What is PTR Record
A PTR Record can be thought of as an opposite of A Record. A Record resolves a fully qualified domain name to an IP address while PTR Record does just the opposite. It is used to make sure whether or not the server name is linked to the IP address like it is supposed to be.
Why PTR Record?
Using email servers requires you to configure PTR records. This will help you in anti-spamming, getting rid of the issue with the delivery of emails caused by PTR record errors, logging, and the list goes on.
Without further ado, let’s get into checking PTR Record and setting up a reverse lookup. You can do this by using computer consoles or online tools. However, we’ll be demonstrating both methods.
-computer consoles
We’ll check the PTR record value to make sure that the IP address is linked to the hostname.
1. For Windows users:
Windows users need to run the following command in the command prompt after replacing IP_ADDRESS with the IP address of your domain:
nslookup IP_ADDRESS
For the sake of this article, let’s say, for instance, you wish to do a PRT lookup for 15.207.XX.XX. Then you’ll be presented with the following:
Here, ec2-15-207-xx-xx.ap-south-1.compute.amazonaws.com is the PTR record.
2. For Linux or MacOS users:
Open the terminal and run the following command after replacing IP_ADDRESS with the IP address of your domain:
dig -x IP_ADDRESS
Linux users will see an output as follows:
In both cases, the PTR record value can be seen under the ANSWER SECTION.
-online tools
You can also use one of the many online tools available to do the reverse lookup. For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be using the MxToolBox. Once you log onto the website, you’ll see something like the following
Just enter your IP address in the box and click on the button next to it and it will show you the hostname linked to your IP address.
It is very important that your IP address links correctly to a hostname. And we hope that we helped you with making sure it does.
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