root server, bounced mail & propogation speeds

Thomas Duterme thomas at madeforchina.com
Wed Jul 12 17:24:08 UTC 2000


Hi folks,

My registrar really messed up and changed my nameservers to 2 non-existent
names and IP addresses. I discovered this once mail stopped flowing into my
site.  I immediately took action and got NS changed back, but as we all
know, it takes 24 + hours for all root servers to roll over.  I have a
couple questions for the list which I haven't been able to figure out:

1) Why do the root servers all change over at different times?  I saw that
it took almost 24 hours for all the servers to change over.   What rules
are there for regulating this process.

2) Considering that the false nameservers my registar advertised propogated
through the internet, what determines the cache on other name servers  (ie.
there is no soa record or ttl for the domain since those false IP addresses
don't even have a machine attached) 

3) What about mail?  Since my domain will have been acting funky for the
entire time it takes Name service to propogate through, what happens to all
the mail sent.  (please don't just say bounce)  I'm aware that some will
bounce but don't most MTA's run on a retransmission algorithm..(I know
qmail does)  Is this widely different per MTA?  How long is the avg. time
an MTA will try before it gives up requeing the mail and giving the fatal
bounce.

Thanks for any answers,
Thomas



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