dig strangeness

[Tom]

"Jim Reid" <jim at rfc1035.com> wrote in message
news:bhh75i$2f62$1 at sf1.isc.org...
> >>>>> "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.
>

Oh. That makes sense. I should have figured that out. Jim, I appreciate your
help.

Thanks,

Tom.