For some domains nslookup
gives me a Non-authoritative answer
section. What does this mean?
Got answer:
HEADER:
opcode = QUERY, id = 3, rcode = NXDOMAIN
header flags: response, want recursion, recursion avail.
questions = 1, answers = 0, authority records = 1, additional =
QUESTIONS:
www.example.com.SME, type = AAAA, class = IN
AUTHORITY RECORDS:
-> (root)
ttl = 1787 (29 mins 47 secs)
primary name server = a.root-servers.net
responsible mail addr = nstld.verisign-grs.com
------------
Non-authoritative answer:
------------
------------
Name: example.com
Address: 93.184.216.34
Aliases: www.example.com
Best Answer
Basically, it's what the name says it is. An authoritative answer comes from a nameserver that is considered authoritative for the domain which it's returning a record for (one of the nameservers in the list for the domain you did a lookup on), and a non-authoritative answer comes from anywhere else (a nameserver not in the list for the domain you did a lookup on).
It's basically a distinction between a nameserver that's an official nameserver for the domain you're querying, and a nameserver that isn't. Nameservers that aren't authoritative are getting their answers second (or third or fourth...) hand - just relaying the information along from somewhere else.
So, for example, If I did an nslookup of
maps.google.com
right now, I would get a response from one of my configured nameservers. (Either from my ISP, or my domain.) It would come back as non-authoritative because neither my ISP's nameservers, nor my own are in the list of nameservers forgoogle.com
. They aren't Google's nameservers, so they're not the authoritative source that creates the NS records.The list of authoritative nameservers for Google is below (from whois.internic.net).
If I changed my configured DNS server to one of the ones in that list, and then did an
nslookup
againstmaps.google.com
, I'd get an authoritative answer back. Those servers are the authority, (or source) for what are valid names in Google's domains, and what aren't. All other nameservers, non-authoritative nameservers, get their NS records from the authoritative servers somewhere down the line.