[conspire] DNS question

[Bill Moseley]

I'm a bit confused about what's happening.  I was trying to lookup
infopeople.org.  On my machine I'm able to see the NS records but not
the A RR.


Starting at the top (trimmed output from dig):

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig ns org
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      TLD2.ULTRADNS.NET.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      tld3.ultradns.org.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      tld4.ultradns.org.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      tld5.ultradns.info.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      tld6.ultradns.co.uk.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      A0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.info.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      b0.org.afilias-nst.org.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      c0.ORG.AFILIAS-NST.info.
    org.                    86400   IN      NS      TLD1.ULTRADNS.NET.


So, ask one of those about the domain:

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig @tld1.ultradns.net infopeople.org NS
    ;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 0
    ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
    INFOPEOPLE.ORG.         172800  IN      NS      NS3.NEWDREAM.NET.
    INFOPEOPLE.ORG.         172800  IN      NS      NS2.NEWDREAM.NET.
    INFOPEOPLE.ORG.         172800  IN      NS      NS.NEWDREAM.NET.


Ok, so then ask one of those servers:

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig @NS3.NEWDREAM.NET. infopeople.org NS
    ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns1.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns2.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns3.dreamhost.com.

    ;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
    ns1.dreamhost.com.      14400   IN      A       66.33.206.206
    ns2.dreamhost.com.      14400   IN      A       66.201.54.66
    ns3.dreamhost.com.      14400   IN      A       66.33.216.216


Hum -- so are those delegating to ns*.dreamhost.com or or
mis-configured?  They are different machines:

    NS3.NEWDREAM.NET has address 66.33.216.16
    NS2.NEWDREAM.NET has address 66.201.54.123
    NS.NEWDREAM.NET has address 66.33.206.6



Asking ns1.dreamhost.com to lookup the A RR works:

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig @ns1.dreamhost.com. infopeople.org NS
    ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns1.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns2.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      NS      ns3.dreamhost.com.


Both sets of servers respond the same:


    moseley at bumby:~$ dig a @ns1.dreamhost.com. infopeople.org.
    ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      A       208.97.158.169


    moseley at bumby:~$ dig a @ns2.newdream.net. infopeople.org.
    ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0
    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         14400   IN      A       208.97.158.169


Now, here's what I'm not following.  My local DNS server has the NS
cached:

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig ns @hank.org infopeople.org
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

    ;; ANSWER SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         13192   IN      NS      ns3.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         13192   IN      NS      ns1.dreamhost.com.
    infopeople.org.         13192   IN      NS      ns2.dreamhost.com.


But, then asking for the A record I get no response.  Is there
negative caching happening here?  (that machine is running Bind
9.2.4).

    moseley at bumby:~$ dig a @hank.org infopeople.org

    ; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> a @hank.org infopeople.org
    ; (1 server found)
    ;; global options:  printcmd
    ;; Got answer:
    ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 21673
    ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

    ;; QUESTION SECTION:
    ;infopeople.org.                        IN      A

    ;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
    infopeople.org.         5865    IN      SOA     ns1.dreamhost.com. hostmaster.dreamhost.com. 2007040603 16052 1800 1814400 14400

    ;; Query time: 41 msec
    ;; SERVER: 63.205.225.170#53(63.205.225.170)
    ;; WHEN: Sat Apr  7 13:43:24 2007
    ;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 96


Thanks,




-- 
Bill Moseley
moseley at hank.org