SOA name (was: Re: Dubugging question)

[Bill Moseley]

The first name listed on the SOA record is "the name of the primary master"
(p62 DNS & Bind).

My question is what is that name used for in DNS.  As DanO
<express at fastdial.net> pointed out in private email that the zone I was
asking about ( ci.cerritos.ca.us ) has a missing dot so their SOA:

$ORIGIN ci.cerritos.ca.us.
@                       1H IN SOA       smtp.ci.cerritos.ca.us hostmaster (

What kind of problems will that cause?

Also, my previous question was about why smtp was authoritative for the
zone (and even listed as the primary master in the SOA, but not listed in
the zone's NS records and what reason, besides a mistake, they are doing
such a thing -- especially since I've been having problems contacting
either of the listed NS.


Thanks,

Bill Moseley
mailto:moseley at hank.org