To: %HOSTMASTER%
Cc: %CC%
From: %SENDER%
Subject: %IPADDR% appears to be a lame delegation for %DOMAIN%
Precedence: junk

G E N E R A L

This message was machine generated.  It is intended to alert you to a
possible problem with one of the nameservers for the domain listed
below.  If you have any questions about this message, please contact
%CONTACT%.

The nameserver listed in the subject (and again below) was detected as
a "lame delegation" by the %ORGANIZATION% nameservers.

	Domain: %DOMAIN%
	Server: %SERVER% [%IPADDR%]

The following paragraphs describe what a lame delegation is and
suggests some things you might do to eliminate the lame delegation.  If
you are an experienced hostmaster, you may not need to read the rest of
this message; if you don't know what a lame delegation is, please keep
reading.

W H A T    I S    A     L A M E    D E L E G A T I O N ?

A lame delegation is an instance when a nameserver has been listed as
authoritative for a domain, but does not seem to be performing
authoritative service for that domain.  That is, the nameserver appears
to be answering out of its cache instead of out of its data.  Note that
even a server which is performing secondary service for a domain is
still an authoritative server, and should be returning authoritative
data.

To see the lame delegation using 'nslookup' do this:

	nslookup
	server %SERVER%
	set type=any
	%DOMAIN%

If the answer comes back marked as "Non-authoritative answer" and
%SERVER% is listed in the "Authoritative answers can be found from:"
section, then this is a lame delegation.  Your server is listed as an
authoritative server, but is not returning authoritative data.

H O W    T O    F I X    A    L A M E    D E L E G A T I O N

Lame delegations are usually caused by some easy-to-fix problem.
Syntax errors in the nameserver boot file or zone file are the most
common cause of this problem.

If this server should not be listed as a nameserver for this domain,
then you need to contact the hostmaster of the parent domain.  This may
be the InterNIC in some cases (especially those under the IN-ADDR.ARPA
domain), or it may be your network provider, or it may be your
organization's networking group.  They simply need to stop listing your
machine as an authoritative domain nameserver for this domain.

If this server is supposed to be acting as an authoritative nameserver
for this domain, then the problem may be a simple syntax problem in a
the boot file or zone file.  Here are some common things to check:

	1.  Is there a line like this:

		primary    %DOMAIN%    <zone-file>

	    or this:

		secondary    %DOMAIN%    <master>    <zone-file>

	    inside of the boot file?

	2.  Is the SOA record free of errors?  Does it have the correct number
	    of fields?  If you terminate the nameserver process, and then
	    restart it, do any error messages show up in the log file?

	3.  Has this domain expired?  If %SERVER% is performing
	    secondary service for the domain, is the master server reachable?
	    Does it return authoritative data when queried?

These are just some of the most common problems to check.  It is by no means
intended to be an exhaustive checklist of all possible problems that could
lead to a lame delegation.

Thank you for your time and your patience.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Since there are typically other problems as well when a lame
delegation is found, we have provided some additional information in
the form of output from DOC (2.1.1 or later) on %DOMAIN%

