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#1 Mon, 11/13/2006 - 15:22
HowardPierce

Bind DNS

I am having problems with either bind or httpd on my machine using virtualmin pro. The machine is running on Fedora Core 3.

It will sometimes fail to load a page if www is included in the URL, and then all of a sudden it will work, and then it starts failing without the www.

I have tried to fix this over and over.

I am lost!!! Are these domains and httpd.conf setting up right?

thanks,

Howard

Mon, 11/13/2006 - 15:26
Joe
Joe's picture

Hey Howard,

Sounds like a DNS problem.

First off, see what the world thinks your DNS servers are using whois:

<i>whois domain.tld</i>

Look for the section labeled &quot;Domain servers in listed order:&quot;

Then find out if both of those are responding quickly and accurately for your www.domain.tld:

<i>host www.domain.tld ip.of.first.ns
host www.domain.tld ip.of.second.ns</i>

If both of those respond quickly and correctly...then we'll need to dig a bit deeper, but I bet one of those will fail. Then you'll just have to solve the DNS problem. We can help you do that once we establish what's going on exactly.

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Mon, 11/13/2006 - 15:58
HowardPierce

I tried that and got a quick reply. With the lines as follows:

Using domain server:
Name: 65.111.170.155
Address: 65.111.170.155#53
Aliases:

I assume the #53 is the DNS port. The world is seeing the name server as ns.helvawebhost.com and ns1.helvawebhost.com, which is right.

Mon, 11/13/2006 - 16:55 (Reply to #3)
Joe
Joe's picture

Hey Howard,

You should have one more line on that output, which is the key to whether the query actually worked or not:

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ host virtualmin.com 70.86.4.238
Using domain server:
Name: 70.86.4.238
Address: 70.86.4.238#53
Aliases:

virtualmin.com has address 70.86.4.238

That last line is where we get our answer--all of the other stuff is identifying the name server. A wrong answer will look like:

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ host notvirtualmin.com 70.86.4.238
Using domain server:
Name: 70.86.4.238
Address: 70.86.4.238#53
Aliases:

Host notvirtualmin.com not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

But it'll also be quick. ;-)

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Mon, 11/13/2006 - 17:00
HowardPierce

Like this?

Using domain server:
Name: 65.111.170.155
Address: 65.111.170.155#53
Aliases:

www.texasfrightmareweekend.com has address 65.111.171.250

Mon, 11/13/2006 - 17:04 (Reply to #5)
Joe
Joe's picture

Yep. That's what we're looking for.

Ok, so DNS is not to blame. On to other possibilities.

Are there any errors in the error_log in the domain owners ~/logs directory when problems occur?

Any errors in /var/log/httpd/error_log?

Anything funny looking in the kernel log (I'm grasping a bit, as I can't think of many causes for the symptoms you're seeing) that might indicate memory or NIC hardware problems? (Kernel log can be seen using the command &quot;dmesg&quot;)

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Mon, 11/13/2006 - 17:03
HowardPierce

Is it possible to use the same ip address for both nameservers? Or does it HAVE to be a different IP address. Plus, if the other IP is on the same machine is that a huge issue?

Mon, 11/13/2006 - 17:24
HowardPierce

In his logs file I see nothing other than some bad links like robot.txt and some missing files he linked to from other sites.

In the kernel log, I see nothing but boot messages. All things look like it found a mouse, it set up eth0 etc.

Does this matter from the httpd error log?
Cannot find module (NET-SNMP-EXTEND-MIB): At line 0 in (none)

Mon, 11/13/2006 - 18:43 (Reply to #8)
Joe
Joe's picture

Nope, that error (along with about a dozen others that surround it) is a PHP bug, but it's harmless.

But, I've found your problem:

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ whois texasfrightmareweekend.com
...
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.FREEDOM-HALL.NET
NS.FREEDOM-HALL.NET
...

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ host texasfrightmareweekend.com NS1.FREEDOM-HALL.NET
host: couldn't get address for 'NS1.FREEDOM-HALL.NET': not found

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ host texasfrightmareweekend.com NS.FREEDOM-HALL.NET
host: couldn't get address for 'NS.FREEDOM-HALL.NET': not found

Your nameservers for this domain don't resolve:

[[virtualmin@www public_html]]$ host NS1.FREEDOM-HALL.NET
Host NS1.FREEDOM-HALL.NET not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

You've either gotta make those ns1 and ns names resolve on freedom-hall.net, or you've gotta update your registrar to point somewhere else for this domain.

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Mon, 11/13/2006 - 19:50
HowardPierce

Actually that domain is a bad example.

Except for him, (and I have others doing the same) everybody is on ns.helvawebhost.com and ns1.helvawebhost.com

This is what I get from whois for helvawebhost.net

Domain servers in listed order:
NS.HELVAWEBHOST.COM
NS1.HELVAWEBHOST.COM

[[root@sp4691 howard]]# host helvawebhost.net ns.helvawebhost.com
Using domain server:
Name: ns.helvawebhost.com
Address: 65.111.170.155#53
Aliases:

helvawebhost.net has address 65.111.171.248

host helvawebhost.net ns1.helvawebhost.com host: couldn't get address for 'ns1.helvawebhost.com': not found

ns1 I defined in the bind server utilities as 65.111.171.250

It is appropriately named at godaddy, the registrar. I just changed from 65.111.170.155 which is still the same NIC card, but I thought maybe it wasn't working due to a repeat of the same IP. Excuse my ignorance but I am new to this.

If you want to pop into my server let me know, and I will email you the info. I don't use the default port for virtualmin.

Thanks

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