Reverse DNS: That's not me!

I have Speakeasy DSL at home with a static IP address (I'm boycotting Comcast). I run a Linux server on a Mac Mini and I use it for all my messaging (using naim IRC/AIM and Jabber via Bitlbee, but that's for another post).

Since I SSH into my Linux box several times a day, it would be nice to avoid typing the full IP address each time. So I decided to setup an A Record on one of the domains I own (we'll use dev82.org as an example) so that dev82.org points to the IP address of my home DSL connection (66.92.25.92 in this example).

After transferring the Speakeasy DSL to my new apartment in Cambridge, I had a new IP address. No problem -- I simply updated the A Record and dev82.org worked again. However, this time I noticed something funky. Take a look at what hostname my IP address resolved to when I pinged dev82.org:

raam@wfc-main2:~$ ping dev82.org
PING dev82.org (66.92.25.92) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from host103-spk.online-buddies.com (66.92.25.92): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=38.3 ms

That's weird. What the hell is host103-spk.online-buddies.com? A little Googling tells me:

"Online Buddies, Inc., developer of MANHUNT.net is one of largest developers of web-oriented services serving the gay community."

Uh, I'm not gay. Besides, why the hell is my home DSL IP address responding to a domain I've never heard of? I ran a few more tests, including tests from different ISPs to rule out a local DNS issue. Each time, my home IP address resolved the same:

raam@wfc-main2:~$ nslookup 66.92.25.92
Non-authoritative answer:
92.25.92.66.in-addr.arpa name = host92-spk.online-buddies.com.

So I decided to pick up the phone and call Speakeasy. They have always been helpful and I figured worst-case scenario is that I'll have to request a new IP address and re-point dev82.org. At least that way my IP address won't resolve to some gay site.

I called Speakeasy at 3:30am and had a tech on the phone within 3 minutes (Speakeasy rocks). I explained to the tech my situation and he quickly had an explanation: Whoever was assigned my IP address before I was must have had it set up to resolve to that hostname.

I told the tech I had setup an A Record to point the IP address to dev82.org. After confirming that was true with a ping test, the tech said he would update the Reverse DNS record so that 66.92.25.92 resolves to dev82.org.

This is awesome. I had no idea I could request an update to the Reverse DNS record for my static DSL connection! I wonder how easy that process is with a Comcast connection, or if it's even possible. 😕

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