Accuracy of DNSStuff reports

[sce-googlecom at rscott.org]

> However, tech support at one of the companies
> that's doing my DNS says that you can't rely on the information gained
> from DNSStuff.

That's a common response -- from DNS companies that aren't up to par.
:)

I am not aware of any evidence of any inaccuracies at DNSstuff.com (I'm
one of the main people behind the site).

It sounds like the tech support person may be referring to the DNS
Report.  If that is the case, all tests that generate a FAIL response
are serious issues that need looking into (there may be cases where
there isn't a serious problem -- for example, if your DNS server were
to block the DNS Report server -- but all require looking into).

The WARN responses, though, are often precursors to bigger issues that
might appear later on, might mean that you are not RFC-compliant (but
everything should work fine), or could be a minor issue (such as the
"no glue" warning that someone else referred to, that happens to many
.org domains, as many .org domains have DNS servers on a different TLD,
where glue cannot be given out by the zone parent servers, which causes
extra DNS lookups).

So for the DNS Report, whether a test deserves a WARN status can often
be debated.  If you don't see any FAILs, you shouldn't worry much,
although it is a good idea to understand the issues that generate
WARNs.

And yes, if anyone does notice any inaccuracies, please do report them.
 :)