In the Rackshack.net FAQ's they list the following as a "...possible downfall of using the RaQ as both my nameservers?".

"NON-Authoritative - You will not be authoritative for the IP address located on the RaQ, therefor you cannot properly create any reverse lookup records for any IP addresses on the RaQ. "

Someone else asked this question in the rackshack.net forum, and it got me very curious.

What does this mean, and do we really care? To me it just says that if someone does a reverse lookup on the IP it will show rackshack/ev1 as the owner/authority as opposed to me...

Is that correct?

Thanks,
Scott

That's pretty much correct. Also, if anyone does a host lookup of a domain on the server, the result will be non-authoritative and thus, any authoritative settings will not show up.

You can use your RaQ as your nameservers but be cautioned. If your RaQ is down, so is your nameservers.

Actually, I am setting up seperate nameservers on two different RAQ's. So I shouldn't have any issues with DNS going down...

Does this apply to my situation as well? I'm not sure I understand the whole authoritative aspect of it.

Who sets up the PTR records?...Rackshack.net or me?...

Thanks,
Scott

If you are running DNS on two RaQs, you might not have any problems now or later. You don't really have to worry about the non-authoritative thing. As for PTR records, you would set that up.

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse here...just want to make sure I understand correctly.

I have a RAQ3 currently with Dialtone that I do both Pri and Sec DNS. They do all of the PTR records and control the IP addys. All I do is tell them what domain name to map to the IP to.

What is different about RackShack? Shouldn't they also be doing the PTR records for the IP's?

Thanks,
Scott

Nothing is different. See, since Dialtone runs the IPs, you tell them what to point each domain to. Then you setup the domain on the RaQ. Their network is designed so that the IPs given to you all point to your server. In Rackshack's case, the IPs are given in free blocks. This means that the IPs point to the network, but not directly to any particular server. In this case, you would setup each IP on your server itself and point each domain to whatever IP you choose in the DNS manager. It all comes down to how the network is setup. Neither is better than the other.

Originally posted by Reg
n on the RaQ. Their network is designed so that the IPs given to you all point to your server. In Rackshack's case, the IPs are given in free blocks. This means that the IPs point to the network, but not directly to any particular server. In this case,

I think you misunderstood him.

He was talking about PTR records, and getting the ISP to setup the PTR record so that the IP address resolves into the correct domainname (FQDN).

Please note, that while not critical, it is a very good idea to have the PTR records setup correctly. Some mailservers will refuse to accept mail from servers, that have an IP address which resolves into a domain that is different from the server domain.