Network Operations: Management, Protocols, and Backup Strategies Practice Test

Dns lookup tools are used to query DNS servers to map hostnames to IP addresses and verify that DNS is functioning. Nslookup is a command-line tool that does exactly that: it asks a DNS server for DNS records that resolve a hostname to an IP address, and it can be directed to use a specific server to isolate or test DNS behavior. You can request A records for IPv4 addresses, AAAA for IPv6, or other record types, and you can perform the query against a chosen DNS server (for example, nslookup example.com 8.8.8.8) to see how that server responds. This makes it straightforward to confirm that a hostname resolves correctly and to diagnose DNS failures (like no such domain or SERVFAIL). In contrast, traceroute follows network paths rather than name resolution, netstat reveals active connections, and while dig also performs DNS lookups, nslookup is the classic, widely available tool that directly tests DNS resolution from the command line.