Install wireshark and take a peek then, it is probably one of the better network learning tools as it so nicely decodes it. (tcpdump can decode too, but it is still a CLI, useful for other cases than learning). As you are playing with DNS, and on a unix-alike host (well, you have /etc/resolv.conf) you will want to look at the 'dig' command, by doing eg: dig +trace www.sixxs.net you will see the queries that will be made for trying to resolve www.sixxs.net dig +trace www.sixxs.net AAAA will show where it gets the AAAA record from etc. For just getting those records: dig +short www.sixxs.net AAAA google(dig DNS) for more details of course ;)