My domain on some ISP's not working, but on others perfectly??? please help!!!

Kevin Darcy kcd at daimlerchrysler.com
Fri Apr 19 21:11:14 UTC 2002


Well, in order to resolve dread.nl, one has to resolve a couple of nameserver
names in dyns.cx, since those are the nameservers to which dread.nl is
delegated. In order to resolve the dyns.cx names, one needs to resolve some
yourgsm.com names, since those are the nameserver to which dyns.cx is
delegated. In order to resolve yourgsm.com names, one needs to talk to either
ns1.yourgsm.com or ns2.yourgsm.com, but ns2.yourgsm.com doesn't appear to be
answering DNS queries right now, and ns1.yourgsm.com can't seem to even
resolve its own name. Basically what we have here is a three-link glue chain
with flakiness in the final link (not to mention a 5-minute TTL on the
yourgsm.com records which means that even when you get good data it doesn't
stick around very long).

Sure, computers are logical: given THE SAME DATA, and the same algorithm, and
no hardware problems, they should always produce the same results. But the
data upon which DNS operates is always in a state of flux, and is affected
directly by DNS server failures and misconfigurations and slightly less
directly by network problems such as outages and congestion. When a domain is
set up in such a fragile way as dread.nl apparently is, then all of this
underlying chaos percolates up and makes name resolution unreliable.


- Kevin

Bram Vaessen wrote:

> I noticed many times that SOME dns-server of SOME providers seem to have
> problems with my domain dread.nl and some other never have any problem??
> for example at university, it doesn't work (can't find domain)
>
> then I goto nslookup (in win2k) I type:
> >dread.nl
> ---after a few seconds: domain not found (or something like that)
> ---then I do :
> >set type=ns
> >dread.nl
> ---finds the dns-server but when i go back to set type=a, it still can't
> find dread.nl
> --- then I type again:
> >dread.nl
> --- not found!!!
> ---again:
> >dread.nl
> ---not found!!!
> ---again:
> >dread.nl
> ---name servers found again!!!
> ---then I type:
> >set type=a
> >dread.nl
> ---domain found!!!!
>
> now for a day or so the domain works again. then after a day or two I have
> to repeat the same thing to get it working again... only when I typed:
> set type=ns
> 3x dread.nl
> it will work....
> note that most other ISPs don't have problems with dread.nl, however a few
> others seem to have problems too, so it can't be a flaw in the dns-servers
> from the uni...
>
> anyway I thought computers suppost to be logic??? well to me this is
> ZERO.ZERO logic... please tell me it makes sense to any of you who read
> this...
>
> At this moment my own ISP is giving me problems as well... but I can't seem
> to solve them with nslookup... and some friends on other ISP's tell me they
> have no problem at all with dread.nl and I tested it really good...
> my ISP's DNS keept telling:
>
> > dread.nl
> Server:         195.121.1.34
> Address:        195.121.1.34#53
>
> ** server can't find dread.nl.: SERVFAIL
>
> what exactly happens when I get a SERVFAIL? what goes wrong exactly??? and
> any idea what could be the problem here?
>
> thanks,
>
> Bram Vaessen



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