RE: [ga] More on Sitefinder suspension

[Steven Heath <Steven.Heath@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dan Steinberg [mailto:synthesis@xxxxxxxxxxxx]did say:

> ok.... I will play along.  Who can point me to the line(s) in these RFCs 
> that actually specifies this?
> sigh...this is all about precision.  If we think there is a mess, we got 
> into this mess by failing to specify enough.  Vagueness will not get us 
> anywhere.  I repeat my original question:. Find me something to work 
> with here, please?

VGRS in its contract to ICANN has to follow certain Internet Standards. One
of these is RFC 1035 called "Domain names - implementation and
specification" (ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc1035.txt) 

Section 4.1.1 Page 26 of RFC 1035 has the following:

RCODE           Response code - this 4 bit field is set as part of
                responses.  The values have the following
                interpretation:

                0               No error condition

                1               Format error - The name server was
                                unable to interpret the query.

                2               Server failure - The name server was
                                unable to process this query due to a
                                problem with the name server.

                3               Name Error - Meaningful only for
                                responses from an authoritative name
                                server, this code signifies that the
                                domain name referenced in the query does
                                not exist.

                4               Not Implemented - The name server does
                                not support the requested kind of query.

                5               Refused - The name server refuses to
                                perform the specified operation for
                                policy reasons.  For example, a name
                                server may not wish to provide the
                                information to the particular requester,
                                or a name server may not wish to perform
                                a particular operation (e.g., zonetransfer)
for particular data.

                6-15            Reserved for future use.

Please look at error code 3 for rcode.

RFC 2308 on Page 1 has the following:

""NXDOMAIN" - an alternate expression for the "Name Error" RCODE as
described in [RFC1035 Section 4.1.1] and the two terms are used
interchangeably in this document."

As per my earlier message the VGRS contract with ICANN states in Appendix C
Section 4:

"Nameserver operations for the Registry TLD shall comply with RFC 1034,
1035, and 2182."

http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/registry-agmt-appc-16apr01.htm
#4

RFC 2308 also has detailed information on error handling but as the VGRS
contract does not refer to 2308 I have only referred to it for the nxdomain
= rcode aspects.

VGRS is in fact not returning nxdomain error but with a A record for records
that do not exist.

Is this enough detail with page numbers for you Dan?

Steven Heath
.nz news & views
www.nznews.org.nz