A Reverse Domain Name System Lookup is simply the opposite of a DNS lookup. In case of a DNS lookup, you search with the hostname or the DNS to find the IP address and in the case of Reverse DNS lookup, you search with the IP address to get the hostname. This means that when you type in the IP address into the Reverse DNS Lookup tool, you can access the details of the domain name linked to that IP address.
While using Reverse DNS Lookup with some of the IP addresses, a domain name might not be returned. This is because records showing multiple domain names for an IP address might be existing. A common example for this scenario is SSD shared hosting in which a single IP address of the server is shared between many domains.
Why Is Reverse DNS Lookup Useful?
Reverse DNS Lookup can be useful in many cases. Some of these are:
Finding Spam Emails
It is not easy to differentiate between spam mail servers and legitimate servers from just IP addresses. Some generic reverse DNS names will be able to offer clues on whether a mail server is spam or not.
Finding The Visitors To Your Website
Visit logs of websites contain IP addresses that are not much useful in exactly knowing who is visiting the website. Reverse DNS lookup can be used to understand the hostname of the website visitor to obtain a better idea about the visitor. This can be especially beneficial for people operating B2B businesses.
These are some of how the reverse DNS lookup feature can be beneficial to users. A majority of the service providers of web hosting offer this feature to their clients; thereby enabling their clients to keep track of their website visitors.