not necessarily linux, but more of a 'general unix dns' thing: Im having a problem of sorts with dns at a place where I cannot control the dns servers (believed to be winNT or win2000). I've done alot of research trying to figure out what the problem is and I believe I have the answer. Im pretty much just looking for a "yeah, thats the problem (from experience)" or "nope , thats completely wrong" scenario: an internal dns server doing dns for all internal clients. an all windows shop except for our 2 sco boxen (SCO_SV hostname 3.2 5.0.6 i386). using an outside dns server, I can query the given domain name, however, I get their outside IP address, not the inside one (which we need). I can do a nslookup on mail.domainname.com no problem, but on domainname.com I get non-existent host/domain. from 2 sco boxen, I do a nslookup for a domain name: ------------------------------ ads@domain:/u/ads>nslookup Default Server: dns.domainname.com Address: 192.168.1.16 > domainname.com Server: dns.domainname.com Address: 192.168.1.16 *** dns.domainname.com can't find domainname.com: Non-existent host/domain ------------------------------- however, the admin of the dns servers swears that from all her win boxen this works fine. so I do more research. ----------------------------------- ads@domain:/u/ads>nslookup Default Server: dns.domainname.com Address: 192.168.1.16 > set querytype=any > domainname.com Server: dns.domainname.com Address: 192.168.1.16 domainname.com nameserver = dns.domainname.com domainname.com origin = dns.domainname.com mail addr = (root) serial = 97 refresh = 3600 (1H) retry = 600 (10M) expire = 86400 (1D) minimum ttl = 3600 (1H) domainname.com record type 65281, interpreted as: ?. 0S IN 65281 \#( ; unknown RR type 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 02 58 00 00 00 02 ; ...........X.... c0 a8 01 10 c0 a8 01 05 ) ; ........ dns.domainname.com internet address = 192.168.1.16 ------------------------------------------------------------- (some whitespace from above was removed to make it lookpretty) the interesting bit, I think, is the 'unknown RR type' and 'record type 65281' parts. more research resulted in: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/itsolutions/network/support/trblshoot/dnstshot.asp and http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3ben-us%3b164176 basic summary being that the dns servers are using wins (proprietary record in the MS dns stuff) and suggesting that you turn it off. Would it be a fair statement to say that the wins dns stuff is causing the problems? Thanks for any insights, David -- "I find your lack of faith disturbing." --Darth Vader --- 9:35am up 25 days, 17:45, 2 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00