[Techtalk] Resolving a doman name

[Mary]

On Wed, Jan 19, 2005, Sue Stones wrote:
> How can I determine the machine address of a domain name.  I want to see 
> if a domain name is pointed at the right machine.

host or dig:

    $ host linuxchix.org
    linuxchix.org has address 203.7.155.11

    $ dig linuxchix.org
     
    ; <<>> DiG 9.2.2-P3 <<>> linuxchix.org
    ;; global options:  printcmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18791
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 5, ADDITIONAL: 0
     
    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;linuxchix.org.                 IN      A
     
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      A       203.7.155.11
     
    ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      NS      ns3.linuxchix.org.
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      NS      ns.anthill.echidna.id.au.
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      NS      ns1.linuxchix.org.
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      NS      ns2.anthill.echidna.id.au.
    linuxchix.org.          86384   IN      NS      ns2.linuxchix.org.
     
    ;; Query time: 390 msec
    ;; SERVER: 172.16.15.1#53(172.16.15.1)
    ;; WHEN: Wed Jan 19 13:54:48 2005

dig's output is useful for debugging: in particular, you can see it
tells you what the nameservers are for linuxchix.org, and it also gives
you the time left before your cache will re-check the address rather
than just relying on its cached copy (86384 seconds).

In order to debug domain name problems, it's occasionally useful to try
these on machines on widely different networks to see if they say the
same thing.

-Mary