On many occasions we are interested in having control over everything related to the Internet connection. We have many tools that we can use for this. We can carry out tests, check possible faults that need to be solved, analyze network characteristics, etc. In this article we are going to talk about Dig and how we can use this tool in our day to day.
Dig, the tool to query servers
Dig is a free tool that we can use to query servers. This is a Unix command that allows users to query the various DNS records . Keep in mind that it is also possible to use it in Windows. Its name comes from the acronym Domain Information Groper.
How to use Dig in Windows
To use it in Windows 10 , which is today the most used operating system on desktop computers, we are going to have to add a. It does not come by default in the system.
We have to download the file from the ISC website. Once there you have to go to the BIND 9 section. We have to download the current version, which would be the one indicated by Current-Stable (9.16.7 at the time of writing this article). A new page will be displayed to choose the version of the download.
Once we download the file we have to extract all the content in a folder. We have to execute (with administrator permissions) the file BINDInstall.exe . Keep in mind that Windows Defender may warn us that it can be dangerous, so we have to accept the risks and install anyway. In the installation process we will have to choose the path, a name and password.
When the installation process is finished we will have to add BIND to the Windows Path . An also simple process. In this case, you have to go to Start, write Path and open Edit the system environment variables. Within Advanced options we will see Environment variables. We click there and look for Path, we click Edit and in a free line we add the BIND path. Although it depends on where it is installed, the path is usually C: Program FilesISC BIND 9bin.
Done all this we have to go to the command line. To do this we go to Start and write CMD and open it as administrator. Now we can execute the command dig and domain. For example dig redeszone.net.
Dig command uses
The Dig command can offer very varied and detailed information in different sections. For example we can obtain the IP address of the domain, for which we simply have to execute the command dig domain + short .
To see more detailed and complete answers we have to execute the command dig domain + noall + answer. We can see all the DNS records of a domain with the command dig domain ANY.
On the other hand, we can also consult by type of record through the commands of dig mx (consult and obtain the mail exchange), txt, cname, ns or A. We can also perform reverse searches to obtain the domain of an IP address .
In short, Dig is a free and interesting tool to use on both Linux and Windows. We have seen that in the case of the Microsoft operating system we are going to have to install packages to be able to use it on the command line. The uses that we can give it are very varied.
Dig web interface
Regardless of the options we have shown for use on Windows and Linux, we can also use Dig’s web interface. For this we have to enter the corresponding page . There we will see the different options that we have at our disposal.
It has information and data that we can obtain simply by using the online tool that is totally intuitive and very easy to use. It is also completely free, as if we were using the version for Linux or Windows in the operating system.