Really odd one: parts of global DNS just dropped off the map

[Andy Holyer]

phn at icke-reklam.ipsec.nu wrote in message news:<co2kmn$e5j$1 at sf1.isc.org>...
> Andy Holyer <andy at holyer.org> wrote:
> > I've never seen this one ever before, and I don't even really know
> > where to ask.
>...
>  
> > It seemed a bunch of (mainly US-based) sites were failing DNS. Other
> > (UK-based) worked fine. Trying another server in the same facility
> > gave the same result. Finally I switced forwarders to another ISP and
> > called it a day.
>  
> > This morning I switched things back and all appears fine. however
> > digging around, I don't get ping response from about half the hosts in
> > named.root. b.root-servers.net, for example. Now, I can understand
> > that root servers would just turn off ICMP echo since they're busy
> > enough as it is, but it still worries me a bit.
>  
> > I've never seen this sort of behaviour before, and I'm not at all sure
> > where to start in finding out what's going on, and whether there's
> > some subtle mis-configuration on my part. From my part, the serial
> > number in my root db files tells me that I haven't touched the named
> > config since early June, so I would be most surprised if it was
> > functioning fine, barely idling, and would then just go haywire like
> > that.
>  
> > *Any* advice as to where I could go from here to ensure integrity of
> > DNS is most gratefully recieved.
> 
> Remove your forwarding statements. The very seldom are motivated and
> will put your fate in someone elses hands.
> 

No forwarders. Our DNS is authoritative for our domain. It's as is
some of the root servers stopped talking to us.

Sorry. my earlier post may have given the wrong impression. I did not
normally use forwarders. The other night, since Fastnet was
functioning fine and we weren't, I turned on forwarding.