dig strangeness

[Jim Reid]

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom  <bartling at io.com> writes:

    Tom> Thanks, Jim. That helps me understand the results that I'm
    Tom> seeing. I have another question. When I specify a server when
    Tom> doing a dig and it returns the root servers, is that server
    Tom> only setup to answer for domain names that it is the SOA? For
    Tom> example, "dig @dns1.rr.com. tombartling.com." returns only
    Tom> the root servers.

In short, yes. Though your use of terminology isn't quite correct.
Some name servers are configured as authoritative-only. They only
provide authoritative answers for the zones they serve and don't query
other name servers. So if they get queried for something that they
don't serve, these name servers usually return what's known as a
referral, That's what dns1.rr.com has done. Its response is saying
"don't ask me, here are some other name servers you should query". In
this case, dns1.rr.com is telling the querying client -- usually
another name server -- to go to the root and start making iterative
queries from there to resolve tombartling.com.