DNS Lookup

DNS Lookup is a great tool to check DNS records for a domain name like A, AAAA, HINFO, SPF, MX, TXT, PTR and other advanced DNS records. Even though you can do these things from your own computers with Dig and Nslookup, it can often be useful to be able to perform DNS lookups from different locations to verify consistent DNS behavior and settings.

DNS Propagation

DNS propagation is the time frame it takes for DNS changes to be updated across the Internet. A change to a DNS record such as changing the IP address of your domain name can take up to 24 hours to propagate worldwide, although it typically takes a few hours. The DNS propagation tool queries the authoratitive DNS server and compare the result with a list of DNS servers all over tht world so that you can see the DNS propagation progress.

Port Check

Port check is useful to users who wish to verify port forwarding and check to see if a server is running or a firewall or ISP is blocking certain ports. It is the most useful tool when it comes to troubleshooting problems such as remote desktop, viewing DVR remotely and hosting websites on a dynamic IP. It is for remotely verifying if a port is open or closed. We receive lots of support tickets from our users saying that dynamic DNS service is not working for them since they cannot connect to a remote computer using the hostname signed up with us. 8 out 10 of those cases are due to port forwarding not being set up in their router.

If you are setting up dynamic DNS service to view your home security camera online remotely, or reach your web server hosted at home, or remote desktop into your computers in remote locations and the hostname does not conenct. The first thing you can do is open our Port Check page, put in your IP address and the port the application is running on to check if the port is open or not. Remote desktop port is 3389, DVR/Cam port is normally 80 or whichever port you have set up in your camera, and web server runs on port 80 by default. In case you get a 'Fail' result, you can refer to our port forwarding tutorial to set it up in your router.

Ping

A ping test determines whether your computer can communicate with another computer over the network. Then, if network communication is established, ping tests also determine the connection latency (technical term for delay) between the two computers. Basic network connectivity tests can be useful to do from different locations to help you narrow down a problem. For that reason it’s useful to have access to several different services that can perform ping.

Location By IP

Location By IP can help you to identify visitor's geographical location. This tool displays the geophysical location of the network address on a Google Map. A public IP address is one that is assigned, technically, to an ISP rather than to an end user. It typically locates the endpoint of the ISP’s distribution equipment. What that means is the closest that they often get is the location of your ISP’s router – which could be next door, or it could be many miles away, depending on exactly how the ISP has configured their network, and where their equipment resides. The geolocation of an IP address can get close – perhaps identifying the city in which an IP address might be located, but it won't be so accurate as to providing exact street addresses.