[TriLUG] (no subject)

[Jeremy P]

On Fri, 30 Nov 2001, Jeremy P wrote:

> In any OS, the list of nameservers (either from DHCP or statically
> configured)  is intended to be a "round robin" list -- ie "if one server
> is down, or slow, try another".  It's not a concatenated list -- it
> doesn't do "if one server doesn't have the answer, try the other".

I should clarify...

A better way to describe the list of nameservers is "chained with logical
OR".  (Round Robin has a different specific meaning in DNS.)  Most OS's
including Windows 9x will use the first nameserver OR the second OR the
third, stopping when the first one gives an answer.  That answer could be
"host not found."  Apparently W2K doesn't always start at the first one in
that list[1], and since only the first DNS server lists your Linux box's
IP, you get "host not found" errors.

To clarify my previous message, all of the servers in the list should have
functionally identical configuration -- they should all list all
records.  In other words, use only internal servers, and configure the
internal servers to forward to external servers if necessary.

--Jeremy

[1] Perhaps it does this as a lame attempt at "load balancing" the queries
to the DNS servers?