www.gov.mu inaccessible

4 November 2014 by S. Moonesamy

www.gov.mu

The Government Web Portal at http://www.gov.mu is a one-stop-shop providing comprehensive information and enabling online applications on a 24 X 7 basis in a user-friendly manner. Government Email Services use the mail.gov.mu domain. On 2 November 2014, it was reported that "all .gov.mu domains are currently down".

The Whois record for gov.mu is as follows:

Domain Name: Domain Name: gov.mu
Domain ID: 63579-CoCCA
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2014-11-04T03:59:21.694Z
Creation Date: 2005-08-23T14:00:00.000Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2025-08-22T20:00:00.000Z
Sponsoring Registrar: Mauritius Domains
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: serverUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: serverRenewProhibited
Domain Status: ok
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited

Registrant Name: Internet Direct Ltd.
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 48 Remy Ollier Street
Registrant City: Port-Louis
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:
Registrant Country: MU
Registrant Phone: +230.2168888
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Email: admin@nic.mu

Admin Name: Internet Direct Ltd.
Admin Organization:
Admin Street: 48 Remy Ollier Street
Admin City: Port-Louis
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:
Admin Country: MU
Admin Phone: +230.2168888
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Email: admin@nic.mu


Name Server: ns0.gov.mu
Name Server: ns1.gov.mu
Name Server: ns2.gov.mu
Name Server: ns3.gov.mu

DNSSEC: unsigned

The Whois record for www.gov.mu is as follows:

Domain Name: www.gov.mu
Sponsoring Registrar: Restricted Domains
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:




DNSSEC: unsigned

Name servers for gov.mu

The name servers for the .mu ccTLD (country code top level domain) are udns1.tld.mu, anycast1.irondns.net, udns2.tld.mu and fork.sth.dnsnode.net. DNS queries to these name servers listed the name servers for gov.mu as:

;gov.mu. IN NS

;; ANSWER SECTION:
gov.mu. 43200 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 43200 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 43200 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 43200 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.

Resolving www.gov.mu

On 4 November, the name servers for gov.mu returned the following answer in response to DNS queries to resolve www.gov.mu:

;www.gov.mu. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 202.123.27.113

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.

DNS queries to a name server operated by Mauritius Telecom returned the following answer:

;www.gov.mu. IN A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.gov.mu. 5184000 IN A 202.123.27.113

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gov.mu. 5184000 IN NS dns1.intnet.mu.
gov.mu. 5184000 IN NS dns2.intnet.mu.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
dns1.intnet.mu. 35267 IN A 202.123.2.6
dns2.intnet.mu. 35267 IN A 202.123.2.11

;; Query time: 10 msec ;; SERVER: 196.192.110.6#53(196.192.110.6)
;; WHEN: Tue Nov 4 14:49:57 2014

The www.gov.mu web site was once again accessible.

However, after thirty minutes, DNS replies from udns1.tld.mu were as follows:

gov.mu. 300 IN SOA ns1.gov.mu. gov.mu. 2014110502 10800 3600 43200 300
;; Received 68 bytes from 204.61.216.10#53(udns1.tld.mu) in 293 ms

The DNS reply from the anycast1.irondns.net name server was as folows:

gov.mu. 43200 IN SOA ns1.gov.mu. gov.mu. 2014110502 10800 3600 43200 300
;; Received 68 bytes from 195.253.64.5#53(anycast1.irondns.net) in 271 ms

The www.gov.mu domain name could only be resolved if the fork.sth.dnsnode.net and udns2.tld.mu name servers were used.

Resolving mail.gov.mu

mail.gov.mu was resolved using the listed name servers for gov.mu:

;mail.gov.mu. IN MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
mail.gov.mu. 2592000 IN MX 20 mxmail1.gov.mu.
mail.gov.mu. 2592000 IN MX 10 mxmail.gov.mu.

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.

Two of the .mu name servers, udns1.tld.mu and anycast1.irondns.net, provided the following DNS answer:

gov.mu. 43200 IN SOA ns1.gov.mu. gov.mu. 2014110501 10800 3600 43200 300

mxmail.gov.mu mxmail1.gov.mu and could not be resolved when the udns1.tld.mu and anycast1.irondns.net name servers were used.

Resolving cert-mu.gov.mu

The cert-mu.gov.mu domain name could only be resolved when the udns2.tld.mu and fork.sth.dnsnode.net name servers were used.

Resolving mict.gov.mu

The mict.gov.mu could only be resolved when the udns1.tld.mu and anycast1.irondns.net name servers were used.

mict.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 202.123.27.113
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.

Resolving business.gov.mu

The business.gov.mu domain name could only be resolved when the udns2.tld.mu and fork.sth.dnsnode.net name servers were used.

Resolving citizen.gov.mu

The citizen.gov.mu domain name could only be resolved when the udns2.tld.mu and fork.sth.dnsnode.net name servers were used.

Resolving www1.gov.mu

The www1.gov.mu domain name could only be resolved when the udns2.tld.mu and fork.sth.dnsnode.net name servers were used.

www1.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 41.212.213.247
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.

gov.mu. 300 IN SOA ns1.gov.mu. gov.mu. 2014110506 10800 3600 43200 300
;; Received 69 bytes from 2001:500:14:6010:ad::1#53(udns1.tld.mu) in 988 ms

gov.mu. 43200 IN SOA ns1.gov.mu. gov.mu. 2014110506 10800 3600 43200 300
;; Received 69 bytes from 2a01:5b0:4::5#53(anycast1.irondns.net) in 160 ms

Conclusion

The is a difference between the DNS replies from two of the four name servers for the .mu ccTLD and the other two name servers. The DNS replies for gov.mu DNS queries sent to the name servers operated by Mauritius Telecom are different from the DNS replies received from other Internet Service Providers on the internet. However, it is likely that the Mauritius Telecom name servers are resolving gov.mu domain names as a workaround for the gov.mu issue. The www.gov.mu Web Portal cannot reliably be accessed on the internet. There will be email delivery failures for some of the messages sent to email addresses with a mail.gov.mu domain name.

1. National Computer Board - Access to online information and services round-the-clock
2. National Computer Board - Services of GOC
3. 'Le site des TIC a des rates', L'Express, 12 October 2014, p. 2