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network-programmingdnsnslookup

What does 'No such name' mean in DNS?

So i'm currently using Wireshark to investigate DNS traffic. In the command prompt, i am running the query nslookup to lookup a domain. In wireshark i am getting the following response:

Flags: 0x8183 Standard query response, No such name
    1... .... .... .... = Response: Message is a response
    .000 0... .... .... = Opcode: Standard query (0)
    .... .0.. .... .... = Authoritative: Server is not an authority for domain
    .... ..0. .... .... = Truncated: Message is not truncated
    .... ...1 .... .... = Recursion desired: Do query recursively
    .... .... 1... .... = Recursion available: Server can do recursive queries
    .... .... .0.. .... = Z: reserved (0)
    .... .... ..0. .... = Answer authenticated: Answer/authority portion was not authenticated by the server
    .... .... ...0 .... = Non-authenticated data: Unacceptable
    .... .... .... 0011 = Reply code: No such name (3)

What exactly does 'No such name' mean and why is it being displayed?

Solution

  • Look at the description of NXDOMAIN in RFC 1035 section 4.1.1:

    https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1035#section-4.1.1

                3               Name Error - Meaningful only for
                            responses from an authoritative name
                            server, this code signifies that the
                            domain name referenced in the query does
                            not exist.