host — DNS Lookup Utility

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The host command is a simple DNS lookup tool. It is useful for checking whether a hostname resolves, which IP address it points to, or which mail servers are configured for a domain.

Basic lookup

host example.com

Check mail servers

host -t MX example.com

Check name servers

host -t NS example.com

For deeper DNS troubleshooting, compare the result with dig and check whether the issue is local DNS, authoritative DNS, or a caching delay.

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