DNS health
Catch DNS problems before they stop visitors from reaching your site.
What is DNS monitoring?
DNS monitoring is the practice of regularly checking your domain's DNS records — A, AAAA, NS, MX, TXT — to detect changes, outages, or misconfigurations before they stop visitors reaching your site. DNS, the Domain Name System, is the phone book of the internet: it translates your domain name into the actual server address where your site lives. If those records are wrong or missing, visitors hit a wall even if your site itself is running perfectly. DomainDash watches your DNS records so you'll know straight away if something changes.
What we check
Every DNS check looks at your domain's records and runs a set of health checks:
- Does your domain resolve? We check that your domain name actually points somewhere. If it doesn't, visitors will see an error.
- A and AAAA records point browsers to your website's server. A records use IPv4 addresses; AAAA records use the newer IPv6 format.
- Nameservers are the servers that manage your domain's DNS. If these are missing or misconfigured, nothing else will work.
- Mail records (MX) tell other mail servers where to deliver email for your domain. Not every site needs these, but if you send or receive email at your domain, they're essential.
- TXT records are used for verification and security policies like SPF (a setting that helps prevent email spoofing).
- Lookup time measures how long it takes to look up your domain's records, in milliseconds.
Understanding your DNS data
The routing detail page shows two cards:
Current records
This lists every DNS record we found for your domain, grouped by type. Each record type has a brief description so you know what it does:
| Record type | What it does |
|---|---|
| A | Points your domain to a server address (e.g. 203.0.113.42) |
| AAAA | Points your domain to a server using the newer IPv6 address format |
| NS | The servers that manage your domain's DNS |
| MX | The mail servers that handle email for your domain |
| TXT | Verification and policy records for email and security |
Routing checks
A pass/fail checklist showing:
- Whether your domain resolves at all
- Whether it has A or AAAA records (at least one is needed for your site to work)
- Whether nameservers are configured
- Whether mail records are present
If any of these fail, you'll see a red cross and a banner at the top of the page explaining the issue.
Common DNS issues
When DomainDash flags a DNS problem, the DNS troubleshooting section walks you through what's happening and how to fix it. The most common ones:
- Domain not resolving — start here if you're not sure which issue you have.
- No A or AAAA records — your domain has no records pointing it to a server. The most common cause of
NXDOMAINerrors. - Nameservers unreachable — the servers responsible for your domain's DNS aren't responding (
SERVFAIL). Could be a DNS provider outage or misconfigured NS records. - DNS changes not propagating — you've updated DNS but the new records aren't showing everywhere yet.
See all DNS troubleshooting pages for the full list.
Frequently asked questions
What DNS records does DomainDash check?
DomainDash checks A and AAAA records (the IP addresses visitors use to reach your site), NS records (your nameservers), MX records (mail servers for your domain), and TXT records (verification and policy records like SPF). It also measures DNS lookup time.
How quickly does DomainDash detect DNS changes?
DNS checks run between every 30 minutes and once a day, configurable per site. Because DNS doesn't change often, less frequent checks are usually sufficient — but you can increase frequency if you're actively making DNS changes.
Why isn't DomainDash showing my new DNS records?
DNS changes take time to propagate across the internet — anywhere from minutes to 48 hours, depending on TTL values and resolver caches. DomainDash queries your domain's authoritative nameservers directly, so it usually sees changes faster than most visitors, but propagation delays still apply. See DNS changes not propagating for details.
Does DomainDash check DNSSEC?
DomainDash reports whether DNSSEC is enabled on your domain (as part of the registration data), but doesn't currently validate DNSSEC signatures on every check. DNSSEC issues will surface as resolution failures when validating resolvers can't get a clean answer.
What is the difference between A and AAAA records?
A records point your domain to an IPv4 address (like 203.0.113.42). AAAA records point to an IPv6 address (the newer format with a longer address space). Modern sites typically have both — visitors with IPv6 connectivity use AAAA records, and others fall back to A records. DomainDash checks both.
Related
- Domain registration for tracking when your domain expires
- Uptime monitoring for checking that your site is online and responding