DNSdoctor will perform several tests on your domain to ensure that it is correctly configured, so that you can enjoy a trouble free domain. For information about the potential risks of having a misconfigured domain, take a look at the DNS doctor homepage.
The time required to completely diagnose a zone can take from 30 seconds up to 5 minutes depending on the network speed of the server being accessed. If it takes more than a minute it generally means we are encountering problems accessing your nameservers (errors in your DNS configuration, firewall, ...) and are waiting for timeout.
You will find in the help section, a description of the different options that you can use to customize this tool, but the default setting should be ideal for nearly all users; there is also a short explanation on how to read the diagnostic.
| Zone Information | |
|---|---|
| Zone | Name of the domain to be diagnosed. |
| Primary | Primary nameserver (the one in the SOA record if it is public). |
| Secondary | Secondary nameservers (all the NS records used for delegating the zone, except the one listed above). |
| IPs | List of IP addresses for the nameserver.
|
| Output | |
| zone summary | Includes a summary about the zone and its nameservers in the generated report |
| test name | Includes the name of the test that has been performed when reporting errors |
| explanations | Includes an explanation (when the test failed) about the purpose of the test and why you should fix it. |
| details | Includes details (when the test failed) about the culprit elements. |
| progress bar | Display information about the test progression using a a progress bar (require javascript and Mozilla or IE5+ for correct rendering). |
| description | Give a short description of the test when it is performed. |
| nothing | Don't display information about the test progression. |
| report | Select the type of generated report you want. |
| format | Select the format in which you want the report (HTML or plain text). |
| language | Select the language that you want the report generated in. |
| Error report | |
| default error | Errors are reported with the default severity associated with them. |
| all fatals | All errors are considered fatals. |
| all warnings | All errors are considered warnings. |
| don't stop on fatal | Keep going even after encountering a fatal error (this could lead to some unexpected results). |
| report ok | Report test that passed. |
| Extra tests performed | |
| mail delivery | Perform extra checking on mail delivery for typical mail accounts (hostmaster, postmaster, ...) associated with domain names. |
| zone transfer | Perform additional tests on the zone retrieved after a zone transfer. |
| RIR databases | Check that IP addresses used are registered in the RIR databases |
| Transport layer | |
| IPv4, IPv6 | Select the routing layer (if none are selected it will default to IPv4 and IPv6). |
| STD, UDP, TCP | Select the transport layer you want for interrogating your nameservers. |
