[Dnsmasq-discuss] problems resolving *.yahoo.com
Simon Kelley
simon@thekelleys.org.uk
Sun, 05 Dec 2004 09:15:36 +0000
Charles Hastings wrote:
> Lately, I've been experiencing a intermittant problem when looking up
> hostnames from yahoo.com. Sometimes, when querying *.yahoo.com through
> dnsmasq, a "server error" is returned. Querying the name server that
> dnsmasq relays to works as expected.
>
> The problem is resolved by waiting a while, or restarting dnsmasq.
>
> Here's what happens when I try to look up www.yahoo.com:
>
> root@fw:~# host www.yahoo.com localhost
> Using domain server:
> Name: localhost
> Address: 127.0.0.1#53
> Aliases:
> Host www.yahoo.com not found: 2(SERVFAIL)
>
The only circumstance under which dnsmasq will itself generate the
SERVFAIL return code is overflow of its internal tables. If that happens
then the query would never be forwarded to the upstream server, so
it's not the case here. The SERVFAIL is really coming from the upstream
nameserver, as shown by the tcpdump.
Since dnsmasq forwards the original query bit-for-bit unchanged except
for the query-id, it's unlikely that dnsmasq is taking a valid query and
rendering it invalid somehow (though it's theoretically possible).
My guess is that there is a problem upstream, maybe with the servers for
the yahoo.com domain, or attbi's connection to them, such the the attbi
servers don't get an answer from the yahoo.com servers in time and
return the error code. When you then retry the query direct, the delayed
reply from yahoo will have arrived a attbi, and the query works. (Or you
hit another machine in their DNS cluster.) Doing the query again through
dnsmasq would also work.
If, on the other hand, it's really the case that queries fail _only_
when relayed via dnsmasq then something very strange it happening.
Cheers,
Simon.