which end does the problem exist?

[Lawrence K. Chen, P.Eng.]

Got reports that users are unable to send mail to usda.gov sites using our 
campus SMTP server (where we have usda.gov sites on campus.)

The users have said they were able to send using other servers like Google 
and Microsoft.

When I look at my system, its unable to resolve the domain name.  Doing a 
trace, yields:

> dig +trace usda.gov

; <<>> DiG 9.9.4 <<>> +trace usda.gov
;; global options: +cmd
.                       503236  IN      NS      h.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      m.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      l.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      i.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      e.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      b.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      g.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      f.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      j.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      d.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      k.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      a.root-servers.net.
.                       503236  IN      NS      c.root-servers.net.
.                       503533  IN      RRSIG   NS 8 0 518400 20131226000000 
20131218230000 59085 . 
Qe61MgEA5eyWxHMeDx9LobJWaEkwKsA2Cw1J3VWr7RRhgVnsME92HvdK 
ST4FsZDkoiTGUVJVWNQGopxYKa89rFHnrY9E88aB9F4gHos02DeDNqDu 
pbq4hR7SYKmXkpeth02CGurZxNcb+dESvhuFrqYpS9UggGVbG8Mplam5 UHE=
;; Received 605 bytes from 129.130.8.70#53(129.130.8.70) in 3 ms

gov.                    172800  IN      NS      b.gov-servers.net.
gov.                    172800  IN      NS      a.gov-servers.net.
gov.                    86400   IN      DS      7698 8 2 
6BC949E638442EAD0BDAF0935763C8D003760384FF15EBBD5CE86BB5 559561F0
gov.                    86400   IN      DS      7698 8 1 
6F109B46A80CEA9613DC86D5A3E065520505AAFE
gov.                    86400   IN      RRSIG   DS 8 1 86400 20131226000000 
20131218230000 59085 . 
YaXTBSgRDQeklmyiWhkQyN7VUBwUsa7nJU9sr0UQss1rG8lwj2iVJv6i 
eMkkAv2UdYar3M7IsRFENff8uFVYKn37eUjktwV0vuSZhT+PFhO7DkwE 
obZ8Uo/LfZ3BFNrq1T3XIqkSvrntKtNSdz8RlS+0plpGA2pwZZqStWJZ Bug=
;; Received 387 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 65 ms

usda.gov.               86400   IN      NS      ns1.usda.gov.
usda.gov.               86400   IN      NS      ns2.usda.gov.
usda.gov.               3600    IN      DS      34815 7 1 
4A26910E6BBC4925E25AD88173CD1DE60C53304F
usda.gov.               3600    IN      DS      34815 7 2 
B037BCC10AE88C0F3735A2A3ECE0DF791A5682D3126BCA7F18F229CA 80CC9E22
usda.gov.               3600    IN      RRSIG   DS 8 2 3600 20131226160021 
20131219160021 46733 gov. 
VJTNVCT1VHFmVv/2VUPdvPAhfd6iwijIe6G2Xm17myvS1wpdfJsck/dv 
lHWJZnGlVgeC9Y1ATHZsyEv7sQd1Z3NgGeEynBX1wXPopCuxmZ/JRlZ2 
nAkklCx4+jF9b3KUIKZx0Rch2WA8ZOK1kIv16RR6sAbLsSilr/2CBzjX w2M=
/usr/local/bin/dig: couldn't get address for 'ns1.usda.gov': no more

Though it did work from the first place I had tried it....my FreeBSD 
workstation, but it also fails this way on other servers around campus and 
other workstations in the same subnet as my FreeBSD workstation.  I do have a 
ports install of 9.9.4 on here that I've been playing with (though my 
resolv.conf doesn't list it first.)

Okay its some kind of fluke with this particular FreeBSD system, it doesn't 
work on my home FreeBSD systems or the FreeBSD server in our datacenter or 
the USDA lab here.

Would this be an error of no glue for ns1.usda.gov/ns2.usda.gov?

-- 
Who: Lawrence K. Chen, P.Eng. - W0LKC - Sr. Unix Systems Administrator
For: Enterprise Server Technologies (EST) -- & SafeZone Ally