nslookup problems

Jim Reid jim at mpn.cp.philips.com
Mon Jul 5 15:34:57 UTC 1999


>>>>> "Lex" == Lex Hensels <rcpsaha at tudelft.nl> writes:

    Lex> Hi, From the moment our nameservers have started running Bind
    Lex> 8.1.2 (and 8.2 and 8.2.1 for that matter) we are having
    Lex> difficulties with nslookup crashing on SunOS 4.1.x systems:

    Lex> # nslookup
    Lex> *** Can't find server name for 130.161.180.1: Query refused
    Lex> *** Can't find server name for address 130.161.180.65: Query refused
    Lex> *** Can't find initialize address for server : Timed out
    Lex> initialize address for server : Timed out 
    Lex> Default Server:localhost
    Lex> Bus error
    lex>  #

    Lex> I strongly suspect the makers of Bind to have changed the
    Lex> responses to certain queries in such a way that they are no
    Lex> longer backwards compatible with older versions of the
    Lex> resolver routines.

Correct. Obsolete versions of nslookup make use of an obscure and
obsolete query format, inverse queries. By default support for these
is disabled in BIND8 (and 4.9.7?). You have three options:

[1] throw away nslookup and use dig and/or host as a DNS lookup tool

[2] replace the decrepit nslookup on your Suns with an executable
compiled from the BIND8 sources. That version of nslookup doesn't make
inverse queries.

[3] enable inverse-query support by adding the line below to the
options{} statement in named.conf:
	fake-iquery yes;

Option [1] is best IMHO. Getting rid of nslookup is a Good Thing. If
nslookup is *really* needed - why? - Option [2] is the least bad
choice. Option [3] is worst as it promotes the continued use of
ancient versions of nslookup and its ugly inverse queries that are
well past their sell-by date.


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