A frequent mistake is to use "ping" to test DNS. On Windows NT/2K and Unix, there are tools called "nslookup" and "dig".
- You can check to see whether or not your registrar is pointing your domain to the correct nameservers. The "whois" information may be wrong, and should not be used. Go to a command prompt/console and enter the command:
nslookup -type=NS yourdomainname.com
If the response does not contain all of the correct name servers, then you should contact your registrar and have them fix it.
- To check to see whether a particular server is responding, you can add the server name:
nslookup www.yourdomainname.com ns1.zoneedit.com
If the response has a bunch of 'root-servers' that means the server does not know about the domain name and is referring you elsewhere.
- To look for a certain record type, like the "MX" record or the "SOA" record, you can use the parameter "-type=MX" or "-type=SOA".
nslookup -type=MX yourdomainname.com
- If you don't have access to "nslookup" or "dig", you can use online DNS lookup tools instead.