Name Resolving Question.

[Kevin Darcy]

encrypted at my-deja.com wrote:

> I have a basic understanding on how a name gets translated to IP.  My
> question has to do with root-servers.  I know if I do the following in
> nslookup :
>
> > set q=ns
> > com
>
> I will get the list of root-servers for the .com tld.

It just so happens that the root servers are also the "com" servers.

> Basically does
> this come from my root.hints file or from one of the root-servers from
> my root.hints?  Where would it get the root-servers for say a .cx tld
> or .am tld?  Do these come from *.root-servers.net as well?

When the nameserver starts up, it gets the root nameserver information
and caches it. Whenever it iterates to resolve queries, then it'll use
this cached root-server data -- or any other nameserver data it has
cached from referrals -- to resolve the query. So, I guess to answer your
question, the "com" nameserver information, or for that matter,
*any* TLD information, would normally be obtained *indirectly* through
your hints-file data, unless you got it through a forwarder, or happen to
be master/slave/stub for the zone.


- Kevin