Ask the Resolver

Who actually answered?

The situation

Your laptop doesn't walk the DNS tree itself. It hands the question to a **recursive resolver** and trusts the answer. Knowing who that resolver is — and seeing it in dig's output — is step one of every DNS investigation.

Your machine runs a tiny **stub resolver**. It forwards queries to a **recursive resolver** (configured in `/etc/resolv.conf`), which does the real work and caches the result. dig's `;; SERVER:` line tells you exactly who answered.

🔑The answer always depends on who you ask. Different resolvers can legitimately return different answers.

Stub → recursive

1
your machine
stub resolver
2
recursive resolver
/etc/resolv.conf
3
the answer
cached for the TTL

📖

Want the full operator version?

Recursive vs Authoritative DNS

Understand exactly who does what between your laptop and the authoritative server.

6 min · intermediate · Read the resolver-path deep dive →

Why it matters in production: When two people get different DNS answers, it's usually because they're using different resolvers. Always confirm who answered.

Objective

Query example.com, identify which resolver answered, and confirm it in /etc/resolv.conf.

learner@nameforge

The Nameforge lab is live. Type `help` to see what this lab understands.

Use the chips below to get started — then go off-script.

learner@nameforge:~$

Evidence

○Ran a query
○Identified who answered (the ;; SERVER line)
○Confirmed the configured resolver

Next: Run `dig example.com`.

Hints

Stuck? Reveal hints one at a time — the validation panel already tells you what evidence is missing.