find all dns records for a domain

So—picture this: you’re settin’ up a new email provider, your site’s actin’ like it’s possessed by a poltergeist from 1997, and your boss drops the classic: *“Just check the DNS. It’s prob’ly fine.”* 🙃 Honey, if I had a nickel for every time “just check the DNS” turned into a four-hour spelunking expedition through SOA, MX, TXT, and that one weird SRV record nobody remembas… I’d own a *very* nice espresso machine. Today? We’re rollin’ up our sleeves and answerin’ the real question: *how do you actually find all dns records for a domain—without losin’ your mind or settin’ your terminal on fire?* Spoiler: it’s part art, part science, and *mostly* knowin’ which tools don’t ghost ya halfway through.

Here’s the tea, steeped strong and slightly bitter: Nope. Not really. DNS ain’t a public library with a Dewey Decimal system and comfy armchairs. It’s more like a bouncer at an underground speakeasy—only hands out the records it’s *supposed* to. Why? ‘Cause zone transfers (AXFR)—the only way to get the *full* list—are *disabled by default*. Smart admins lock ‘em down tighter than a pickle jar in January. If you ain’t the owner (or got explicit access), the server’s just gonna shrug and say, *“Access denied, sugar.”* So when folks ask, *“Can you see all DNS records for a domain?”*—the honest answer’s: *“Only if the domain owner hands ya the keys… or leaves the back door wide open (don’t do that, y’all).”* In practice? We find all dns records for a domain *we control*—or infer most of ‘em via targeted queries, reverse lookups, and a lil’ educated guesswork.

If it’s *your* domain—and bless ya for takin’ responsibility—grabbin’ your DNS records is easier than fryin’ catfish on a Sunday. Three main ways, ranked by how much you trust your coffee not to spill:

1. Log into your registrar or DNS host (GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Route 53, etc.). That’s the *gold standard*. You’ll see *every* record they’re servin’, including the sneaky ones like CAA or TLSA. Bonus: no typos, no guesswork.
2. Use dig ANY—but *don’t*—‘cause most resolvers ignore ANY now (thanks, RFC 8482). It’s like yellin’ *“Gimme everything!”* into a canyon and gettin’ echoes of three records and a squirrel.
3. Query record-by-record—the slow-but-sure cowboy method. A, AAAA, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, CNAME… one by one. Tedious? Yep. Reliable? Absolutely. And it’s how we find all dns records for a domain when the dashboard’s bein’ moody.

Pro move: write a lil’ shell script. We keep one named dns-sweep.sh that loops through types and spits out clean JSON. Saved our bacon more times than we can count—especially when migratin’ zones after 2 a.m.

Y’all ever seen a real cowboy without his trusty pocketknife? Yeah. That’s you tryna find all dns records for a domain without dig. Here’s your starter pack:

• dig example.com A +short → just the IPv4, clean
• dig example.com MX → mail exchangers (and their priority numbers—don’t skip those!)
• dig example.com TXT → SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Google verification… all the “secret sauce”
• dig @ns1.cloudflare.com example.com AXFR → zone transfer attempt (*only works if allowed*)

Fun typo we made last week? Typed dgi instead of dig *eleven* times in a row. Muscle memory’s a cruel mistress. Anyhow—pair dig with +nocmd +nocomments +noquestion and you got yourself a lean, mean, DNS-queryin’ machine. And remember: always specify the nameserver (@8.8.8.8 or your host’s NS) to bypass local cache shenanigans.

CNAMEs love to play hide-and-seek—especially when they’re nested six levels deep like a DNS Matryoshka doll. To find all dns records for a domain *with a focus on CNAMEs*, try this:

First, hit the obvious: dig example.com CNAME. But that only shows *direct* CNAMEs on the root. For subdomains? You gotta *know* ‘em—or brute-force common ones (www, mail, ftp, dev, staging, shop). Tools like dnsrecon or amass can enum subdomains *first*, then query each for CNAMEs. Or—here’s a slick trick—use SecurityTrails or DNSDumpster (free tier) to peek at *historical* CNAMEs they’ve cached. Not real-time, but dang helpful for forensics. One client found an old legacy-api.example.com CNAME pointin’ to a *decommissioned Heroku app*—caused intermittent 502s for *months*. Moral? CNAMEs don’t expire—they just haunt ya.

