Home / server / Questions / 325190
In Process
Luke McCallum
Asked: 2011-10-27 18:59:53 +0800 CST

Can you lookup a domains past nameserver & mx record history?

  • 772

If is possible to find out which nameservers a domain was previously pointing too? I need to try and find where a domain was previously hosted so that I can try and gain access to an old hosted email account.

Any ideas?

domain-name-system nameserver mx-record

8 Answers

  1. http://whoisrequest.org/history/

    This one is really cool . No registration needed .

    • 40

  2. http://dnshistory.org/

    Seems to have a patchy history, all for free.

    • 17

  3. Here is another one https://completedns.com/dns-history/

    It does support a lot of domain TLDs - list of supported TLDs.

    With the free account you can make up to 100 queries for nameserver history.

    • 5

  4. Not really, no - I'm not aware of any Wayback Machine for DNS records, but it'd be cool if I was wrong.

    Do you have any old emails with full headers to or from that domain? Transport headers may be your only hope.

    • 2

  5. If DNS History or WhoIS Domain History Checker don't work out for you, try DNS Trails. They seem to have a bigger history database and I was able to find records I couldn't with the others.

    None of the services require signup.

    • 2

  6. For .se domains, the DNSCheck tool checks if the previous DNS servers are still authoritative, which means you can see what they were in the "Advanced Results" tab.

    • 1

  7. I found a WHOIS History Function on domaintools.com that lets you view a pretty comprehensive history of the domains whois changes. It is a part of their Pro tools however which does come at a cost.

    It may not have info on the entire web but it helped in in this case.

    • 1

  8. The WhoISrequest Domain History Checker seems much more comprehensive than the DNS History site. I looked up information on a couple of domain names that I've had registered for over a decade using both tools. DNS History showed information for the first one I checked indicating that its information, which is out of date, was last updated on 2010-08-11. For the other it reported "Sorry this domain was not found". Also, it only has data from 2009 onwards, whereas the WhoISrequest site has information going back to 2002.

    You can also find historical information for the name servers and registrars used for a domain name through the who.is Search Domain DNS and Name Server Information page. When you put a domain name in the search field, and click on "Search DNS and Name Servers", you will see information on the name servers, SOA record, DNS records, including the mail exchanger (MX) servers for the domain. From that page, if you click on the History tab above that information, you will see past domain name registrars and name servers associated with the domain.

    • 0