Overview
There are many free tools you can use to troubleshoot your website or any connection issues you may be seeing.
This article lists a variety of services you can use to troubleshoot your site before contacting support. If you still need to contact support, make sure to include the results of any tests you have run.
General
- archive.org – View how a website appeared on a specific date in the past
- online-domain-tools.com – A collection of online tools to help test and troubleshoot your site
- mxtoolbox.com – A collection of tools (many email related) to troubleshoot your services
Domain registration
- whois.online-domain-tools.com – WHOIS lookup
- hexillion.com – WHOIS lookup
- whois.domaintools.com – WHOIS lookup
- Nameserver lookup – Registrar and nameserver lookup
- whoisrequest.com - Shows historical nameserver changes
DNS tools
General DNS record lookups
- Centralops.net – Various DNS tests
- Network-tools.com – Various DNS tests
- Multiple record lookup – Easily specify from a range of records you wish to lookup
- Nameserver lookup – Used to check details of nameserver records
CNAME
- itools.subhashbose.com – CNAME record lookup
- mxtoolbox.com – CNAME record lookup
SRV
- itools.subhashbose.com – SRV record lookup
- mxtoolbox.com – SRV record lookup
TXT
- itools.subhashbose.com – TXT record lookup
- mxtoolbox.com – TXT record lookup
Email tools
- centralops.net – Test/troubleshoot a single email address
- verify-email.org – Verify if an email exists
- toolbox.googleapps.com – Message header analyzer
MX
- mxtoolbox.com – MX record lookup
- toolbox.googleapps.com – Google's MX record test
SPAM
- regex101.com – Regular Expression tester you can use when creating custom message filters in your panel
- online-domain-tools.com – Blacklist check
- mxtoolbox.com – Blacklist check
IP address lookup
- ipinfo.io – IP address, hostname, ASN, and more
- whatismyip.com – Displays the IP address your computer is using
- whatismyipaddress.com – Lookup global location of an IP address
- IPlocationfinder.com – Used to find global location of an IP address
Network tools
Ping
The following links all offer IPv4 ping tests:
Traceroute
The following sites all offer IPv4 traceroute tests:
IPv6
- test-ipv6.com – Displays your computer's IPv6 connectivity
Ping IPv6
The following links all offer IPv6 ping tests:
Traceroute IPv6
The following links all offer IPv6 traceroute tests:
Proxy sites
A proxy site can be used to view your website from a different location. For example, you can use a proxy site in France to check how and if your site is resolving in that location. Below are a few common proxy sites:
SSL tools
- sslshopper.com – Analyzes your SSL certificate
- ssllabs.com – Analyzes your SSL certificate
- whynopadlock.com – Lists files called insecurely on your site responsible for an insecure SSL padlock
Website loading tools
Site load tests
The following sites test how long your page takes to load. They also gives details about what may be responsible for the load time:
- Pingdom.com
- gtmetrix.com
- Webpagetest.org
- Google's pagespeed insights
- Bytecheck.com – Checks the Time to First Byte
DNS propagation tests
- DreamHost DNS Propagation Checker — Checks if your DreamHost-hosted domains' DNS records have propagated in different locations
- whatsmydns.net — Checks DNS records around the world
- Viewing your DreamHost DNS records — DreamHost's DNS propagation checker in the panel
- wheresitup.com — Checks if the site is resolving in different locations
- viewdns.info — Checks if DNS has resolved in different locations around the world
Location based tests
- Speedtest.net – Tests your local network upload/download speed. Used to test if your specific location is where the network issue may be occurring.
Miscellaneous tests
Text editors
Text editors are used for managing your website, allowing you to edit your website's configuration files and pages. Below are a few common text editors:
Command-line tools
There are also several command-line tools that you can use to retrieve information about a domain or network condition(s). View the SSH article for details on how to log into your server.
The following is a list of basic examples. Make sure to read the links in each section for further details.
host
- host – Converts names to IP addresses and vice versa.
Run host on example.com to find its IP and MX records:
[server]$ host example.com example.com has address 173.236.241.100 example.com mail is handled by 0 mx1.mailchannels.net. example.com mail is handled by 0 mx2.mailchannels.net.
Run host on the IP to find its domain name:
[server]$ host 173.236.241.100 100.241.236.173.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer example.com.
nslookup
WHOIS
Find details about a domain registration:
[server]$ whois example.com
dig
Look up the IPv4 of a domain:
[server]$ dig +short example.com
Look up the IPv6 of a domain:
[server]$ dig +short AAAA example.com
dig TXT record:
[server]$ dig TXT example.com
dig CNAME record. Make sure to enter the correct CNAME record before the domain:
[server]$ dig CNAME abcdefg.example.com
dig SRV record. Make sure to enter the correct SRV record before the domain:
[server]$ dig SRV _sip.example.com
ping
- ping & ping6
- Collecting Ping Results – ping a host to see if there is any packet loss
traceroute
- traceroute & traceroute6
- Traceroute – Tracks the route packets take from one location to another. Run traceroute to view all hops between your location and your website.
mtr
mtr combines the functionality of the traceroute and ping programs in a single network diagnostic tool:
[server]$ mtr dreamhost.com
openssl
Command line tool for using various functions of OpenSSL's crypto library:
[server]$ openssl s_client -connect example.com:443
