DNS Check was created in 2015 when Matt Rideout wanted a better way to monitor DNS records, and communicate with customers about DNS record updates.
Matt's work as a system administrator at an email software vendor and a Linux consultancy taught him just how critical a reliable DNS infrastructure is, and how limited many server monitoring systems are when it comes to DNS record monitoring.
DNS record monitoring is the Achilles heel of many monitoring systems. They allow you to monitor A records, which resolve domain names to IP addresses but do not support checking other DNS record types, like MX, TXT, and reverse DNS records, which are critical to many businesses.
Matt's work also gave him experience with asking customers to post DNS record updates, then working with them to ensure that those records were posted correctly.
There are command-line tools like dig and web services like Google App's DNS lookup tool, which are useful for checking DNS records individually. These tools are lacking when it comes to checking groups of DNS records and presenting the results in a user-friendly format that can be understood by someone who's not a DNS expert.
The first iteration of DNS Check was a simple web interface for testing whether a list of DNS records passed or failed. Passing records were shown in green, failing records in red, and a summary at the top of the report indicated how many records needed to be updated.
Since the initial release, new features have been added, which improve DNS Check's utility for sharing DNS update requests and make it a useful tool for DNS record monitoring and troubleshooting.
New features are added regularly. If you have an idea for a way to make this site more useful, please let us know.