Which DNS provider am I using?

Issue

You need to determine which DNS provider you using.

Resolution

The first step is to check the name servers for your domain. The second step is then determine who your DNS provider is based on those results.

Determining the name servers for your domain

There are several ways to check your name servers.

Look up your domain in WHOIS

Running a WHOIS query on your domain will tell you where you registered the domain, as well as what nameservers are registered with the registrar. You can do this from a variety of places on the web - one such site is http://viewdns.info/whois/. You can also run a WHOIS query from the command line on most operating systems:

$ whois mydomain.com

The information you are looking for is call the "Name Server" for the domains. There can be anywhere from 2 to 8 listed on your domain.

Look up the NS records for the domain

Alternatively, you can use a DNS query tool, like dig, to check the NS records for the domain, such as:

$ dig ns mydomain.com

However, these results are not as reliable as the WHOIS query.

Determining your DNS provider based on the name server

The domain's hostname indicates which DNS provider you are using. There are many thousands of DNS providers, but here are a few examples:

  • domaincontrol.com - GoDaddy
  • registrar-servers.com - Namecheap
  • netsol.com, networksolutions.net - Network Solutions
  • dynect.com - Dyn Managed DNS
  • awsdns-XX.net, awsdns-XX.org - AWS Route 53
  • cloudflare.com - CloudFlare
  • zerigo.net - Zerigo
  • gandi.net - Gandi
  • dnsimple.com - DNSimple
  • dnsmadeeasy.com - DNS Made Easy
  • pointhq.com - PointDNS

As you can see, most providers can be determined easily based on the hostname.

Changing your DNS provider

If you wish to change which DNS provider you are using, you must change your nameserver with the company you registered the domain (the "registrar" listed in the WHOIS record). Your current DNS provider cannot help you change to a new DNS provider.

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