A> The domain is 'southbank.blackboard.net'.

No it isn't. The domain name was
"southbank.blackboard.net.MRH.local.", because you didn't use a fully
qualified domain name when you invoked the tool. The output of the
tool in fact told you that this was the domain name:

A> QUESTIONS:
A> southbank.blackboard.net.MRH.local, type = A, class = IN

It's unlikely that you intended such a domain name to exist, so the
fact that it doesn't isn't a problem. The tool then tried another,
simpler, variation on turning the non-fully-qualified name that you
supplied into a fully qualified domain name:

A> QUESTIONS:
A> southbank.blackboard.net, type = A, class = IN

The "server failure" answer, that you received in turn for that, is
because the people who publish the DNS data for "blackboard.net." have
supplied a client-side alias for "southbank.blackboard.net.", pointing
to "southbank.blackboard.com.", that has a time to live of zero
seconds:

> southbank.blackboard.net. 0 IN CNAME southbank.blackboard.com.
> southbank.blackboard.com. 3600 IN A 209.133.75.134

The alias data are expiring from your resolving proxy DNS server's
cache whilst it is trying to obtain the DNS data for the target of the
alias. This only happens the first time that your resolving proxy DNS
server attempts query resolution. The second time (presuming that it
is no longer than 3600 seconds later), your resolving proxy DNS server
will have the target data already cached, it will have no need to
perform additional back-end queries to obtain those data, and so the
alias won't have the opportunity to expire.

This is not your problem. It is theirs. A zero TTL on a client-side
alias is a well-known cause of such difficulties. To quote Mark
Andrews, "Zero is a good way to inflict a DoS on yourself."; and this
is precisely what the people who publish the DNS data for
"blackboard.net." have done to themselves. You might care to tell
them.

In news:790132e8-896f-4ea6-825c-81ab80f6dcd0@y43g2000hsy.googlegroups.com,
J de Boyne Pollard <j.deboynepollard@tesco.net> typed:
<snipped>
> This is not your problem. It is theirs. A zero TTL on a client-side
> alias is a well-known cause of such difficulties. To quote Mark
> Andrews, "Zero is a good way to inflict a DoS on yourself."; and this
> is precisely what the people who publish the DNS data for
> "blackboard.net." have done to themselves. You might care to tell
> them.

Nice catch.

It's been quite some time since I've seen you in the groups, Jonathan. Nice
to see you again,. I hope you've been well.

Ace

AF> It's been quite some time since I've seen you in the groups,
Jonathan.

In part that's because the disc holding my news spool went kaput. I
still haven't saved up the cash to have the data recovered from it.

AF> Nice to see you again,. I hope you've been well.

Thank you for those kind words.

In news:36a788eb-8872-43dc-86e3-e24f921fa792@o6g2000hsd.googlegroups.com,
J de Boyne Pollard <j.deboynepollard@tesco.net> typed:
> > It's been quite some time since I've seen you in the groups,
> Jonathan.
>
> In part that's because the disc holding my news spool went kaput. I
> still haven't saved up the cash to have the data recovered from it.
>
> > Nice to see you again,. I hope you've been well.
>
> Thank you for those kind words.

You are welcome. I hope you can overcome your dilemma with the crashed disc.

Read inline please.

In news:O0F2zX8NIHA.5400@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
Ace Fekay [MVP] <PleaseAskMe@SomeDomain.com> typed:
> In
> news:36a788eb-8872-43dc-86e3-e24f921fa792@o6g2000hsd.googlegroups.com,
> J de Boyne Pollard <j.deboynepollard@tesco.net> typed:
>>> It's been quite some time since I've seen you in the groups,
>> Jonathan.
>>
>> In part that's because the disc holding my news spool went kaput. I
>> still haven't saved up the cash to have the data recovered from it.
>>
>>> Nice to see you again,. I hope you've been well.
>>
>> Thank you for those kind words.
>
> You are welcome. I hope you can overcome your dilemma with the
> crashed disc.

All this time, and I just thought Jonathan must have fallen off the face of
the Earth. I is kinda nice to have his intellectual type of input, I really
did miss it.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This s

===================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
via your newsreader so that others may learn and
benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
me remove the nospam. from my email address.
===================================
http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
http://support.wftx.us/
http://message.wftx.us/
===================================
Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
It will strip signature out and more
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
===================================
Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
with OEBackup:
http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
===================================

Read inline please.

In news:O0F2zX8NIHA.5400@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl,
Ace Fekay [MVP] <PleaseAskMe@SomeDomain.com> typed:
> In
> news:36a788eb-8872-43dc-86e3-e24f921fa792@o6g2000hsd.googlegroups.com,
> J de Boyne Pollard <j.deboynepollard@tesco.net> typed:
>>> It's been quite some time since I've seen you in the groups,
>> Jonathan.
>>
>> In part that's because the disc holding my news spool went kaput. I
>> still haven't saved up the cash to have the data recovered from it.
>>
>>> Nice to see you again,. I hope you've been well.
>>
>> Thank you for those kind words.
>
> You are welcome. I hope you can overcome your dilemma with the
> crashed disc.

All this time, and I just thought Jonathan must have fallen off the face of
the Earth. I is kinda nice to have his intellectual type of input, I really
did miss it.

--
Best regards,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP]
Hope This s

===================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group"
via your newsreader so that others may learn and
benefit from your issue, to respond directly to
me remove the nospam. from my email address.
===================================
http://www.lonestaramerica.com/
http://support.wftx.us/
http://message.wftx.us/
===================================
Use Outlook Express?... Get OE_Quotefix:
It will strip signature out and more
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/
===================================
Keep a back up of your OE settings and folders
with OEBackup:
http://www.oe.com/OEBackup/Default.aspx
===================================

In news:OWD3%23WCOIHA.5140@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl,
Kevin D. Goodknecht Sr. [MVP] <admin@nospam.WFTX.US> typed:

> All this time, and I just thought Jonathan must have fallen off the
> face of the Earth. I is kinda nice to have his intellectual type of
> input, I really did miss it.

I must agree!

;-)