Is there a reason you are still running that old version of Bind? It is much more susceptible to cache poisoning atacks than Bind 9.
I'm guessing this is just a cache server at this point.
If it can pull the NS record for a domain is it able to perform lookups on that server?
For example lets say you can't get yahoo.com to resolve. Try this on your DNS server..
To get the NS servers...
Code:
# dig yahoo.com NS
; <<>> DiG 9.3.1 <<>> yahoo.com NS
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 34790
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 5
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;yahoo.com. IN NS
;; ANSWER SECTION:
yahoo.com. 129491 IN NS ns1.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 129491 IN NS ns2.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 129491 IN NS ns3.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 129491 IN NS ns4.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 129491 IN NS ns5.yahoo.com.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.yahoo.com. 133520 IN A 66.218.71.63
ns2.yahoo.com. 137437 IN A 66.163.169.170
ns3.yahoo.com. 137437 IN A 217.12.4.104
ns4.yahoo.com. 137442 IN A 63.250.206.138
ns5.yahoo.com. 137437 IN A 216.109.116.17
Now we will ask their NS server (ns1.yahoo.com) for the Authoritative record for yahoo.com
Code:
# dig @ns1.yahoo.com yahoo.com A
; <<>> DiG 9.3.1 <<>> @ns1.yahoo.com yahoo.com A
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 18021
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 5, ADDITIONAL: 5
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;yahoo.com. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
yahoo.com. 300 IN A 216.109.112.135
yahoo.com. 300 IN A 66.94.234.13
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
yahoo.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 172800 IN NS ns3.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 172800 IN NS ns4.yahoo.com.
yahoo.com. 172800 IN NS ns5.yahoo.com.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.yahoo.com. 172800 IN A 66.218.71.63
ns2.yahoo.com. 172800 IN A 66.163.169.170
ns3.yahoo.com. 172800 IN A 217.12.4.104
ns4.yahoo.com. 172800 IN A 63.250.206.138
ns5.yahoo.com. 172800 IN A 216.109.116.17
;; Query time: 89 msec
;; SERVER: 66.218.71.63#53(66.218.71.63)
;; WHEN: Thu Aug 11 00:16:52 2005
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 229
In the "ANSWER SECTION:" holds the IP for yahoo.com
So knowing if you can do that from the DNS server will help isolate the problem. Your server could just have bad cache for the domain. Is this a public server or is it behind a firewall on a private network?