Have you been asking yourself ‘How do I reverse DNS a domain?’ and ‘What is reverse DNS used for?’

Well, this easy to follow, step-by-step guide will answer all of your questions on how to setup reverse DNS in one place.

What is DNS?

The first thing we need to do is distinguish what exactly DNS is.

DNS is short for Domain Name System and it’s practically the naming system for devices on the Internet. Basically, DNS is like an Internet address book and its purpose is to identify services and computers. 

DNS servers do queries that are requests for translating names into IP addresses. They control what the user will get when they search for a domain name on the internet. 

What is reverse DNS used for? 

Reverse DNS’s main function is to determine the origins of the particular website visitors and the source of an email. The presence of reverse DNS is optional and users can visit the website without it.

Recommended reading: What is DNS Hosting?

The reverse DNS is mostly used by the users of outgoing mail servers. If you use reverse DNS you will get:

  • Filtered spam emails and rejecting emails that come from IP addresses without rDNS
  • Possibility to track website visitors
  • Readable analytics instead of a list of IP addresses
  • Better security

How to Setup Reverse DNS?

For better understanding, in this guide, we will cover a few different services you can use to reverse DNS lookup:

Firstly, let’s see the steps on how to reverse DNS lookup with DNS Made Easy:

  • Get the IP’s reverse DNS zone from your IP provider
  • Request delegation of your reverse DNS to DNS Made Easy
  • Create your reverse DNS domain in DNS Made Easy
  • Go to the Control Panel and select DNS Menu
  • Go to Managed DNS and click on Add Domains, in that section enter the zone you received
  • Make sure the list of name servers match
  • Create a PTR Record by going to the Managed DNS and opening Domain
  • Add the PTR Record by clicking the plus sign and configure the Record by entering  name, system and TTL.

To set up and verify reverse DNS with SendGrid you should:

  • Select Settings and click on Sender Authentication in the SendGrid UI
  • Go to the reverse DNS section and go to Get Started
  • Select the IP to set up reverse DNS
  • Add a subdomain and enter a domain you want to associate with the IP without writing www or http://www
  • Add all of the A Records to your DNS host

Another thing you should consider are the steps on how to setup reverse DNS Cpanel:

Other tools you can use for rDNS lookup are:

  • Start by entering your server’s IP address in the IPv4 Address text box.

  • Write the reverse DNS zone’s name in the Domain text box.

  • Create a reverse DNS zone name for an IPv4 address using these steps:

  • Drop the last octet from the IP address

  • Reverse the order of the remaining octets

  • Append .in-addr.arpa to the end of the octets

  • Drop the last octet from the IP address

  • Reverse the order of the remaining octets

  • Append .in-addr.arpa to the end of the octets

  • MXToolbox

  • Whatismyip

  • IPLocation

  • Viewdns

  • HackerTarget

  • Spyse

  • Domaintools

That’s It!

Having read our guide, we are confident you now know how to setup reverse DNS lookup and which tools to use for this purpose. 

1. How do I do a reverse DNS lookup?

Check out our guide on how to setup reverse DNS where you can find a step-by-step preview and some useful tools to help you in the process. 

More DNS Coverage: How to Set up Dynamic DNS and How Does it Work?

2. What does reverse DNS does not match SMTP banner mean?

If you get the DNS does not match the SMTP banner, don’t worry, this is just a warning and it means that the reverse IP address name is not in the EHLO banner or the HELO server.