Nameserver trace & DNS delegation check
A nameserver trace follows a domain's chain of authority from the parent zone down to the domain's own authoritative nameservers. It's the fastest way to answer "why isn't my DNS change taking effect?", because most of those problems are really delegation problems: the registrar still points at the wrong nameservers, the parent and child NS records disagree, or glue records are missing.
Enter a domain above to compare the parent-side delegation (the NS records the TLD hands out) against the child-side NS (the records your own nameservers publish at the zone apex), with glue-record and SOA consistency checks. A clean trace shows the parent and child agreeing and every listed nameserver answering authoritatively.
What a trace catches
- Stale delegation, the registrar still delegates to your old DNS provider, so edits at the new one are never seen.
- Parent/child NS mismatch, resolvers get different answers depending on which server they ask.
- Missing glue, in-zone nameservers with no glue records cause intermittent, hard-to-reproduce failures.
- Lame delegation, a nameserver is listed but doesn't answer authoritatively for the zone.
Related checks
Pair the trace with a DNS lookup to inspect individual records, and a DNS propagation check to confirm resolvers worldwide have picked up your change. New to delegation? Read how DNS delegation works.
Quick FAQ
I switched DNS providers but nothing changed, why? Almost always because the delegation at your registrar still names the old nameservers. Update the NS records at the registrar, then re-run the trace to confirm the parent points to the new provider.
What is a glue record? When your nameservers live inside the domain they serve, the parent zone must publish their IP addresses directly (glue) so resolvers can reach them without a circular lookup.
Parent and child NS differ, is that bad? Yes. They should match once changes have settled. A lasting mismatch means a stale or incomplete delegation.