search lists or hermit crabs

[Downs, John]

      When I do an nslookup on "bts63t01.i.bts63.comversens.com" (with no
dot) the query will first
append "i.bts63.comversens.com", then it will append "bts63.comversens.com"
and finally it
looks for the correct name.   So the first query will look like:

    bts63t01.i.bts63.comversens.com.i.bts63.comversens.com

the rcode for this query is "NXDOMAIN"  

What does NXDOMAIN mean? None-existent domain?

The second query starts without any delay and looks for :


bts63t01.i.bts63.comversens.com.bts63.comversens.com

On this query it times out three times for a total of 42 seconds.
the opcode of query returns an rcode of SERVFAIL.

Why do I get two different rcodes and why is it timing out?

They next query looks for :

bts63t01.i.bts63.comversens.com

and returns the address correctly. But the whole process takes almost 60
seconds and impacts
telnets and rlogins..

Any ideas?

-john