the root name server returns the IP address of the TLD to the local server. The local server then contacts the TLD server and either returns the destination host’s IP or its local DNS server. If it returns the server’s address, the user can find the IP address of the destination host by contacting the destination’s local DNS server. Finally, the mapping is passed from the host’s local DNS server to the domain resolver and back to the host. At this point, the domain name is resolved.
Get the tools to make DNS name resolution easier than ever before
Engineer's Toolset
- Easily create domain name resolver reports and view a cache of resolved names
- Supplement the IP resolver tool with additional features specifically designed for DNS and IP addresses
- Gain easy access to 60+ must-have IT tools, including a DNS Whois tool