[ale] OT: Still can't access mozilla.org

[Alan Dobkin]

On 10/19/2006 11:58 AM, Scott Castaline wrote:
> Interestingly I tried that using my original dns, which I have gone back
> to: 64.94.1.1 or 64.94.1.33 which gets back the IPs you listed also dns
> @ IP 4.2.2.1 gives back the same, but both of Emory's at 170.140.1.1 &
> 170.140.2.1 indicated that it couldn't find www.mozilla.org or .com
> and Speakeasy's dns were unavailable, didn't try earthlink or
> bellslouth.

If you are outside of their network and not using VPN, I believe that
Emory's DNS servers do not allow recursive lookups to non-authoritative
domains.  However, probably due to a misconfiguration on their servers,
they do respond with cached lookups, which may give the perception that
their DNS servers are open to the public, even though they are not. 
Therefore, if you try to go to a site such as www.mozilla.org, and that
site is not already in their cache at the time of your request, then it
may appear as unavailable.

The moral of the story is: use your own ISP's DNS servers.  If they are
unreliable, switch to another ISP, or run your own DNS server.

Alan