What is Lame Delegation?

A DNS name server is considered lame when it does not adequately respond to DNS queries either by:

• Not responding at all.
• Responding in some way, but not for the specific domain queried.
• Responding to the correct domain, but without the authority bit set.

Lame delegations can lead to:

• Denial of certain services and delays due to DNS malfunctions.
• Timeouts from unresponsive servers that can increase DNS traffic between caching and authoritative DNS servers, resulting in possible load on infrastructure and increased operating costs.

What can a member do to resolve Lame Delegation?

Objects with lame delegations can be corrected or updated:

• Through MyAFRINIC, under the "Reverse Delegation" tab in the "Resources" Menu.
• Via the WHOIS server update section of the AFRINIC website - https://www.afrinic.net/services/whois-query
• Through e-mail, where the domain objects can be submitted to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for automatic processing.

Members can always contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for any additional assistance.

DNS troubleshooting best practices are recommended in RFC 1912 at https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1912.txt

Read more on the implementation of the policy 'Lame Delegations in the AFRINIC reverse DNS’ here.