Strange response for dlci.co.uk.

[Chris Thompson]

A few weeks ago, someone asked on comp.unix.solaris about messages from nscd
of the shape

  gethostby*.getanswer: asked for "dlci.co.uk IN A", got type "SOA"

There's no great mystery in this because that's what the official servers for
dlci.co.uk (map[1-4].dns.gxn.net) are doing: responding to a request for an
A record with an SOA record in the answer section. (See below for an example.)

However, I am still intrigued by what sort of buggy named or configuration
could cause this, as it's something I don't recall having seen before.

Any ideas?

; <<>> DiG 2.1 <<>> +norecurse a dlci.co.uk. @map4.dns.gxn.net. 
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr aa; Ques: 1, Ans: 1, Auth: 0, Addit: 0
;; QUESTIONS:
;;      dlci.co.uk, type = A, class = IN

;; ANSWERS:
dlci.co.uk.     86400   SOA     map1.dns.gxn.net. hostmaster.freenetname.co.uk. (
                        1       ; serial
                        2800    ; refresh (46 mins 40 secs)
                        7200    ; retry (2 hours)
                        604800  ; expire (7 days)
                        300 )   ; minimum (5 mins)

;; Total query time: 184 msec
;; FROM: taurus.cus.cam.ac.uk to SERVER: map4.dns.gxn.net.  195.224.255.34
;; WHEN: Mon Nov 29 15:26:31 1999
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 28  rcvd: 108

BTW, I tried to report this to the SOA.rname (mail bounces, of course), and
to some likely addresses @dlci.co.uk (which were met only by incomprehesion).
I mention this only to save others the trouble of trying that themselves. :-)

Chris Thompson
Email: cet1 at cam.ac.uk