DNS A & AAAA Record Lookup

What is an A Record & What is it Used For?

An A record is found in a DNS zone configuration and is used to map a domain name to an IP address.

A Record Format

The A record always points to an IPv4 address. A sample A record is illustrated below.

The record above illustrates that the domain foo.com points to the IP address 192.0.2.1. Additionally, every A record has a TTL. The above example indicates that the IP address is cached for 14440 seconds (240 minutes by default). So, it can take up to 240 minutes for your IP address to get updated.

What is an AAAA Record & What is it Used For?

An AAAA record serves the same purpose as an A record. It maps a given domain name to an IP address. However, the IP address in question is an IPv6 address.

AAAA Record Format

The AAAA Record resolves an IP address for a given domain name. An AAAA Record is used if your server has an IPv6 IP address rather than an IPv4. A sample AAAA record is illustrated below.

The snippet above denotes a sample AAAA record. As observed, it contains the domain name that maps to an IP address with a default caching TTL period of 14440. But, the main difference is that an AAAA record maps the domain to an IPv6 address.

A Record vs AAAA Record - Understand The Difference

Essentially, both these two records perform the same operation. Both maps resolve a domain name to an IP address. But the main difference between these two records is:

• A Record: The A record always maps the domain name to an IPv4 address.
• AAAA Record: The AAAA record is used when the server uses an IPv6 address, and the client is configured to use IPv6. So, if you need to map a domain to an IPv6 IP Address, use an AAAA record.

How to Perform A & AAAA Record Lookup Using this Tool

1. Provide the domain name for which you wish to find the A or AAAA records.
2. Submit the request.
3. If the tool finds the A or AAAA records for the given domain, it will display the record. Else, it will display a message indicating that it failed to find it.