timeouts

[Jeff Stevens]

I have a question about how long timeouts take for queries...if I test a DNS 
server with a first attempt via nslookup to resolve an address, it times out 
after 2 seconds (which is the default).  If I were to use dig, the default 
timeout is 5 seconds.  How long does it take the named server to time out?

I have a customer that is confused why his DNS server doesn't always resolve 
addresses (it works "the majority" of the time) the first time but does on 
subsequent calls (non-authoritative responses, usually) and I suspect it's 
related to the number of hops his query is making (e.g. from Britian for a 
US address).  He says HTTP protocol has no problem resolving with timeouts 
compared to nslookup.

I'm trying to understand the reasoning for that...as he complains his DNS 
consistently times out when doing queries overseas.
-- 
Jeffrey Stevens