Using NSLookup

[Rubicone]

Has anyone actually used this utility to troubleshoot DNS problems, not only in terms of diagnosing them but also in finding a resolution? If so how, and provide an example and steps you would take. TIA.

[Tuttle]

I've found nslookup to be practically useless when troubleshooting DNS issues. If I want to actually see what's going on behind the scenes, I normally find a *nix box and run dig instead.

As far as an example problem, when I first got my domain set up it would resolve properly some of the time and not resolve at all the rest of the time. I don't have records of the dig output, but by querying specific servers (starting from 'dig @a.root-servers.net') I could prove it was a configuration error on my ISP's main DNS servers, not an error at the DNS host or on my ISP's resolvers.

[mankyway]

Basically the NSLookup proves that you have a dns Issue, You find out the IP address of a site, and then if you can connect to that site by IP Address, you know that it is a DNS issue rather than a remote site being down.

Then by using Tracert, you can start pinning down which DNS server is missing the information