Nslookup

Nslookup will probably be one of your primary diagnostic tools when debugging a Domain Name System (DNS) architecture. It can be used to display any resource record on any DNS server including UNIX-based DNS implementations. NSLookup from most other DNS implementations should also work against the Microsoft-based DNS server. This is a command line utility and has the following syntax.

nslookup [[-option ...] [computer-to-find]] | - [server]

Modes

Nslookup has two modes: interactive and non-interactive.

If you only need to look up a single piece of data, use non-interactive mode. For the first argument, type the name or IP address of the computer to be looked up. For the second argument, type the name or IP address of a DNS name server. If you omit the second argument, the default DNS name server will be used.

If you need to look up more than one piece of data, you can use interactive mode. Type a hyphen for the first argument and the name or IP address of a DNS name server for the second argument, or omit both arguments and the default DNS name server will be used.

Parameters

-option . ..

You can specify one or more nslookup commands as a command-line option. For a list of commands, see "Nslookup Commands" in the WINNT.HLP file supplied with Windows NT 4.0. Each option consists of a hyphen (-) followed immediately by the command name and, in some cases, an equal sign (=), and then a value. For example, to change the default query type to host (computer) information and the initial timeout to 10 seconds, you would type:

nslookup -querytype=hinfo -timeout=10

The command line length must be less than 256 characters.

computer-to-find

This instruct Nslookup to Look up information for computer-to-find using the current default server or using server if specified. If computer-to-find is an IP address and the query type is A or PTR, the name of the computer is returned. If computer-to-find is a name and does not have a trailing period, the default DNS domain name is appended to the name. (This behavior depends on the state of the set options: domains, srchlist, defname, and search.) To look up a computer not in the current DNS domain, append a period to the name.

If you type a hyphen (-) instead of computer-to-find, the command prompt changes to Nslookup interactive mode.

server

Use this server as the DNS name server. If you omit server, the default DNS name server is used.

For more information on the Windows NT Nslookup utility, check the WINNT.HLP file supplied with Windows NT 4.0.