> ] This problem seems to be upstream, as DK sussed out, but if you're not
 > ] supposed to be now authoritative for these subdomains, might it not be
 > ] best to stop serving them, ie pull your zonefiles? 
 > 
 > No.  Seol *is* supposed to be authoritative for these subdomains,
 > so they should *not* stop serving them.

If that's the case, then *certainly* :)  I did say 'if', unsure from
Tony's message, but yes, that's what arnie.systems.sa.gov.au reckons. 

 > What they should do is stop asking whois about DNS servers (at least
 > for sa.gov.au).

I guess the whois data being wrong is another issue, but as you say ..

 > If you want to know whether you are not supposed to be serving a zone
 > any more, ask DNS servers (preferably the DNS servers for the parent
 > of the zone in question - in this case the sa.gov.au DNS servers),
 > not whois servers.

However arnie.systems.sa.gov.au. still doesn't know ns.seol.net.au.'s
IP, it's an NXDOMAIN here too.  I see Tony's updated his zone files on
ns1 & ns2 so these may still be percolating through - although
ns1.seol.net.au doesn't yet know about ns.seol.net.au either .. 

; <<>> DiG 2.2 <<>> &#167;ns.seol.net.au ns.seol.net.au
; Bad server: ns.seol.net.au -- using default server and timer opts
; (1 server found)
;; res options: init recurs defnam dnsrch
;; got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 10    <<<<<<<<<<< !!!
;; flags: qr rd ra; Ques: 1, Ans: 0, Auth: 1, Addit: 0
;; QUESTIONS:
;;      ns.seol.net.au, type = A, class = IN

;; AUTHORITY RECORDS:
seol.net.au.    3600    SOA     ns1.seol.net.au. tony.seol.net.au. (
                        2003091301      ; serial
                        900     ; refresh (15 mins)
                        600     ; retry (10 mins)
                        86400   ; expire (1 day)
                        3600 )  ; minimum (1 hour)

Fortunately one working NS is enough to make things work in this case .. 

 > ] While the DNS should
 > ] adjust and ignore undelegated or misdelegated servers, I've seen ongoing
 > ] confusion and periodic SOA pingpong disagreements lasting months.
 > 
 > It will always cause problems for people who happen to use that DNS
 > server as an upstream for DNS queries (eg: seol ISP customers would
 > see the old version of the DNS info for robe.sa.gov.au).

Well I guess when ns.seol.net.au does reappear with an A record, things
might settle down.  Then I suppose that Tony could phase the old ns out
after delegation to ns1 & ns2 has propogated throughout for all domains?

Cheers, Ian