Subject: Re: Your friend's DNS

From: Jaap Akkerhuis <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 18:52:50 +0100

Did you use dig for this query?  You might have been burned by dig
    assuming that "ch" meant the CHAOS class.  For example, the version of
    dig that I have lying around (9.1.3) assumes that "dig
    @a.root-servers.net ch ns" is a query for ./CHAOS/NS.  On the other
    hand, adding a period after the TLD (dig @a.root-servers.net ch. ns)
    performs the desired query for CH/IN/NS.  Could that have been what you
    saw?

Dig 9.2.1 has the same behavior (see below).

	jaap

dig @a.root-servers.net ch ns
; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @a.root-servers.net ch ns
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 24254
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;.                              CH      NS

;; Query time: 98 msec
;; SERVER: 198.41.0.4#53(a.root-servers.net)
;; WHEN: Tue Nov 26 18:50:57 2002
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 17

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---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 07:58:27 +1100

> Heinrich Mendelssohn wrote:
> > It seems that CH, the ccTLD for Switzerland, was listed as
> > non-existant during a few hours on Monday November 25, 2002 by
> > A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET, as well as all the other ROOT-SERVERS.NET servers
> > I checked. I noticed the problem as suddenly a lot of .ch domains
> > became unresolvable and e-mails started to bounce...
> >
> > The CH ccTLD was relisted again by A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET at about 14:55
> > GMT on November 25.
> > Did anyone this, or know what happened ?  A human error at VeriSign ?
> > Have other ccTLDs been affected ?
> 
> There have been no changes to the .ch delegation in the root zone since
> October 22, 2002.  I verified this in the database from which the zone
> is produced, as well as the resulting root zone files.  Did you save the
> output of the query or note the serial number of the root zone that was
> affected?
> 
> Matt
> Matt Larson <[email-masked]>
> VeriSign Global Registry Services

	Well "CH" is the official class name.  "CHAOS" is a BINDism that
	is supported as a alias for backwards compatability.

	Mark

	From RFC 1034.

class           which is an encoded 16 bit value which identifies a
                protocol family or instance of a protocol.

                This memo uses the following classes:

                IN              the Internet system

                CH              the Chaos system

	From RFC 1035.

3.2.4. CLASS values

CLASS fields appear in resource records.  The following CLASS mnemonics
and values are defined:

IN              1 the Internet

CS              2 the CSNET class (Obsolete - used only for examples in
                some obsolete RFCs)

CH              3 the CHAOS class

HS              4 Hesiod [Dyer 87]

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Mark Andrews, Internet Software Consortium
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PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: [email-masked]