flushing dns in lion

when attempting to locate dns entries in terminal, i get the response, "Unable to get details from the cache node." Now when I flush the dns, which is my ultimate goal, there is no response. I would like to confirm that the flush has worked and also see what remains in the "buckets" and "entries" within this region. can anyone help me? i'm not a computer whiz... just trying wipe down the computer and make sure it runs smoothly/correctly. i'm using lion on a mbp. thanks.