DNS wildcard: make all subdomains unresolvable

Question

Here's the situation:

before I bought the domain, all of its subdomains were resolving to some IP address (let's call it WRONG IP)
after I bought it - nothing changed. I could add my own records, but any non-existing subdomains would still point to WRONG IP
to counteract this, I created a wildcard subdomain to point to my server (let's call it RIGHT IP).
now all non-existing subdomains point to RIGHT IP

But all I want is a couple of A records ... that's all. I don't want all of the non-existing subdomains to point anywhere. I just want them to not resolve at all.

How could I do this?

Thanks for your thoughts

Could you give us a concrete example? I ask this because, assuming you aren't currently advertising any wildcard records inside the zone itself, this is often because the web client's ISP provides wildcard records for **everything** that is otherwise unresolvable, often for marketing/advertising purposes. There's nothing you can do about that, but we need to establish if that's the case. — MadHatter, Mar 22 '13 at 09:40
@MadHatter i'm sorry i do not want to tell the domain name here. It is possible that was the case with the previous domain owner, since it was pointing to a marketing page. But right now with a reputable hosting company i should be able to fix this (if only i knew how). P.S. i'm using network-tools.com to test dns records — Marius, Mar 22 '13 at 09:47
That's certainly your prerogative, but these questions are generally much harder to answer without real data (see, eg, the answer at http://serverfault.com/questions/485137/lame-dns-server/485148#485148 ). I wish you well and hope you find an answer, but if you won't help us, I'm afraid I'm not willing to spend the substantial extra time required to help you. — MadHatter, Mar 22 '13 at 10:39
@MadHatter thank you for trying to help. I really appreciate it. For now i don't want to look lame and helpless, pasting my domain on a forum. But if the hosting support doesn't find an answer soon, i guess i'll just have no choice. — Marius, Mar 22 '13 at 10:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 11:00

The answer to my question was one of those things you think would be too simple to actually try. After waiting a while for the wildcard record to propogate all over the world, i removed that record completely. And the hosting provider's dns servers are now correctly not resolving non-existing domains instead of pointing to a marketing page.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '13 at 13:36

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What are the "dns suffix" settings on your machine/router/dhcp?

I could only explain this behavior when, on your machine there's a DNS suffix that has a wildcard record, and if you go to nonexisting.domain.com, in fact it is resolved as nonexisting.domain.com.dns-suffix.other-domain.com (which is resolvable to your WRONG IP).

answered Mar 22 '13 at 13:36

Emil C

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Thank you, Emil, for trying to help, but the problem is already solved as stated in my own answer. It was really very simple and nothing to do with my machine. – Marius Mar 22 '13 at 19:30

Peter · Answer 3 · 2013-03-22T12:21:26.263

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You can try to add the following A record: @ IN A 127.0.0.1 It's not a perfect solution but it is a solution. I believe that will solve your problem.

edited Mar 22 '13 at 12:21

answered Mar 22 '13 at 10:37

Peter

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Umm, how does that make his subdomains unresolveable? – MadHatter Mar 22 '13 at 10:41
Well, it could point to 127.0.0.1. – Peter Mar 22 '13 at 11:42
That's quite an important distinction; you might want to edit that into your question! – MadHatter Mar 22 '13 at 12:16

DNS wildcard: make all subdomains unresolvable

3 Answers3