SUMMARY: Non-existent host/domain problem

[Kevin Darcy]

If one is forwarding queries for Internet names, and using one or more private
(RFC 1918) address spaces, one should really define a zone at the *apex* of
each such private address space, e.g. 168.192.in-addr.arpa, 10.in-addr.arpa,
etc., even if one is only using part of that address space. This is to prevent
typos on your network from generating unnecessary Internet queries.

Of course, having defined the apex zone, e.g. 168.192.in-addr.arpa, there's no
reason that subzones, e.g. 0.168.192.in-addr.arpa couldn't be delegated.


- Kevin

Glen MacLarty wrote:

> FOR THE IMPATIENT:
>
> If you get "non-existent host/domain" errors on
> nslookup when trying to configure a caching only nameserver, check that
> the zone entry is "0.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA" in the named.conf file, and
> that you've NOT accidently included and additional 0. at the front ...
>
> FOR THE PATIENT:
>
> I thought this might be of some use to people as i have spend a couple
> of hours trying to find a problem, and just found the solution.
>
> I have a basic caching only nameserver running on a Linux machine which
> i've recently reinstalled to RedHat 7.0. It previously ran RedHat6.1 and
> before that Slackware.
>
> I've had a caching only nameserver running on the machine with a small
> zone for machine on my home network, allowing windows machines to point
> to the linux machine that does dialout. The caching only forwarder gets
> updated dynamically when logging in to whatever the default ISP
> nameserver is, etc etc...
>
> After reinstallation, with the standard configuration, which previously
> worked, i was getting errors from the clients when doing an nslookup...
>
> Assume the client is client, the dns server is 192.168.0.2
>
> marty at client[~]:>nslookup
> *** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.2: Non-existent host/domain
> *** Default servers are not available
>
> while performing this from the dns server, it was still a little
> bizarre, when the server was pointed to the same 192.168.0.2 address...
>
> marty at nserver[~]:>nslookup
> ...
> > server 192.168.0.2
> Default Server:  [192.168.0.2]
> Address:  192.168.0.2
>
> and the following would fail with errors like
>
> *** [192.168.0.2] can't find quit: No response from server
>
> but if using 127.0.0.1 it would all work fine when doing hostname
> lookups, but reverse lookups still failed
>
> *** [127.0.0.1] can't find 192.168.0.2: Non-existent host/domain
>
> SOLUTION:
>
> the entry in the named.conf file for the reverse lookups should be
>
> zone "0.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA" {
>     type master;
>     file "private.rev";
> };
>
> whereas i had the zone as "0.0.168.192.IN-ADDR.ARPA", which contained an
> additional 0 causing it to fail.
>
> hope this helps those with similar problems...
>
> marty
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
> marty at marty.net.au
>
> bouquet of clumsy words
> a simple melody
> this worlds an ugly place
> but you're so beautiful to me