When a website goes down, the culprit is often DNS. Here are the top 5 tools pros use to debug these issues.
1. CheckYourDNS (Online Tool)
Our tool, CheckYourDNS, is the fastest way to see your records from multiple locations. It visually checks propagation and highlights errors instantly without needing the command line.
2. Dig (Command Line)
The industry standard for Linux/macOS users. It gives you the raw answer from the nameserver.
dig example.com A
3. Nslookup (Windows/Linux)
Built into almost every operating system. Simple and effective for quick checks.
nslookup example.com
4. DNSViz
A tool for visualizing DNSSEC chains. If you have DNSSEC errors, this is the tool to use.
5. Google Admin Toolbox Dig
A web-based version of Dig provided by Google. Useful for checking if the issue is specific to your local network or global.
Conclusion
Start with a global checker like CheckYourDNS to rule out local caching issues, then proceed to command-line tools for deeper analysis.