nslookup Commands: DNS Lookups, Record Types & Reverse DNS (2026)

Verified June 2026 · nslookup, dig & Resolve-DnsName on Windows 11/10, macOS & Linux

Quick Reference: Essential Commands

# Look up a domain's IP (A / AAAA records)
nslookup example.com

# Query a specific record type
nslookup -type=MX example.com
nslookup -type=TXT example.com

# Reverse lookup (IP -> hostname)
nslookup 8.8.8.8

# Ask a specific DNS server
nslookup example.com 1.1.1.1

Which command should you use?

• Windows (built in) → nslookup
• Windows PowerShell / scripting → Resolve-DnsName
• macOS / Linux → dig

Jump to the section you need below, or run a live lookup in the tool above.

nslookup: The Cross-Platform Classic

nslookup (name server lookup) ships with Windows, macOS, and Linux. It's the quickest way to answer "what does DNS say about this name?"

WindowsmacOSLinuxBuilt in — no install

nslookup Syntax Reference

Interactive Mode

Running nslookup with no arguments opens interactive mode, handy for several lookups in a row:

nslookup
> set type=MX
> example.com
> set type=A
> example.org
> server 8.8.8.8
> example.net
> exit

Tip: Add the DNS server as a second argument (nslookup example.com 1.1.1.1) to bypass your local resolver. It's the fastest way to check whether a DNS change has propagated to a public resolver yet.

Resolve-DnsName: The PowerShell Way

On Windows, Resolve-DnsName returns structured objects you can filter, sort, and script — far nicer than parsing nslookup text.

Windows 10Windows 11Server 2012+Built in — no module

# Basic lookup
Resolve-DnsName example.com

# Specific record type
Resolve-DnsName example.com -Type MX
Resolve-DnsName example.com -Type TXT

# Reverse lookup
Resolve-DnsName 8.8.8.8

# Query a specific server and bypass the cache
Resolve-DnsName example.com -Server 1.1.1.1 -DnsOnly

# Just the IP addresses, scripting-friendly
(Resolve-DnsName example.com -Type A).IPAddress

dig: The Modern Standard on macOS & Linux

dig (Domain Information Groper) is the preferred tool on Unix-like systems — more detailed and more scriptable than nslookup.

macOSLinux⚠ Install on Windows (BIND tools)

# Clean answer only
dig example.com +short
dig example.com MX +short

# Full record with the answer section only
dig example.com ANY +noall +answer

# Reverse lookup
dig -x 8.8.8.8

# Query a specific server
dig @1.1.1.1 example.com

# Trace the full resolution path from the root servers
dig example.com +trace

Common DNS Record Types

Troubleshooting: Common nslookup Messages

Each row is deep-linkable — share a specific message with …#dns-nxdomain, and the row highlights on arrival.

Checking DNS Propagation

After changing a DNS record, query several public resolvers to see whether the change has spread:

nslookup example.com 1.1.1.1      # Cloudflare
nslookup example.com 8.8.8.8      # Google
nslookup example.com 9.9.9.9      # Quad9

If the resolvers disagree, the change is still propagating — DNS caches honor the record's TTL, so allow up to the TTL value (often 300–3600 seconds) before expecting consistency everywhere.

nslookup vs dig vs Resolve-DnsName