my BIND cant find this:

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Pat" == Pat Masterson <bat at grumman.com> writes:

    Pat> My 8.1.2 name server ngedns.northgrum.com can't find
    Pat> mdacitis.mdc.com.  Other servers on the Net can. How can I
    Pat> use dig to tell me where ngedns.northgrum.com is sending his
    Pat> queries, and why nothing is being returned?

You can't use dig to find out where your name server is sending
queries. Turning up the debugging will only show you what queries dig
is making, where it's sending them and what replies it gets, if any.
So if dig queries ngedns.northgrum.com, you're unlikely to learn
anything you didn't already know.

When I query your name server for the SOA record for mdc.com, the query
times out, but it answers for the zone's NS records. This is weird.
	% dig @ngedns.northgrum.com mdc.com soa
	; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> @ngedns.northgrum.com mdc.com soa 
	; (1 server found)
	;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
	;; res_nsend to server ngedns.northgrum.com  192.86.71.10: Operation timed out
	% dig @ngedns.northgrum.com mdc.com ns
	.... OK answer snipped ....

So, your name server is able to find the mdc.com name servers
OK. However two of those servesr are not responding:
	% dig @lbextns.mdc.com mdc.com soa
	; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> @lbextns.mdc.com mdc.com soa 
	; (1 server found)
	;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
	;; res_nsend to server lbextns.mdc.com  199.107.144.3: Operation timed out
	% dig @slextns.mdc.com mdc.com soa
	; <<>> DiG 8.2 <<>> @slextns.mdc.com mdc.com soa 
	; (1 server found)
	;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
	;; res_nsend[signed] to server slextns.mdc.com  206.52.8.2: Operation timed out

The other two name servers for mdc.com - blvdns01.boeing.com and
blvdns02.boeing.com - are answering OK but they quote slightly
different NS records for mdc.com from what's in the .com zone.
So there are two problems. The first is that the NS records for
mdc.com are not quite right. [They're broken, but not too badly that
the mdc.com zone is hosed.] The second is that your name server
doesn't seem to be realise that lbextns.mdc.com and slextns.mdc.com
are not responding and move on to try the two Boeing name servers that
are alive. Maybe analysing a cache dump from your server might explain
why that's happening.

I've Cc'ed the technical/administrative contact for mdc.com
on this reply. Perhaps he can shed light on the dead name servers.

BTW, 8.1.2 is old and has security holes. You should upgrade to
8.2.2P5, the current version.