help needed solving DNS puzzle (possible referral loop)

[Barry Margolin]

In article <37b3137d.173152202 at library.airnews.net>,
Kipp Teague <teague at nospam-x-retroweb.com> wrote:
>teague-nospam-x at admvax.lynchburg.edu wrote:
>
>>
>>Microsoft DNS running under Windows NT Service Pack 5
>>is intermittently failing to translate domain "retroweb.com" which
>>is hosted by domain hosting service smarthosting.com.
>>
>>This can be observed by attempting to translate retroweb.com
>>via lcol-cain-pdc.lynchburg.edu and then translating via non-MS
>>DNS server acavax.lynchburg.edu
>>
>
>My DSP has added authority records for retroweb.com
>to all name servers, to this problem has been eliminated.
>However, check out "buy.com" on the above-listed
>nameservers to witness the Microsoft DNS bug.

It's not a Microsoft bug (wow, I never thought I'd be saying that).  If a
domain is delegated to a server, and that server doesn't have the domain
installed on it, DNS lookups in that domain should be expected to fail
sometimes.  The querying DNS server is not supposed to keep trying servers
until it gets one that gives an answer that it likes.  The only time you
try an alternate server is when the server you tried doesn't respond at
all.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar at bbnplanet.com
GTE Internetworking, Powered by BBN, Burlington, MA
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