Unable to query the nameserver

[Eivind Olsen]

> but when I try to configure
> my domain name in the registrar's control panel I get this error:
> """
> Error : Unable to query the nameserver ns1.example.de
> """

Hm, you mention in another posting that you're hosting other domains. Are
they using the same registrar as the one that's giving you this error
message? Are you _naming_ the nameservers the same? I know some registrars
require you to first register your nameservers with them, so they can add
any glue records if needed. I'm just wondering if the error message might
be misleading.

But maybe they really can't contact your nameserver. As a few others have
mentioned, it's hard to help troubleshoot this when you've given no real
information.

Check your logs on your nameserver. Depending on your OS, it might end up
in /var/log/messages, /var/adm/messages, or somewhere else entirely (or
maybe not at all). You should at least see some log-entries when you start
BIND. The copies of named.conf you listed didn't show any custom logging
statements.

Verify nameserver operation, by doing something like this:

# dig any your.troublesome.domain @1.1.1.1
(replace the domain name + IP-address of your nameserver with the real data)

Do this from multiple places:
- from the nameserver itself
- from another server in the same subnet if possible, to avoid routing
issues etc...:
- from somewhere outside of your network

If it for example works from the nameserver itself + another server in
your local network, but doesn't work from an external address, I suggest
you look at any firewalls / access controls in your network.

You also mentioned you had another domain which worked, on the same
nameservers. Do the same kind of queries on that as well, from the same
places.

Let us know how these tests went. And/or post real data so we can check a
bit for ourselves.

Oh, and another thing - you mentioned you were running both nameservers on
the same server (eth0 and eth0:0). You _are_ aware of what this means, if
your domain name is only served by a single physical server and that
server happens to go down some day? Any server _will_ go down sometimes,
even if you decide to not patch it...
If it's serving a domain name you care about, I'd _really_ recommend
having multiple _separate_ nameservers, hosted on separate subnets. There
are various companies that sell cheap slave-DNS services.

Regards
Eivind Olsen