Essential Online DNS Tools

We’ve covered a couple of DNS tools in the past, such as the DNS propagation checker, which are useful for anyone that owns a domain. The problem is that you generally have to jump around to a bunch of different sites in order to do simple things like reverse IP lookups, traceroutes, Chinese firewall tests, propagation checks, and more. Normally you need to find a site that is dedicated to do each of those things, but ViewDNS.info pulls that all together into a single site with a simple interface.

This site makes it extremely easy to perform all of the things I mentioned earlier plus some. In fact it has over 20 different tools you can use on any domain and IP address you might have. Many of the tests, such as the DNS report, are essential tools for determining the health of the DNS for your site. Take a look at everything it includes:

• Reverse IP Lookup: Find all sites hosted on a given server.
• Chinese Firewall Test: Checks whether a site accessible from China.
• Port Scanner: Check if common ports are open on a server.
• DNS Report: Provides a complete report on your DNS settings.
• DNS Propagation Checker: Check whether recent DNS changes have propagated.
• DNSSEC Test: Test if any domain name is configured for DNSSEC.
• IP Location Finder: Find the geographic location of an IP Address.
• Iran Firewall Test: Check whether a site is accessible in Iran.
• Domain / IP Whois: Lookup information on a Domain or IP address.
• Is My Site Down: Check whether a site is actually down or not.
• DNS Record Lookup: View all DNS records for a specified domain.
• Google Pagerank Checker: Instantly check the Google Pagerank of any domain.
• Get HTTP Headers: View the HTTP headers returned by a domain.
• Spam Database Lookup: Determine if your mail server is on any spam lists.
• Reverse DNS Lookup: View the reverse DNS entry for an IP address.
• Traceroute: Trace the servers between ViewDNS and a remote host.
• Ping: Test the latency of a remote system from ViewDNS.
• Free Email Lookup: Determine if a domain provides free email addresses.
• ASN Lookup: Lookup information on an ASN.
• Abuse Contact Lookup: Find the abuse contact address for a domain name.
• MAC Address Lookup: Determine the manufacturer of a network device.
• URL / String Decode: Convert a URL with ‘%##’ values to a readable format.

I have a bunch of bookmarks I haven’t touched ever since I found this tool, and it’s because this is like the all-in-one Swiss Army knife of DNS tools. The only other thing I’d like to see it get is an SSL verifier much like the one SSL Shopper has. If it had something like that this would practically become the homepage on my work machine.

ViewDNS.info Homepage