Both... if a query is made to a DNS server who believes that it is authoritative for that domain, it will answer the query (directly or recursively) or return a "Not Found" message. Glenn Sullivan, MCSE+I MCDBA David Clark Company Inc. ________________________________ From: windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Beckett Posted At: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 8:59 AM Posted To: Windows 2000 Conversation: [windows2000] Re: DNS Subject: [windows2000] Re: DNS Would this apply to an MX record as well or just host records? -----Original Message----- From: Sullivan, Glenn [mailto:GSullivan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: Monday, June 28, 2004 3:37 PM To: windows2000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [windows2000] Re: DNS If the address is in a local zone, it never forwards. If the address is not in a local zone, it always forwards. So, if your DNS Server has a zone name "foo.com." then any request for any host at foo.com will be resolved (or deferred, but to down-level DNS servers only, for subdomains) locally, with no forwarders. Any other domain will be forwarded. Which is why you have to delete the "." zone before the forwarders will work... if not, then every zone is a sub-domain of one of your "local" zones, and will be resolved with recursion, rather than forwarding the request to another server. ie, a request to www.davidclark.com will be recursively deferred to the servers for ".com" which will refer to the servers for "davidclark.com" which will return the record for www up the chain and back to the client... Capish? Glenn Sullivan, MCSE+I MCDBA David Clark Company Inc. ________________________________ From: windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:windows2000-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Beckett Posted At: Monday, June 28, 2004 3:27 PM Posted To: Windows 2000 Conversation: [windows2000] DNS Subject: [windows2000] DNS Can someone definitively answer this question... If using forwarders on your W2K DNS server, does the forward lookup occur first or after the DNS server fails to resolve the name?