[fjk].gtld-servers.net (which are listed as authoritative for .com) are giving bogus authoritative nxdomain results for all the .com domains I tried. eg. ; <<>> DiG 2.2 <<>> internic.com @f.gtld-servers.net ; (1 server found) ;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch ;; got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 10 ;; flags: qr aa rd; Ques: 1, Ans: 0, Auth: 1, Addit: 0 ;; QUESTIONS: ;; internic.com, type = A, class = IN ;; AUTHORITY RECORDS: COM. 86400 SOA A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET. hostmaster.INTERNIC.NET. ( 1998111000 ; serial 1800 ; refresh (30 mins) 900 ; retry (15 mins) 604800 ; expire (7 days) 86400 ) ; minimum (1 day) ;; Total query time: 67 msec ;; FROM: valis.worldgate.com to SERVER: f.gtld-servers.net 207.159.77.18 ;; WHEN: Wed Nov 11 11:17:16 1998 ;; MSG SIZE sent: 30 rcvd: 107 f.root-servers.net is giving non-authoritative "sorry, I don't do that, here are the nameservers for .com" responses. I have sent mail to the InterNIC, but just in case you were wondering why you are seeing what you may be seeing. Symptoms of this problem are being told by your resolver that various domains do not exist once in a while.