What information does a LOC record contain?

LOC records contain latitude (N/S), longitude (E/W), altitude (meters above sea level), size (diameter of location sphere), and horizontal/vertical precision values.

Why are LOC records rarely used?

LOC records are rare due to privacy concerns about revealing physical locations, limited application support, better alternatives for geographic routing (anycast, GeoDNS), and dynamic cloud infrastructure making fixed locations less relevant.

What are potential use cases for LOC records?

Potential uses include documenting data center locations, network equipment locations, mapping applications showing server positions, and geographic routing (though GeoDNS is typically preferred).

LOC Record Location

Q: What is a LOC record?

A LOC record (RFC 1876) stores geographic location information in DNS including latitude, longitude, altitude, and precision. It allows associating physical locations with domain names.

The LOC record (Location) stores geographic location information in DNS. It can specify the latitude, longitude, altitude, and precision of a location associated with a domain name. While not widely used, it's defined in RFC 1876.

Look Up LOC Records

Check LOC records for any domain using our free DNS lookup tool.

Look Up LOC Records →

What Is a LOC Record?

LOC records express the physical location of a domain in terms of:

Latitude — North/South position
Longitude — East/West position
Altitude — Height above sea level
Size — Diameter of the location sphere
Horizontal precision — Accuracy of lat/long
Vertical precision — Accuracy of altitude

LOC Record Format

Example LOC Record

example.com.    3600    IN    LOC    37 46 30.000 N 122 25 10.000 W 10m 100m 10m 10m

Location: 37°46'30"N, 122°25'10"W (San Francisco area), 10m altitude.

LOC Record Fields

Field	Description	Example
Latitude	Degrees minutes seconds N/S	37 46 30.000 N
Longitude	Degrees minutes seconds E/W	122 25 10.000 W
Altitude	Height above sea level	10m
Size	Diameter of location sphere	100m
Horizontal Precision	Lat/long accuracy	10m
Vertical Precision	Altitude accuracy	10m

Use Cases

While LOC records are rarely used in practice, potential applications include:

Data center locations — Document server physical locations
Geographic routing — (Theoretical) route to nearest server
Network documentation — Record equipment locations
Mapping applications — Display server locations on maps

Example Locations

; Company headquarters
hq.example.com.    LOC    40 44 55 N 73 59 10 W 50m

; Data center
dc1.example.com.   LOC    37 46 30 N 122 25 10 W 10m

; European office
eu.example.com.    LOC    51 30 26 N 0 7 39 W 15m

Why LOC Records Are Rare

Privacy concerns — Revealing physical locations may be undesirable
Limited application support — Few applications query LOC records
Better alternatives — Geographic routing uses other methods (anycast, GeoDNS)
Dynamic infrastructure — Cloud/CDN makes fixed locations less relevant

LOC Record Best Practices

Consider privacy — Think carefully before publishing precise locations.
Use for documentation — More useful for internal documentation than routing.
Keep updated — Remove records if equipment moves.
Be accurate — If using LOC, ensure coordinates are correct.

Querying LOC Records

# Using dig
dig example.com LOC

# Using host
host -t LOC example.com

Check Your LOC Records

Use our DNS Record Finder to look up LOC records for any domain.