Question about wildcard dns

I looked at your DNS settings:````
peter@fremont ~ $ dig @ns1.linode.com any avidblog.us

; <<>> DiG 9.4.1-P1 <<>> @ns1.linode.com any avidblog.us
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 29829
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 7, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 5
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;avidblog.us. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
avidblog.us. 86400 IN SOA ns1.linode.com. sync95.gmail.com. 2009032878 7200 7200 1209600 86400
avidblog.us. 86400 IN NS ns3.linode.com.
avidblog.us. 86400 IN NS ns1.linode.com.
avidblog.us. 86400 IN NS ns2.linode.com.
avidblog.us. 86400 IN NS ns4.linode.com.
avidblog.us. 86400 IN MX 10 mail.avidblog.us.
avidblog.us. 86400 IN A 209.123.234.214

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.linode.com. 3600 IN A 69.93.127.10
ns2.linode.com. 3600 IN A 65.19.178.10
ns3.linode.com. 3600 IN A 75.127.96.10
ns4.linode.com. 3600 IN A 207.192.70.10
mail.avidblog.us. 86400 IN A 209.123.234.214

;; Query time: 43 msec
;; SERVER: 69.93.127.10#53(69.93.127.10)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar 29 18:03:07 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 277
````

No wildcard?

I know its functioning as its working go to something.avidblog.us your going to be redirected to the avidblog.us or go to community.avidblog.us and you'll see it. I have entered the wildcard entries in dns and its functioning I just need to know why I can't create records for community.avidblog.us so it won't redirect to avidblog.us.

````
$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA ns1.linode.com. sync95.gmail.com. (
2009032973
7200
7200
1209600
86400
)
@ NS ns1.linode.com.
@ NS ns2.linode.com.
@ NS ns3.linode.com.
@ NS ns4.linode.com.
@ MX 10 mail.avidblog.us.
@ A 209.123.234.214
www A 209.123.234.214
mail A 209.123.234.214

• A 209.123.234.214

````

The records here show that I did put it in.

I don't see an entry for "community" in your zone file. It should be as simple as adding a new A record for it. I just tested this out, and things seem to work as expected (names and numbers changed to protect the guilty). The zone file:

$TTL 14440
@    IN  SOA ns1.linode.com. info.example.net. (
                    2009032972
                    7200
                    7200
                    1209600
                    14440 
                )
@        NS  ns1.linode.com.
@        NS  ns2.linode.com.
@        NS  ns3.linode.com.
@        NS  ns4.linode.com.
@            MX  10  mx00.1and1.com.
@            MX  10  mx01.1and1.com.
@            A   11.22.33.44
*            A   11.22.33.44
justatest            A   111.222.111.222

And results from dig:

$ dig example.net any

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> example.net any
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 1070
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 8, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 3

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.net.              IN      ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
example.net.       14440   IN      A       11.22.33.44
example.net.       14440   IN      NS      ns2.linode.com.
example.net.       14440   IN      NS      ns3.linode.com.
example.net.       14440   IN      NS      ns4.linode.com.
example.net.       14440   IN      NS      ns1.linode.com.
example.net.       14440   IN      SOA     ns1.linode.com. info.example.net. 2009032972 7200 7200 1209600 14440
example.net.       14440   IN      MX      10 mx00.1and1.com.
example.net.       14440   IN      MX      10 mx01.1and1.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns2.linode.com.         77979   IN      A       65.19.178.10
ns4.linode.com.         148     IN      A       207.192.70.10
ns1.linode.com.         3259    IN      A       69.93.127.10

;; Query time: 333 msec
;; SERVER: 25.13.7.2#53(25.13.7.2)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar 29 19:23:35 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 269

$ dig foo.example.net

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> foo.example.net
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 17989
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;foo.example.net.          IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
foo.example.net.   14440   IN      A       11.22.33.44

;; Query time: 230 msec
;; SERVER: 25.13.7.2#53(25.13.7.2)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar 29 19:18:30 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 54

$ dig justatest.example.net

; <<>> DiG 9.3.2 <<>> justatest.example.net
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 4622
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;justatest.example.net.    IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
justatest.example.net. 14440 IN    A       111.222.111.222

;; Query time: 236 msec
;; SERVER: 25.13.7.2#53(25.13.7.2)
;; WHEN: Sun Mar 29 19:18:39 2009
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 60

Every subdomain name comes out as 11.22.33.44 except for justatest. I think you won't ever see a wildcard entry from the outside, because it's internal to the nameserver.

Sorry. My bad - should have used axfr instead of any.

If you using apache with virtual hosts - move the catch-all VirtualHost directive so that it occurs after the one for community.avidblog.us. Apache processes the VirtualHost directives in the order it encounters them so you want it to find the community one before that matches the catch-all.

For various reasons, but one of them is a reputation-related attack.

That makes it way too easy for some disgruntled person or even a total nutjob to set up a blog or website that points to http://-freaking-sucks. and get it served up as a valid address that resolves and spits out a web page.

Then by some SEO tricks, the ne'er-do-well gets that ranked highly when someone does a search for …

If you really, really must do wildcards, do so but be aware of some of its risks. If at all possible, it's usually safer to do some rewriting tricks + dns records for the commonly misspelled names.