{"slug": "mess-with-dns", "name": "Mess with DNS", "category": "networking", "category_name": "Networking and VPN", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 3, "warners": 0, "score": 2.661, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-12-23", "latest": "2026-10-24", "why": "Exceptionally well-made DNS console for learning DNS", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Exceptionally well-made DNS console for learning DNS", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "messwithdns.net", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://messwithdns.net", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Mess with DNS", "Mess With DNS"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 803578641, "item_id": 50223665, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223665", "by": "8organicbits", "date": "2026-10-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Exceptionally well-made DNS console for learning DNS", "excerpt": "I've used FreeDNS on occasion for test domain names, one-off experiments, and similar. I'm very appreciative this exists, but there are some pain points that similar services handle better. The domains are missing from the public suffix list. This impacts how cookies are handled by the domain names, with concerns the browser will allow software to set the cookie on the shared domain name instead of the subdomain. Thi", "context": "", "use_case": "learning DNS", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeDNS"}, {"id": 750655616, "item_id": 46915976, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46915976", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "checkout their Mess with DNS playgound!", "excerpt": "https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/12/06/dns-doesn-t-propagate/ And checkout their Mess with DNS playgound!", "context": "", "use_case": "Learning DNS interactively", "switched_from": "", "story": "DNS Explained \u2013 How Domain Names Get Resolved"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["learning dns", "learning dns interactively", "experimenting with dns records"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50222133", "title": "FreeDNS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46868803", "title": "DNS Explained \u2013 How Domain Names Get Resolved", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46363921", "title": "Ask HN: What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "quotes": [{"id": 803578641, "item_id": 50223665, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50223665", "by": "8organicbits", "date": "2026-10-24", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Exceptionally well-made DNS console for learning DNS", "excerpt": "I've used FreeDNS on occasion for test domain names, one-off experiments, and similar. I'm very appreciative this exists, but there are some pain points that similar services handle better. The domains are missing from the public suffix list. This impacts how cookies are handled by the domain names, with concerns the browser will allow software to set the cookie on the shared domain name instead of the subdomain. Thi", "context": "", "use_case": "learning DNS", "switched_from": "", "story": "FreeDNS"}, {"id": 750655616, "item_id": 46915976, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46915976", "by": "thomascountz", "date": "2026-02-06", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "checkout their Mess with DNS playgound!", "excerpt": "https://jvns.ca/blog/2021/12/06/dns-doesn-t-propagate/ And checkout their Mess with DNS playgound!", "context": "", "use_case": "Learning DNS interactively", "switched_from": "", "story": "DNS Explained \u2013 How Domain Names Get Resolved"}, {"id": 741874880, "item_id": 46367180, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46367180", "by": "skywhopper", "date": "2025-12-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "Yes! Julia is fantastic at explaining concepts, and creating ways to learn about them. She produces a great series of \u201czines\u201d summarizing a bunch of technical topics, her blog archives are really fascinating, and she\u2019s created really useful tools like Mess With DNS (https://messwithdns.net) which gives you your own DNS subdomain and the means to update records so you can try things out in an easy, harmless way.", "context": "", "use_case": "experimenting with DNS records", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are the best engineering blogs with real-world depth?"}]}