Check Your DNS Servers on Mac

Pages load slowly, a site will not resolve, or a VPN breaks internal names. First find out which DNS servers your Mac is actually using.

In System Settings

Open System Settings → Network, select your connection, click Details… and choose DNS. If the list is empty, your Mac uses the servers your router hands out.

In Terminal

The full picture, including per-domain servers from a VPN:

scutil --dns

Look at resolver #1: its nameserver[0], nameserver[1]… are the servers used for ordinary names, in order. Entries with a domain are only used for that domain.

Servers you set by hand for a connection:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices
networksetup -getdnsservers "Wi-Fi"

Replace Wi-Fi with the exact name of your connection from the list above (for example Ethernet). “There aren’t any DNS Servers set” means that service gets its DNS servers automatically; a service name that is not in the list gives an error instead.

Test a server

Resolve a name the way apps do:

dscacheutil -q host -a name apple.com

Ask one server directly, with a short timeout:

dig @1.1.1.1 apple.com A +time=2 +tries=1

Look at status: (NOERROR is a normal answer, NXDOMAIN means the name does not exist) and Query time. A timeout means that server did not answer. If one of your servers times out while others answer, remove or fix it.

Flush the cache

If a name resolves to an old address:

sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

Why VPNs and filters change the answer

VPNs and DNS-filtering apps can add resolvers for specific domains or answer on a local address. Then the server that answers is not the one in your network settings.

With DNSPeek

DNSPeek lists the servers in use, their interface and reachability, search domains and per-domain resolvers, then Run lookup resolves a name and asks each server directly (up to four), showing who answered, how fast and with what status. It never changes settings, and lookups run only when you press the button. See the DNSPeek docs.