DNS help Please!

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Fri, Sep 08, 2000 at 07:39:01PM -0400, Gerald Waugh wrote:
> 
> I just attempted the command, (from an ssh session on frontstreetnetworks.net)
> 
> [root log]# nslookup @fsn1.frontstreetnetworks.net fsn1.frontstreetnetworks.net
> With this response
> *** Can't find server name for address 216.175.178.41: Timed out
> *** Default servers are not available
> 
> This is what was in the log;
> 
> Sep  8 19:30:21 fsn1 named[369]: ns_forw:
> query(41.32-28.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa)
>  All possible A RR's lame
> Sep  8 19:31:02 fsn1 named[369]: Err/TO getting serial# for
> "32/28.178.175.216.in-
> addr.arpa"
> Sep  8 19:31:02 fsn1 named-xfer[17580]: [216.175.178.41] not authoritative for
> 32/
> 28.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa, SOA query got rcode 0, aa 0, ancount 0, aucount 2

...

> Why does 'dig' seem to work but 'nslookup' fails! Also getting-sending mail from
> some of my accounts takes a very long time.
> I really am desperate to find a solution to this problem, as I don't think my
> reverse lookups are working.

First off, 'nslookup' does NOT have the same argument format as 'dig'.
That is one reason it would never work with an "@..." argument.

With nslookup, you can say
	nslookup target name-server

With dig, you can say
	dig target @name-server
	dig @name-server target

Second, 'nslookup' does have that endearing habit of NOT working when
the alleged name server cannot resolve its own IP address.  This was, I
would guess, supposed to be a way to say, "hey, this is not a name
server!"  Instead, it more often points out improperly configured name
servers.  You can say:

	nslookup
	server fsn1.frontstreetnetworks.net
	fsn1.frontstreetnetworks.net

> query(41.32-28.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa)

When you try to reverse-lookup 216.175.178.41 (that is, to forward-
lookup a PTR record for 41.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa), it says that the
canonical name (CNAME) for this is "41.32-28.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa".
So it goes to the name server for 32-28.178.175.216.in-addr.arpa, which
is your machine!  Your machine must serve this zone with PTR records
such as

41	IN  PTR		fsn1.frontstreetnetworks.net.
46	IN  PTR		fsn2.frontstreetnetworks.com.

See RFC 2317 for more details.

Hope this helps.

-- 
Joe Yao				jsdy at cospo.osis.gov - Joseph S. D. Yao
COSPO/OSIS Computer Support					EMT-B
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