Checking DNS Registration

To check that a host name is registered with a Domain Name Server:

Open a command prompt and enter:

nslookup <host_name>

You should see something similar to that shown below at the prompt. The first two lines show the name and IP addresses of the DNS server used for the lookup. In this case the last two lines show that the DNS lookup was successful as the IP address of the target server was returned.

Server: my.example.com
Address: 192.168.0.101
Name: another.example.com
Address: 192.168.0.242

If you receive the following at the prompt:

Server: my.example.com
Address: 192.168.0.101
*** my.example.com cant find another: Non-existent domain

It indicates the server machine is not registered with the DNS server, or if you see the following response:

*** Default servers are not available
Server: UnKnown
Address: 127.0.0.1***
UnKnown cant find another: No response from server

It indicates the DNS server is unavailable or not reachable from your subnet.