Let’s peek under the hood of a *typical* e-com domain—say, bayou-boutique.com. Here’s what we found when we find all dns records for a domain like this (actual data, names changed to protect the innocent):

Ain’t that somethin’? Seven record types—and we *still* didn’t check NS, SOA, or AAAA. That’s why “just check DNS” is a trap. You’re not lookin’ for *one* thing—you’re auditin’ a whole ecosystem. And if you miss that CAA record? Your cert renewal fails at 3 a.m. Ask us how we know.

Back in the day, dig example.com ANY was the DNS equivalent of yellin’, *“Show me everything you got!”* and hopin’ the server complied. But around 2019? RFC 8482 dropped the hammer: *“Stop servin’ ANY. It’s a DDoS magnet and gives attackers free recon.”* Now? Most resolvers—Cloudflare, Google, Quad9—just return *HINFO* (a fake “CPU/OS” record) or an empty answer. So if you’re still usin’ ANY to find all dns records for a domain, you’re not gettin’ “all”—you’re gettin’ *“lol, nice try.”* We tested it on 12 domains last month: 11 returned *nothing useful*, 1 returned a single A record (probably cached). So ditch ANY. Be surgical. Query what you *need*—and keep a checklist.

Domain changed hands? Site migrated? Suspicious subdomain poppin’ up? That’s when you *wish* DNS had a “Wayback Machine.” Turns out—it kinda does. Services like SecurityTrails, DNSDumpster, and ViewDNS.info archive *historical* DNS data—sometimes goin’ back 5+ years. You can see when an A record flipped IPs, when a CNAME pointed to a sketchy domain, or when MX records vanished (⚠️ email outage inbound). One forensics gig, we spotted a backup.example.com CNAME that pointed to a *competitor’s* CDN six months prior—turns out, an ex-dev left it as a “joke.” Not funny when it leaked traffic. So yeah—if you’re tryna find all dns records for a domain *over time*, history tools are your secret weapon. Just remember: free tiers limit depth, and *nothing* beats access to the live zone file.

We been doin’ this long enough to collect scars—and wisdom. Here’s our hard-won advice for anyone tryna find all dns records for a domain without losin’ their lunch:

• Always check *both* authoritative and recursive responses. Your local dig might show cached stale data. Use @ns1.yourhost.com to go straight to the source.
• TXT records lie in plain sight—but read ‘em *slowly*. One missing quote in SPF? Email gets rejected. We once spent 6 hours on a typo: v=spf1 incldue:…. *incldue*. 😩
• Subdomains ≠ root domain.dig example.com won’t show you api.example.com. Gotta query each one—or use a subdomain enum tool first.
• Cloudflare “orange cloud” hides the real IP. If it’s proxied, the A record shows *Cloudflare’s IP*, not your origin. Check DNS-only (“grey cloud”) records, or use dig +trace.

And for the love of uptime—*document* what you find. A messy Google Sheet beats tryna retrace steps at 2 a.m. again.

Look—we test *dozens* of tools yearly. These? The cream that rises to the top when we find all dns records for a domain:

1. Command line:dig, nslookup (legacy, but still handy on Windows), host
2. Web-based: DNS Checker, MXToolbox, ViewDNS.info
3. Advanced:dnsrecon (Python), amass (subdomain enum + DNS), dnscan

But here’s the kicker: tools only help if you *know what to ask*. A record? CNAME? TXT? Start with intent. And if you’re knee-deep in DNS sleuthing, swing by Peternak Digital—we keep a live-updated DNS cheat sheet in the Tools section. Got a gnarly case? Our deep-dive on Get All DNS Records for a Domain: Query Techniques That Actually Work walks through real dig sessions, gotchas, and how to parse messy output like a pro.

References

• https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1034
• https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8482
• https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/dns/dns-records/
• https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2181