Strange issue

[John Jones]

> Is anyone not able to use the site, or is it just your 
> testing that makes you nervous? As I think your testing 
> methodology is flawed, as above.

I get reports from the webmaster that he is unable to access it from
home, and he gets reports from a few other people (he hasn't named them
or anything, so unconfirmed) that they cannot pull it up.  So, no, it is
not just my 'nervous testing'.

I get reports that the IP that is being returned by the nameserver is
207.219.3.100, which is a 3-yr old IP that we no longer control.  The
problem is that I cannot track down -where- this IP is being served
from!  And, to make things more frustrating, all tests I do (any better
test advice?) return the right IP!  The zone record is as follows:

-----------------------------------------------------------
$TTL            86400
essentialserver.com.               IN      SOA
ns1.merlintechnologies.com.   hostmaster.merlintechnologies.com. (
                        2002061001      ; serial
                        10800           ; refresh
                        3600            ; retry
                        3600000         ; expire
                        86400           ; default_ttl
                        )

               IN      NS      ns1.merlinsoftech.com.
               IN      NS      ns2.merlinsoftech.com.
               IN      MX      10      mail.merlinsoftech.com.

www             IN      A       66.38.133.116
@               IN      A       66.38.133.116
-----------------------------------------------------------

It has been this way for quite some time.  Are there errors in that zone
file that I am not catching?  It has been screwed with so much that I am
sure that it is wrong by now... But it doesn't explain why people are
getting the -really- old IP address.

That IP doesn't even respond anymore, we don't control it.  But as you
have seen, that IP shouldn't be anywhere in the mix from what I can
tell.  I have done a grep in the /var/named directory for that IP and
nothing comes up.  Restarted the nameserver daemon, still happening.
Restarted the machine, still happening?!  'What the hell', I say.

Help, guys.  I know I am an idiot, but this is just too frustrating to
endure.