[dns-operations] af.mil DNS issue

[Joseph S D Yao]

On Fri, Jun 30, 2006 at 01:21:58PM -0400, Geo. wrote:
> Shouldn't there be an A record for afnoc.af.mil ?
> 
> Geo.

The additional information, IIRC, is information that the name server
which you are querying just happens to have.  In your case, you are
asking for the names of the name servers.  If one of the named name
server is in the domain for which you are querying, AND YOU ARE QUERYING
A NAME SERVER THAT IS AUTHORITATIVE FOR THAT DOMAIN, that name server
should have the A record and return it.  However, all of the name
servers for this domain are in child or cousin domains, plus, you don't
indicate that you are querying a name server that is authoritative for
this domain, so anything you get is gravy.  The name server you are
querying will not go out and do lookups just for additional information
for your query.

And why should there be an A record for the domain afnoc.af.mil, anyway?
There is no indication that this particular domain name is also being
used as a hostname.  I was about to say that most domains don't even
have A records, but times are changing and that may no longer be true.

I hope that this helps.  A good understanding of DNS is important for
its operations.

-- 
Joe Yao
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