Some of the more pedantic registries require that nameservers for a new domain reg be up and available. In theory they are also supposed to answer auth for the new domain being registered, but I am not sure how many actually check for an SOA. Afternic used to wildcard NS records for that reason, so the practice isn't anything new. In theory this doesnt break anything, since the nameservers in question aren't providing recursive service to anyone. Any questions they see are the result of a followed delegation. So I don't see why this would cause problems anywhere. matto On Tue, 14 Oct 2003, Rick Ernst wrote: This was brought to my attention by a friend. It looks like ns1.domainmonger.com and ns2.domainmonger.com are doing wildcard A records for all zones, including those that already exist. If you go to their site and try to register a domain, it properly shows if the domain exists or not. I'm trying to figure out what the reasoning is behind this. My friend alo pointed out this CERT alert, but I'm not sure how it relates: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/109475 Rick --mghali@snark.net------------------------------------------<darwin>< Flowers on the razor wire/I know you're here/We are few/And far between/I was thinking about her skin/Love is a many splintered thing/Don't be afraid now/Just walk on in. #include <disclaim.h>