ns4.internic.net was returning false aa nxdomain

Tue Nov 18 09:44:56 UTC 1997

ns4.internic.net aka. j.gtld-servers.internic.net was just returning
false authoritative nxdomain answers for any .com domain that I
tried.

While it isn't a .com nameserver, that IP address is floating around
and my nameserver still asked it and listened when it gave a
nxdomain:

$ORIGIN HYPERREAL.com.
;taz    287     IN      SOA     A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. hostmaster.INTERNIC.NET. (
;               1997111700 1800 900 604800 86400 );com.;NXDOMAIN        ;-$     
;Cr=auth [198.41.0.21]

yes, yes, I am still using 4.9.6 but I'm not ready to upgrade to
8.x yet.  In any case, it is still bogus to return authoritative
nxdomain.

Now (10 minutes later), ns4.internic.net is properly reporting:

; <<>> DiG 2.2 <<>> worldgate.com ns @198.41.0.21 
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 10
;; flags: qr aa rd; Ques: 1, Ans: 0, Auth: 1, Addit: 0
;; QUESTIONS:
;;      worldgate.com, type = NS, class = IN

;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
com.    86400   SOA     A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. hostmaster.INTERNIC.NET. (
                        1997111700      ; serial
                        1800    ; refresh (30 mins)
                        900     ; retry (15 mins)
                        604800  ; expire (7 days)
                        86400 ) ; minimum (1 day)

;; Total query time: 111 msec
;; FROM: valis.worldgate.com to SERVER: 198.41.0.21
;; WHEN: Tue Nov 18 02:45:29 1997
;; MSG SIZE  sent: 31  rcvd: 108

I think I have seen problems caused by something similar a couple
of times in the past week or two, only then I couldn't track them
down because it had gone back to giving proper responses.

Anyone know what is going on there and if it is resolved or just
gone for a while again?