# How to do a reverse DNS lookup? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 18, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894 "2000-05-18T18:43:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ccd318/32.png) [@John\_Kentzel-Griffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Kentzel-Griffin)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/1 "2000-05-18T18:43:27Z")
That is pretty much the question. I have the nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn form of the address. How do I find the [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com)? Also if I know the [www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com), how do I get the nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn form. ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/2 "2000-05-18T18:54:20Z")
Well, you can go to [http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html](http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html) and plug in the IP address and find out who owns that block of IPs. Trouble is, if the website at the address is hosted by someone else (like my employer), you’ll only get the hoster’s info. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/3 "2000-05-18T19:01:31Z")
You can find a lot of this sort of this from [http://www.samspade.org](http://www.samspade.org). You can even download their software. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/4 "2000-05-18T19:51:31Z")
If you are on an NT or Unix system, and can run NSLOOKUP, it’s easy. There are undoubtedly web gateways to NSLOOKUP, too. In NSLOOKUP, feeding the program the [http://www.name.com](http://www.name.com) will return vvv.www.xxx.yyy. But if you have the numbers, you would use this neat trick: feed NSLOOKUP: yyy.xxx.www.vvv.IN-ADDR.arpa And if there is an A record associated with the number, it will return it. - Rick ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/5 "2000-05-18T20:44:37Z")
The link to do what you want to do is right here, dude. [http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois](http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois) Type in [http://www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) and it’ll show you the IP. Type in the IP, and it’ll show you the domain. ---
**Author:** ![JonF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JonF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonF)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/6 "2000-05-18T21:12:22Z")
Lots o’ tools for this at [DNS Lookup](http://tucows.cows.net/dnsnt.html). ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/7 "2000-05-18T21:23:33Z")
If you’re running Windows and all you want to do is get the IP address from the domain name and vice versa, you can do that with the MS-DOS prompt. Open it and type "ping " followed by the address or name. "tracert " also works, and traces the route used to that address. There are lots of web pages that will also get you that information and more. One I like is [http://network-tools.com/](http://network-tools.com/) . There’s plenty of other good stuff there, too, especially the Boardwatch articles. There’s also shareware to do this. I use NeoTrace, which performs a tracert function with additional graphics. If the location of a node is known, it is plotted on a map. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/8 "2000-05-19T00:04:35Z")
Dr, as they say you just need s program that can do a WHOIS, like PingPro, probably plenty of stuff at [download.com](http://download.com) for MAc or PC, whatever computer you have, as you didn’t say which. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/9 "2000-05-19T08:24:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > > Type in [http://www.whatever.com](http://www.whatever.com) and it’ll show you the IP. Type in the IP, and it’ll show you the domain. > \*\* Test your links before you post. ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2000, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/10 "2000-05-19T15:57:11Z")
HorseloverFat – are you being sarcastic? That was an _example_ of a domain. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2013, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-do-a-reverse-dns-lookup/19894/12 "2013-04-15T13:20:05Z")
> [@brownsugar](#): > > Hi,Dr.matrix > You can use the who is search which is provided by the site [WhoisXY.com](http://www.whoisxy.com/) .To find out the details about the site . Since he asked 13 years ago, he probably knows how to do it (or doesn’t care) by now.