[ale] null.null.host oddity

[John Wells]

I can tell you why you're probably seeing it.  I can't tell you the reason
the entries are there.

First, speedfactory leases bandwidth from BS, iirc.  I see the same
behavior as you on my private network, and I do use BellSouth.

These hostN-null.null.bellsouth.net host names are being returned from
your dns servers.  Since speedfactory uses BellSouth bandwidth, I wonder
if they also pay for the right to use BellSouth's DNS?  I assume this
would have to be (or they use BellSouth's servers for their default
forwards), because BS dns servers block queries from non-bs addresses.

Here's my resolv.conf settings...check yours and see:
nameserver 205.152.37.254
nameserver 205.152.0.5

Anyway, the N in the hostname changes according to the last digit on my
private net ip.  In other words, if I dig -x 172.16.2.1, I'll get a reply
from BellSouth's server of host1-null.null.bellsouth.net.  If I do the
same for 172.16.2.24, I'll get host24-null.null.bellsouth.net.

For whatever reason, BellSouth has set up these dummy entries for private
net address space.  Or, they have it set up to just do a modified dummy
reply for lookups on the private address space. Have no idea why, but
perhaps someone else on the list could add an explanation.

I wouldn't think it's something to worry about.

John



Brian said:
> I ran across an odd thing that's trigerring my
> paranoia meter to its peak. I started seeing my
> machine and other machines on the lan identified as
> host1(??)-null.null.bellsouth.net.
>
> ie. host13-null.null.bellsouth.net (192.168.1.20) //
> private ip ...
>
> Why am I seeing a bellsouth.net (on a private ip!)
> domain while I'm not even with them. I'm with
> speedfactory. I can't even see such entries on my
> hosts files, etc.. in my machines.
>
> I noticed it a couple of times today but can't figure
> out any reason. I noticed it in an ssh login to
> another local machine and in a console on my
> workstation.
>
> =====
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> things."
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