Why do I need a dot at the end of my lookup?

[Gregory Hicks]

> Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2005 13:57:13 +0200
> From: Eivind Olsen <eivind at aminor.no>
> 
> --On 22. juli 2005 11:05 +0200 "Thomas Kinghorn [MTNNS -Rosebank]" 
> <thomask at mtnns.net> wrote:
> > Query was c:\nslookup www.cisco.com server.domain.name
> >
> > A TCP dump on server shows:
> >
> > Host.domain.name.1959 > server.domain.name.domain:  2+ A?
> > www.cisco.com.int.domain.name. (45) [tos 0x28]
> 
> I'm not familiar with this exact output, but... Host.domain.name is the 
> machine where you ran c:\nslookup ? And server.domain.name is your 
> DNS-server where you did this TCP-dump? If so, it looks like it's not the 
> SERVER which attaches "int.domain.name" to the requests, since that is 
> already mentioned in the DNS-request from Host.domain.name ?

Greetings:

Correct.  The server does NOT attach ANYTHING to the name presented for
resolution.

The resolver is the thing presenting the names.  Most resolvers, when
presented with a name, look at the configuration file to see where the
name servers is should query are located.  This is done with the

nameserver xx.xx.xx.xx

directive.

There is also a "domain" and a "search" directive.  

domain example.net
or
search example.net mega-isp.com

The resolver tries to resolve the name as presented first.  If that
fails (most probably), then the resolver appends the contents of the
domain to the presented name and submits that for resolution.  If this
succeeds, the resolver returns the data, appropriately formatted.

If there is a "search" directive, then the resolver does the same thing
but for multiple names until it runs out of domains to try appending.
Generally, however, whichever directive is seen last by the resolver is
the one that applies.

The two second timeout you are experiencing could be caused by several
things.

1.  No nameserver directive
2.  Unable to reach a nameserver (maybe a firewall in the way or a
mis-configured "nameserver" directive?)
3.  Unable to get to a nameserver that CAN resolve the domain?  (Your
firewall, or the server's firewall?)

Regards,
Gregory Hicks

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregory Hicks                           | Principal Systems Engineer
Cadence Design Systems                  | Direct:   408.576.3609
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