international domain registration issues/dns related

[Jim Reid]

    >> Hello, We are in the process of registering our domain
    >> (bio-rad.com) with several international registration services,
    >> for example bio-rad.co.nz. We are doing this using verisign as
    >> our agent - they are submitting all of the paperwork and such.

    >> Some of our registrations are being rejected by the various
    >> country registrars.  Frequently we get very little information
    >> back from verisign, who they say get very little info back the
    >> country registrars. Sometimes we get an actual error, but more
    >> frequently we get something "you nameserver is not set up
    >> right". Not incredibly helpful.

Well you should take this up with the people who you're presumably
paying to provide this service.

    >> I'm having trouble figuring out where to start. I want to
    >> verify that the nameserver info that I get, is in fact, the
    >> same info that they are getting - at least I'd have a basis for
    >> starting a conversation. But how do I tell what they are
    >> seeing?

I refer you to the reply I just gave. Whoever is making the
registration requests on your behalf has (or should have) that
information. So ask them.

Most ccTLD registries have rules about how they process requests for
domain name registrations. For example, they may refuse to do a
delegation until the customer provides at least two name servers that
are up and answering consistently and authoritatively for the domain
that is to be registered. Another common rule is that a name can only
be registered by someone that can prove they have legal title to that
name: eg a company or trade mark registration in that country. The
rules vary from ccTLD to ccTLD. [How each registry decides to deal
with requests is up to them and the prevailing national regulations.]
It's the job of your registration agent to figure this out for each
country you want to register in and ensure they comply with those
local, per-country rules. If you were handling the registration
requests yourself, you would obviously know what the rules were and
what needed to be done for each registry.

    >> If I dig co.nz, I get ns1.dns.net.nz as the nameserver for that
    >> domain. If I dig my primary domain from them I get nothing for
    >> me - just the root servers (dig bio-rad.com
    >> @ns1.dns.net.nz). Does this mean that they have no information
    >> at all on us, which would indicate that they don't know my
    >> nameservers at all? If that's the case, I can see why they
    >> would reject our registration - they can't find our
    >> nameservers.

You seem horribly confused. Why do you expect a name server for co.nz
to answer for bio-rad.com? It's quite common for authoritative name
servers to have recursion switched off. When this happens, the server
won't provide answers for stuff they don't serve. At best you'd get a
referral, which is exactly what ns1.dns.net.nz does if it's asked
about bio-rad.com.

The .co.nz servers don't answer for bio-rad.co.nz. You will need to
ask the co.nz registry why that is. Maybe your registration is pending
while some paperwork is checked. Or you've not paid them. Or you don't
have name servers set up for the zone in accordance with any rules
they have. Or there's a dispute over ownership of the name. Or it's
not been registered. If the name has been registered, most registries
will issue a tracking number so that the customer can check the status
of the registration as it works its way through the system. Your agent
should have this information and details on how to check the progress
of the registration. Which takes us back to what I first said....