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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?

8 Answers 8

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http://whoisrequest.org/history/

This one is really cool . No registration needed .

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  • WhoisRequest.org is really cool, thank you for that link. Commented May 13, 2013 at 10:32
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    Only works for com, net, org, info, biz and us domains. For others try using dnshistory.org Commented Jun 2, 2014 at 22:11
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http://dnshistory.org/

Seems to have a patchy history, all for free.

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    I am unable to find history of my domain
    – Nick
    Commented May 23, 2013 at 9:20
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    Site says they closed down on July 10, 2016. Commented Jul 20, 2016 at 22:47
  • This site will shut down on the 10th July 2016 due to funding issues.
    – Lupus
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 11:46
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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.

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  • works for .SE and .NU as well
    – Nick
    Commented Feb 27, 2017 at 8:55
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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.

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    Good news @shane-madden! You are wrong! I found a WHOIS History Function on domaintools.com that saved the day. It is one of their Pro tools unfortunately so you have to pay for it but they do offer a free 3 day trial which helped me out on this occasion. Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 3:37
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    @Luke, it's worth noting that their database is extremely incomplete, as it was built on the fly based on lookups passing through their systems. As a result, it's somewhat useable for US domains but very nearly useless for 90% of the world. Commented Oct 27, 2011 at 4:48
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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.

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  • DNS Trails is the best of all recommended services.
    – Artem K.
    Commented Oct 11, 2018 at 10:18
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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.

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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.

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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.

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