NS / Nameserver Lookup
See which nameservers are authoritative for a domain.
The domain to look up
How this lookup works
NS records name the servers with authority over a domain’s DNS. When you change your DNS host, these are what you update at the registrar, and they are what the rest of the internet follows to find everything else about the domain.
What the results mean
- Nameserver
- A server authoritative for the domain. Most domains list two to four for redundancy.
- They differ between resolvers
- A nameserver change has not finished propagating. Registrar changes to NS records can take up to 48 hours to settle everywhere.
Common problems and fixes
- The nameservers here differ from the ones in my registrar panel
- You are seeing the delegation as it exists in the parent zone, which is what the internet follows, against what your panel intends. A gap between the two means the change has not been pushed or has not propagated. The delegation is the authority — until it updates, the old nameservers keep answering.
- DNS works but is intermittently slow
- Often one nameserver in the set is unreachable while the others answer. Resolvers try them in turn, so a dead one adds a timeout before the query succeeds — everything works, just slowly and unpredictably. Query each listed nameserver directly to find the one that is not responding.
- I moved DNS hosts and some records vanished
- Changing NS records switches which server answers, and it does not copy your zone. Any record not recreated at the new host simply stops existing the moment the delegation moves. Export the full zone from the old host and import it before changing the nameservers, not afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
How many nameservers should a domain have?
At least two, and most have between two and four. A single nameserver is a single point of failure — if it goes down, the domain becomes unreachable even though nothing is wrong with the site itself.
I changed nameservers and still see the old ones
NS changes are made at the registrar and propagate slowly — allow up to 48 hours. Until then, resolvers that cached the old delegation will keep using it.
How long does a nameserver change take?
Up to 48 hours in the worst case, though most resolvers pick it up much sooner. Delegation records at the top-level domain carry long TTLs by design — they change rarely and are cached aggressively — which is why an NS change is the slowest DNS change to propagate and the one that needs planning.
What is a glue record?
An address record for a nameserver that lives inside the domain it serves. If ns1.example.com is authoritative for example.com, resolving it requires asking example.com, which requires knowing ns1 — a loop. The registry breaks it by publishing the address alongside the delegation. Using a third-party DNS provider avoids the problem entirely.
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