B2B businesses know how hard it is to generate valuable leads to grow their business. They perform various lead generation activities and spend resources to generate leads, nurture them, and convert them to paying customers.
While there are numerous ways to find leads, leveraging reverse DNS lookup can help businesses discover their website visitors and translate the findings into potential business leads.
Curious to know more? Let’s get straight into the nitty-gritty of reverse DNS lookup and how you can use it to grow your business.
Table of contents
What is reverse DNS lookup?
How does reverse DNS work?
What are the uses of reverse DNS lookup?
- ✅ For B2B businesses
- ✅ For email servers
How to do a reverse DNS lookup?
- 1. Using Windows command line
- 2. Using Linux terminal
- 3. Reverse DNS lookup tools
4 Reverse DNS lookup tools
- 1. Mxtoolbox
- 2. Whatismyip
- 3. DNS queries
- 4. Hacker target
Summing up
What is reverse DNS lookup?
Reverse DNS lookup (rDNS Lookup) is a DNS query to find a domain name associated with an IP address. It is the exact opposite of DNS lookup, where the DNS is queried to return the IP address of a domain name.
How does reverse DNS work?
Reverse DNS lookup uses PTR record to find the domain name. So what is the PTR record? DNS pointer record (or PTR record) returns the domain name associated with the IP address. It contains the list of IP addresses and their corresponding domain names.
Related guide: What is a DNS record and how do they work in emails?
What are the uses of reverse DNS lookup?
Reverse DNS lookup is helpful in many cases, ranging from businesses looking to get prospects to email servers trying to identify spammers. Let's go over them in more depth.
✅ For B2B businesses
Reverse DNS lookup is quite beneficial for B2B companies. They can use the query to find valuable data about the people who visit their website. The most crucial factor is that these people are solution and product aware and will most likely buy from you.
✅ For email servers
Email servers use reverse DNS lookup to find whether the email message came from a legitimate server. If the email server is unable to find the PTR record or find the sender's server to be suspicious, the email server will reject the messages. It will hurt the email deliverability. It is also important to set up DKIM and SPF records to improve mail delivery.
How to do a reverse DNS lookup?
You can perform rDNS lookup by the following ways:
Using Windows command line
Using Linux terminal
Using reverse DNS lookup tools
Let's go over them in detail.
1. Using Windows command line
You have to run a simple line in the Windows command prompt to perform the rDNS request. Follow these steps to do it right:
Open the command prompt.
Type nslookup followed by the IP address and press 'Enter.' For example, it can be nslookup 8.8.8.8.
Now, the command prompt will return the DNS name and the IP you entered.
The command prompt will return an error, if it is unable to find the records.
Related guide: What is nslookup and its benefits for email marketers
2. Using Linux terminal
You can use the dig command to perform the reverse DNS lookup in Linux.
Here's the command: dig -x [ip_address]
The terminal will return the domain name associated with the entered IP address.
3. Reverse DNS lookup tools
Follow these steps to do reverse DNS lookup with online tools:
Go to any of the tools listed below.
Enter the IP address in the search box and search.
The tool will show you the DNS name of that IP. It’s that simple!
There are many reverse DNS lookup checkers available online. However, we have put together a list of the best tools we could find to help you.
1. Mxtoolbox
Mxtoolbox offers a range of tools to help you with your email marketing, and one of the tools includes a reverse DNS checker.
Follow these steps to a reverse DNS lookup:
Go to Mxtoolbox.
Type the IP address in the search bar.
Click Reverse Lookup.
You’ll see the domain name and additional information like Time To Live (TTL) period, blacklist, DNS propagation, subnet tool.
2. Whatismyip
Whatismyip is a popular tool to know your public IP address. It’s a fairly simple tool and doesn’t provide any additional information apart from the DNS name of the IP you entered.
Follow these steps to a reverse DNS lookup:
Go to Whatismyip.
Type the IP address in the search bar.
Click Lookup.
You’ll see the hostname along with the IP address you entered.
3. DNS queries
DNSqueries is also similar to Whatismyip because it also just provides the hostname and nothing else. So if you’re just looking for the associated DNS name, you can try any of these two tools.
Follow these steps to a reverse DNS lookup:
Go to DNS queries.
Type the IP address in the search bar.
Click Run Tool.
You’ll see the hostname along with the IP address you entered.
4. Hacker target
Hacker target’s reverse DNS lookup is just like other tools but with a twist. They don’t like robots, so you can see an “I’m not a robot” verification code you’ve to pass to know the DNS name. So if you decide to use this tool, do it manually and don’t automate it, as robots can’t pass that “I’m not a robot” verification code.
Follow these steps to a reverse DNS lookup:
Go to Hacker Target.
Type the IP address in the search bar.
Complete the I’m not a robot CAPTCHA.
Click Check Reverse DNS.
You’ll see the hostname along with the IP address you entered.
