Troubleshooting Domain Resolution Issues

To use our DNS hosting service, the domain should resolve with DNSimple.

The resolution status is displayed in your DNSimple account:

If the domain is registered with DNSimple, open the domain page and check the Delegation card under the Registration tab to see which name servers are currently set.
If the domain is registered elsewhere, you can confirm delegation using dig or a WHOIS lookup (see below).

The following is a list of common issues to check if a domain isn’t resolving correctly.

Check the domain with `+trace`

The +trace option from dig shows exactly how the name is delegated.

It executes a recursive query against each of the name servers in the chain, starting from the root name servers. It’s useful for debugging delegation issues.

$ dig NS example.com +trace

The delegated name servers should match DNSimple name servers.

If they don’t, update the name servers to point to DNSimple.

If you recently switched, the update may be in progress. See Check name server list in the WHOIS response and Check name server propagation delay.

Check that the domain is using all DNSimple name servers

DNSimple provides four name servers. All four should be listed to ensure redundancy and availability, so DNS will continue to resolve if one server is temporarily unavailable due to maintenance or an incident.

DNSimple name servers are:

ns1.dnsimple.com
ns2.dnsimple-edge.net
ns3.dnsimple.com
ns4.dnsimple-edge.org

Check that the domain is using only DNSimple name servers

In some cases, a misconfiguration may result in DNSimple name servers listed along with third party name servers.

Problematic configuration example:

$ dig NS example.com +short
ns1.dnsimple.com.
ns2.dnsimple-edge.net.
ns3.dnsimple.com.
ns4.dnsimple-edge.org.
ns1.thirdparty.com.
ns2.thirdparty.com.

This configuration may lead to random DNS resolution issues, especially if you’re using DNSimple DNS custom features like ALIAS or URL records, and/or the two DNS services aren’t in sync.

When you have Secondary DNS enabled, your domain should not point only to DNSimple name servers; both DNSimple name servers and your Secondary DNS provider’s name servers should be listed.

Check name server list in the WHOIS response

Use a WHOIS service to run a whois query for the domain. The majority of domain registries include the name server list in the WHOIS response.

$ whois dnsimple.com

Domain Name: DNSIMPLE.COM
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.enom.com
Referral URL: http://www.enom.com
Name Server: NS1.DNSIMPLE.COM
Name Server: NS2.DNSIMPLE-EDGE.NET
Name Server: NS3.DNSIMPLE.COM
Name Server: NS4.DNSIMPLE-EDGE.ORG
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 13-jun-2013
Creation Date: 07-apr-2010
Expiration Date: 07-apr-2018

The name server should match DNSimple name servers and the response returned from dig. If it doesn’t, make sure to point the domain to DNSimple.

If you recently updated the domain, see the Name server change propagation section in Troubleshooting DNSimple Name Servers.

Ensure the DS record is removed

If you switched DNS providers and had DNSSEC enabled, you must remove the previous DS record first.

If you transferred your domain from another registrar where you had DNSSEC enabled, you may need to contact us to have the DS record removed.

Have more questions?

If you have additional questions or need any assistance with your domain resolution, just contact support, and we’ll be happy to help.