Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!pyrdc!pyrnj!rutgers!mailrus!sharkey!emv
From: emv@a.cc.umich.edu (Ed Vielmetti)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail,inet.comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Subject: Re: Sendmail/resolver problem
Message-ID: <1156@mailgw.cc.umich.edu>
Date: 19 Oct 88 05:32:36 GMT
References: <22426@tis.llnl.gov> <8XJXoXy00VsLE0VVkX@andrew.cmu.edu> <22431@tis.llnl.gov>
Reply-To: emv@mailgw.cc.umich.edu (Ed Vielmetti)
Followup-To: comp.protocols.tcp-ip.domains
Organization: University of Michigan Computing Center, Ann Arbor
Lines: 24

In article <22431@tis.llnl.gov> mcb@tis.llnl.gov (Michael C. Berch) writes:
>... we in foo.bar.gov don't want to be stuck even when the bar.gov
>name server is unreachable (it is on a different network).

If your name server is not under your administrative control,
and you depend on a name server for production work, then I
can suggest several solutions:

- turn foo.bar.gov into a domain, and have hosts be 
  your-name-here.foo.bar.gov.  Have the bar.gov allocate
  authority for foo.bar.gov to your name server and
  make sure that your own server works.

- if you're unwilling to rename machines, run an
  unannouced primary on your subnet, and update the
  tables with rdist or what have you.  Or run a real
  secondary server there.  

If you are hosed because your name server doesn't work often
enough, fix your name server, don't hack up your sendmail.
If your service provider isn't providing adequate service,
do it yourself.

--Ed