Question
What are the error codes produced by DNS resolution?
Answer
These are the list of error codes that can be returned by DNS lookups:
| DNS error | Error explanation |
|---|---|
| 0 | Routine successful – The DNS query completed successfully |
| -1 | Generic routine failure – The most likely reason is that the configured DNS server was unreachable. Please check that you can query the DNS server directly from the mail server using nslookup. |
| -2 | Invalid thread block – The DNS server blocked the query. Please refer to the DNS administrator. |
| -3 | Memory allocation failed – There was not enough free memory to allocate to the query. |
| -4 | Corrupt input message (illegal access) – The input to the DNS query was not in an acceptable format. |
| -5 | Insufficient space in buffer for output data – The information returned by the DNS server was greater than the space allocated to contain it. This normally indicates a badly configured DNS record but if you are using UDP DNS lookups then you may want to try using TCP/IP queries which allow greater amounts of data to be transferred. |
| -6 | Item not found – There was no information found in the DNS server. |
| -7 | Bad parameters given to routine – The most likely reason is that an invalid type of DNS record was requested. |
| -8 | Recoverable error – This is a temporary error, please try again later. |
| -9 | Non-existent domain – The looked up domain does not exist. Either it is a legitimate domain that has been mis-spelled or it genuinely doesn’t exist. |
| -10 | Non-existent domain – The looked up domain does not exist. Either it is a legitimate domain that has been mis-spelled or it genuinely doesn’t exist. |
| -11 | Reply timed out – The DNS server did not respond within the allotted time frame. |
| -12 | Winsock error (WSAGetLastError should be applicable) – There was a winsock error, this error code should be indicated and can be matched against the standard list of winsock error codes to see what the problem is. |
| -13 | Socket operation with no socket – The DNS query was not able to obtain a socket to runt he query on. |
| -14 | Reply truncated – An incomplete response was returned by the DNS server. |
| -15 | System error (GetLastError should be applicable) – There was a system error, this error code should be indicated and can be matched against the standard list of system error codes to see what the problem is. |
| -16 | Reply corrupt or invalid – The DNS server returned information that could not be udnerstood. Try a manual query of DNS using nslookup and verify the returned data. |
| -17 | Caller’s buffer too small for all mail exchange records – The information returned by the DNS server was greater than the space allocated to contain it. This normally indicates a domain with large numbers of MX records. If you are using UDP DNS lookups then you may want to try using TCP/IP queries which allow greater amounts of data to be transferred. |
| -18 | Too many nested aliases – Aliases, otherwise known as CNAME records are only allowed to be a certain depth. This depth has been reached without reaching the end of the nesting in order to discover the resulting IP address. |
| -19 | Class not supported – The class of record being requested is not supported by the DNS server. |
| -20 | Last Error – returns the system error code for use in conjunction with failure -15 above. |
See Also:
Keywords:DNS error codes lookup