noob; looks like a caching issue?

[Jay G. Scott]

my setup:
linux/redhat name servers
bind-9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2


beginning yesterday i'm seeing something i haven't seen before.
	  if i do this (for example):
# dig weather.gov +short
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
	and then immediately do this:
# dig weather.gov +short
140.90.113.200

the first line takes a while to fail.  i do an up arrow and return,
and the second command responds instantly.


MOST THINGS ARE WORKING FINE.  i've only found two addresses
w/ this fail-then-work problem.  the other is
rs.dns-oarc.net
i'm being told this is a problem with their name servers;
in the specific case of dns-oarc.net i find that
particularly hard to believe.  once it works it will continue
to work if i keep doing the command rapidly.  if i let it
sit for a while, then i can get the failure again.  that's
probably my cache doing the right thing.  what i can't figure
out is this fail-then-work behavior.  oh, i've checked the
logs.  there's zillions of messages about notifies and
transfers.  once i clean those out, i don't see anything
interesting at all.



now i'm also getting  this:
(the first response doesn't have answers, the second does.
but i'm NOT getting "no servers....")
# dig weather.gov

; <<>> DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 <<>> weather.gov
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 35953
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;weather.gov.                   IN      A

;; Query time: 834 msec
;; SERVER: 146.6.211.1#53(146.6.211.1)
;; WHEN: Tue May 25 14:28:03 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 29


# dig weather.gov

; <<>> DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 <<>> weather.gov
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18861
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;weather.gov.                   IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
weather.gov.            490     IN      A       140.90.113.200

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
weather.gov.            33577   IN      NS      ns-mw.noaa.gov.
weather.gov.            33577   IN      NS      ns-nw.noaa.gov.
weather.gov.            33577   IN      NS      ns-e.noaa.gov.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns-e.noaa.gov.          74082   IN      A       140.90.33.237
ns-nw.noaa.gov.         74082   IN      A       161.55.32.2
ns-mw.noaa.gov.         74082   IN      A       140.172.17.237

;; Query time: 7 msec
;; SERVER: 216.136.95.2#53(216.136.95.2)
;; WHEN: Tue May 25 14:28:17 2010
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 157

	i'm relatively new at named/bind.  can someone shed some light
on this?

j.

-- 
Jay Scott		512-835-3553		gl at arlut.utexas.edu
Head of Sun Support, Sr. Operating Systems Specialist
Applied Research Labs, Computer Science Div.                   S224
University of Texas at Austin