On 10/25/2011 03:36 PM, Ali Linx wrote: > Network Error (dns_server_failure) > > Your request could not be processed because an error occurred contacting > the DNS server. ...
Here is how to troubleshoot this kind of issue: (1) Use dig +nssearch to find out the nameservers for the domain: dig lxde.org +nssearch This should return information on the reachability of each registered nameserver for the domain, and the DNS serial number of the information it contains. Unfortunately, for lxde.org, I get currently "connection timed out; no servers could be reached", which indicates a significant problem. To see what kind of information you get when things are working correctly, try dig lubuntu.net +nssearch (1B) Since that lookup for lxde.org totally failed (!), use whois to determine what the listed nameservers for the domain are, instead: whois lxde.org This returns a bunch of information, including: Name Server:LINUX3.CC.NTU.EDU.TW Name Server:NS1.XINH.ORG Name Server:NS2.XINH.ORG Name Server:DNS.LXDE.ORG So, now we know the four authoritative nameservers for lxde.org, according to whois. (Note: when changes are being made, whois information can be up to 24 hours behind reality; if nameserver information from dig +nssearch and whois is different, info from dig is much more likely to be correct). (2) Check each of the authoritative nameservers in turn, to see if they are working, and whether they return the correct (expected) result for the site you are trying to access: dig @linux3.cc.ntu.edu.tw www.lxde.org. That gets me a SERVFAIL response and no A record. Strike one! dig @ns1.xinh.org www.lxde.org. That gets me a "connection timed out; no servers could be reached". Strike two! dig @ns2.xinh.org www.lxde.org. That also gets me a "connection timed out; no servers could be reached". Strike three! dig @dns.lxde.org www.lxde.org. This gets me a "dig: couldn't get address for 'dns.lxde.org': not found". None of the specified authoritative DNS servers for the lxde.org zone are working. In case it is not obvious: this is really bad and needs fixing. (3) Fortunately, some cached DNS information does still exist out there, on other public DNS servers, for example dig @8.8.8.8 www.lxde.org. returns an CNAME and A record: www.lxde.org. 47028 IN CNAME start.lxde.org. start.lxde.org. 47028 IN A 210.240.39.201 This info looks like it will expire in 47028 seconds, which is about 13 hours... unless the Google DNS server (8.8.8.8) has better connectivity to the official DNS servers for lxde.org than I have. BOTTOM LINE: At least for now, anyone using Google's public DNS servers will still be able to access www.lxde.org. Anyone using their own caching DNS server that does not yet have lxde.org information cached in it, or using their ISPs DNS server that does not yet have lxde.org information cached in it, will *not* be able to look up the IP address for www.lxde.org and so will be unable to browse to that site. POSSIBLE FIXES: If it would be useful, I would be happy to run DNS for lxde.org on one or two small DNS servers under my control, at no cost. They run DNS for only a couple of hundred domains or so, and so far are a lot more reliable than the current lxde.org DNS servers seem to be :) Currently they each run a different version of BSD, and are completely independent in terms of power and network connectivity (they are located on opposite coasts of the USA). I vaguely remember offering this once before, and there was some reason why it didn't make sense to do it...? Jonathan PS. Just for fun: note that even the mighty Google can't work around completely broken or missing information: dig @8.8.8.8 dns.lxde.org returns a SERVFAIL, and does not return an A record. Looking up start.lxde.org in the same way fails similarly. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~lubuntu-desktop More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
