DNS client lookups, was [Fwd: Re: DNS configuration Tool]

[Ade Bradshaw]

Rodolfo J. Paiz wrote:
> At 04:26 1/2/2004, you wrote:
> 
> 
>>> Huh? Clients are configured to use one or more DNS servers. They will 
>>> ask any of those servers for an answer, in any order. So what you ask 
>>> for cannot be done. What you probably want is for 2.5 to resolve all 
>>> queries for 0.0 as well, and use the "forward first;" and "forwarders 
>>> { ip.of.isp.dns; };" directives in BIND to take advantage of the 
>>> ISP's DNS cache.
>>>
>> In any order - is this true?  Wont it try primary first and then if no 
>> response, try secondary etc ??
> 
> 
> Ade,
> 
> If you feel like reading through DocBook XML, take a look at this:
> 
> http://www.simpaticus.com/linux/howto/xml/DNS-First-Steps.xml
> 
> This is still a DRAFT, so I suggest you do not bookmark it yet. I'm 

Hi Rodolfo, many thanks for the link, it is a very clear document, very 
well written.

However, I think that everyone has confused my initial question. It 
WASNT about if a master server will be queried before a slave. I think I 
didnt really ask the question clearly enough, so here goes.

If a client machine is set up with two entries in its /etc/resolv.conf I 
  thought that it will always ask the server that is first in this file 
and only ever ask the server that is second in this file if it gets no 
response from the first one. This is certainly how Windows clients work 
if you define two ip addresses for DNS servers.

What I thought the original poster was saying is that it will ask either 
of those servers in any order.

 >>> Huh? Clients are configured to use one or more DNS servers.
 >>> They will ask any of those servers for an answer, in any
 >>> order. So what you ask <snip>

Im not sure if Im being much clearer now ;-)   In a nutshell, if a DNS 
*client* has two entries in /etc/resolv.conf will it always ask the 
first server listed or will it choose one at random ??

Many thanks for your reply

Ade