⚙️ DNS SOA Record Lookup

Query DNS SOA (Start of Authority) records to view the primary nameserver and domain authority information, including refresh, retry, and expiry times.

Enter Domain Name:

💡 Tip: Enter a domain and click "Lookup SOA Record" to retrieve domain authority configuration.

Enter a domain name and click "Lookup SOA Record" to view results.

What the seven fields mean

Every zone has exactly one SOA record, and it describes the zone itself rather than any host in it. The lookup runs on SimpleMoney's server, so the values below are the ones an authoritative nameserver is publishing to the internet right now.

Field	What it is
Primary NS	The server the zone is edited on; the others copy from it
Responsible Email	A contact address, with the first dot standing in for the @
Serial	Version number of the zone, raised on every edit
Refresh	How often a secondary checks the serial
Retry	How soon it tries again after a failed check
Expire	How long it keeps serving the zone while the primary stays unreachable
Minimum TTL	How long a “no such name” answer may be cached

So hostmaster.example.com means hostmaster@example.com, and an Expire of 1209600 seconds is a fortnight — every value on the page is in seconds.

What the serial is good for

Secondary servers pull a fresh copy only when the serial goes up. Many providers write it as a date, so 2026030401 is the first change made on 4 March 2026, which tells you at a glance when the zone was last touched. If you edit a record and the serial does not move, the change is not reaching the other nameservers.

Refresh, Retry and Expire only govern copying between a provider's own servers. They say nothing about how quickly your change reaches the public — that is the TTL on the individual record.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the SOA email have no @ sign?

DNS cannot store one in that field, so the first dot is read as the @. admin.example.com is admin@example.com. A dot inside the mailbox name is escaped as \..

What is Minimum TTL for?

Negative caching. It is how long resolvers may remember that a name does not exist, which is why a newly added subdomain can stay missing for a while after you create it.

Does the SOA control how fast my DNS changes take effect?

No. Public caching follows each record's own TTL. The SOA timers are an internal arrangement between the primary and secondary nameservers.