Your site’s down. Server’s fine. Hosting account is active. Nothing in the error logs. Nine times out of ten, a misconfigured DNS A record is the culprit.
This guide covers checking your A record, verifying it matches your hosting IP, and fixing domain pointing when things break.
What Is a DNS A Record
A DNS A record is the most basic DNS record type. It maps your domain name to an IPv4 address. When someone types yourmegadomain.com into a browser, the resolver checks the A record, finds the domain IP address, and connects to that server. If the A record IP address doesn’t match the server where your site lives, visitors get an error page.
Think of it like a phone book. Domain is the name, A record is the number. Wrong number, wrong destination.
How to Find Your Hosting IP Address
Before you can verify anything, you need to know the correct A record value. That means finding your hosting IP address.
Log into your hosting control panel and look for “Server Information,” “Account Details,” or “Plan Details.” The hosting IP address is usually on a dashboard or sidebar. If you can’t find it, open a support ticket. Don’t guess. A wrong A record value means downtime.
How to Check Your Current A Record Value
You’ve got the hosting IP. Now check what your domain’s A record currently resolves to. Two reliable methods: your registrar’s control panel, or the command line.
Check A Record via Domain Control Panel
Log into the panel where you manage your domain dns records. Go to DNS settings. You’re looking for a table listing DNS records by type. Find the row with type “A” where the name or host column shows “@” or your bare domain.
That value is your current A record. If you see multiple A records, that’s either round-robin DNS or a mistake. For a single hosting provider, you should have one A record for “@” and possibly one for “www.”
Note: You can only check domain DNS through the registrar where the domain is registered, or wherever your nameservers point. If you registered at one company but pointed nameservers to another, check the second company’s panel.
Check A Record Using Ping Command
Faster method. Open a terminal and use the ping command to resolve the domain IP. Works on Windows, Linux, and macOS:
ping yourmegadomain.com
Replace yourmegadomain.com with your actual domain. The output shows something like:
Pinging yourmegadomain.com [192.168.1.1] with 32 bytes of data...The IP in brackets is your current A record. If the ping domain command returns a “could not find host” error, your domain is not resolving at all, likely bad nameservers.
You can also use online tools like nslookup or dig for a more detailed dns record check, but ping gets the job done for a quick domain ip check.
How to Fix Domain Pointing Issues
You now have two IP addresses: your host’s and your domain’s current A record. If they match, domain pointing is correct. Problem’s elsewhere.
If they don’t match, you need to update DNS records so the A record points to the right server. Here’s how.
Update Your A Record in DNS Zone Editor
Go back to the DNS zone editor where your nameservers are pointed. Find the A record for your domain (host “@” or your bare domain). Edit the value field and replace the old IP with the correct hosting IP address. Save.
Now wait. DNS propagation time runs from a few minutes to 24 hours, though most changes take 1-4 hours in practice. Track progress at whatsmydns.net, which checks DNS from multiple locations worldwide.
Pro tip: Lower the TTL (Time to Live) on your A record to 300 seconds before you make the change. This tells DNS resolvers to refresh more often, which speeds up propagation. Bump it back up once everything is stable.
Verify Nameserver Configuration
Updated the A record and still down? Time for a nameserver check. Your nameservers determine which DNS zone is authoritative. If you edited the A record in one place but nameservers point to a different DNS provider, your changes aren’t doing anything.
Run a WHOIS lookup on your domain to check nameservers. Use the command line:
whois yourmegadomain.com | grep -i nameserverOr use any online WHOIS lookup tool. The nameservers listed should belong to the DNS provider where you edited the A record. If they don’t, you’ve been editing the wrong zone. Fix the A record in the correct panel, or change your nameservers at the registrar.
This is the most common domain nameserver lookup mistake. People edit DNS in the registrar’s panel while nameservers point to Cloudflare, or vice versa. Check first. Edit second.
Conclusion
A DNS A record maps a domain to an IP. When your site goes dark, check whether your A record matches your hosting server. If it doesn’t, fix it in the DNS zone editor your nameservers point to. If it matches and the site’s still down, verify nameservers.
DNS troubleshooting isn’t glamorous work. But 90% of “my site is down” tickets come back to a wrong A record or misconfigured nameservers. Now you know how to check both.
