Diagnosing Problems With Custom Domains: An Alternative Dig Tool

As I wrote earlier, when I'm diagnosing a problem with a custom domain - and occasionally, with other blog and network problems - my most frequently used tool is a Kloth online Dig. With Dig being an important diagnostic procedure, it's a good idea to have more than one Dig utility available.

• The Kloth server may be down.
• The Kloth server may not offer the right options.
• It's good practice to occasionally (and sometimes, intentionally) cross check results against another server.

For many Dig investigations, I like to use a second online Dig service - WhoIs, provided by All-NetTools. The All-NetTools WhoIs Dig actually provides more than a standard Dig. A WhoIs Dig, for a domain, provides much valuable information about the domain / registrar relationship. Here, for instance, we can see an All-NetTools WhoIs Dig for this domain, nitecruzr.net.

http://www.who.is/whois/nitecruzr.net/

REGISTRY WHOIS FOR NITECRUZR.NET

Domain Name: nitecruzr.net

Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Status: clientDeleteProhibited, clientRenewProhibited, 
clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited

Expiration Date: 2010-03-24
Creation Date: 2008-03-24
Last Update Date: 2009-05-01

Name Servers:
ns11.domaincontrol.com
ns12.domaincontrol.com
ns53.domaincontrol.com
ns54.domaincontrol.com

Here, we see useful information about this domain, including the fact that it expires within the month. In cases where the domain in question is seen to be parked, knowing that a domain recently expired helps us advise a blogger that it's necessary to contact the registrar immediately, and avoid loss of domain registration.

A an All-NetTools DNS Dig against nitecruzr.net provides still more interesting and useful information.

http://www.who.is/dns/nitecruzr.net/

The WhoIs SOA Dig shows us the SOA record.

NITECRUZR.NET SOA RECORD
Name Server  ns11.domaincontrol.com
Email   (masked)
Serial Number  2009121603
Refresh  8 hours
Retry   2 hours
Expiry   7 days
Minimum  1 day

Here, we see the name of the domain master server, and the various expiry times for the domain.

The Whois DNS Dig shows us the well known host records.

NITECRUZR.NET DNS RECORDS
Record  Type   TTL  Priority  Content
mail.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.36.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.32.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.34.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   A  1 hour   216.239.38.21 (Mountain View, CA, US)
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  10  aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  20  alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  30  alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  40  aspmx2.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   MX  1 hour  50  aspmx3.googlemail.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns11.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns12.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns53.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   NS  1 hour   ns54.domaincontrol.com
nitecruzr.net   SOA  1 day   ns11.domaincontrol.com. dns.jomax.net. 2009121603 28800 7200 604800 86400
www.nitecruzr.net  CNAME  1 hour   ghs.google.com

This will never replace the Kloth Dig log, completely. The Kloth server offers many more options, such as the ability to selectively Dig against aliases besides the domain root and well known aliases. It is a worthy complement to a Kloth Dig in many cases, and can be used as a backup or cross check.

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