Spamhaus RBL lookups failing intermittently using local DNS
I'm running into a problem with the Spamhaus RBL, where if the local DNS (i.e. 127.0.0.1) is the only listing in the resolv.conf file, lookups will intermittently fail (they might work for 6 - 24 hours or so, but then fail for the next 6 - 12 hours or so, back and forth), where as if I add a couple of external DNSs to the resolv.conf file (i.e. a couple of public DNSs, etc.), the lookups work perfectly.
I'm running Linux / Debian - Bind.
Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be here?
My knowledge of Linux is quite minimal, so I don't really know what to look for here. It could be something simple.
Its worth noting this problem is specific to the Spamhaus RBL, I also use the SpamCop RBL and it works perfectly regardless of my resolv.conf config.
Its also worth noting that while using external DNSs is a working solution, it's against Spamhaus policy...
If you are using a free "open DNS resolver" service such as Google Public DNS or Level3's public DNS servers to resolve your DNSBL requests, in most cases you will receive a "not listed" (NXDOMAIN) reply from Spamhaus' public DNSBL servers. Please use your own DNS servers when doing DNSBL queries to Spamhaus.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
