broken DNS record or authority rivalry?

[Doug Barton]

Helge Weissig wrote:
> Recently, surfrider.org was moved to a new host and DNS authority.  The
> old host still claims authority 

Is it slaving the zone from the new servers? If not, you're askin' for 
trouble.

 > but the connections to the website and
> emails to @surfrider.org addresses are apparently working fine although
> the DNS record looks strange (see below).

I agree ... it seems odd that the server returns SOA in every AUTHORITY 
section.

> We are experiencing problems with email to a (anonymized) domain

What does that term refer to?

> xxx.surfrider.org. This domain cannot be resolved by any MTA apparently
> (all mails fail with host not found).

I don't see any MX records for that host:

dig @ns1.root-dns.com xxx.surfrider.org mx

; <<>> DiG 8.3 <<>> @ns1.root-dns.com xxx.surfrider.org mx
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 4
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; QUERY SECTION:
;;      xxx.surfrider.org, type = MX, class = IN



> Telnet, ssh and http however do succeed.

There is an A record for the hostname, so you'd expect that.

Hope this helps,

Doug