Host Example

me@myhost:~$ ping clue.denver.co.us
ping: unknown host clue.denver.co.us

me@myhost:~$ host -t ns .
. name server G.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server B.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server J.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server K.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server L.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server M.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server I.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server E.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server H.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.
. name server C.ROOT-SERVERS.NET.

me@myhost:~$

Ping shows us that this is a name server problem. If many names don't resolve, check /etc/resolve.conf and the network to your local name server.

Use host to query our local name server for the root servers. This will work unless our local name server isn't reachable or doesn't know where the roots are. You can skip this if you remember one of the root server names.