ok so this part does not mystify me...
Someone has been in contact with Joe via phone and posted to another mailing list That Zhall Not Be Named that exactly that is happening. The zone is dead, ...
...because running blackhole lists is surprisingly more hard than most people think. (witness the sorbs.net message here a few hours ago complaining of 50Kpkt/day query loads.) i've paid some dues in this area, so i feel qualified to say that "i told you so" on this topic. but at least there's no mystery. this part, on the other hand...
he's put *.*.*.* in, he's asking people not to use it anymore.
...mystifies me. anyone who has read rfc1034 or rfc1035, even if they did not also read rfc2181 or rfc2136 or rfc2308, knows that in a zone containing the following wildcardish data: $ORIGIN example.vix.com. * 1H IN A 127.0.0.1 *.* 1H IN A 127.0.0.2 *.*.* 1H IN A 127.0.0.3 *.*.*.* 1H IN A 127.0.0.4 the result will be that only the top one will match: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16926 ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUERY SECTION: ;; 40.30.20.10.example.vix.com, type = A, class = IN ;; ANSWER SECTION: 40.30.20.10.example.vix.com. 1H IN A 127.0.0.1 and that in a zone containing only this data: $ORIGIN example.vix.com. *.*.*.* 1H IN A 127.0.0.4 the result will be that none of them ever match: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 44811 ;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUERY SECTION: ;; 40.30.20.10.example.vix.com, type = A, class = IN you don't even need to read draft-ietf-dnsext-wcard-clarify-01.txt to know that putting "*.*.*.*" into a zone won't actually mean, or do, *anything*.
It may be back in the future with a new network setup, but right now consider it down.
i'm not completely sure, but i don't think this list will see much action in the future from the sysadmins who had to make emergency config changes today to avoid bouncing all their e-mail. "once burned, twice shy," eh? when i deprecated the old $foo.maps.vix.com zones in favour of the their corresponding replacements $bar.mail-abuse.org some years ago, i had the foresight to ensure that no mail would be blocked by people who failed to put in the configuration change. now you can all see why that was nec'y. -- Paul Vixie