<p><pre><code> nslookup
> server a.ns.apple.com
Default server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 2620:149:ae0::53#53
Default server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 17.253.200.1#53
> developer.apple.com
Server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 2620:149:ae0::53#53
developer.apple.com canonical name = developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net.
** server can't find developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net: REFUSED
</code></pre>
Ah. So Apple's own DNS servers are redirecting developer.apple.com to something on "akadns.net",
which is operated by Akamai. But Apple's own DNS servers refuse to resolve that, probably because it's not in the apple.com zone.<p>More:<p><pre><code> nslookup
> developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net
Server: 127.0.0.53
Address: 127.0.0.53#53
Non-authoritative answer:
developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net canonical name = world-gen.g.aaplimg.com.
world-gen.g.aaplimg.com canonical name = apple-c.g.aaplimg.com.
apple-c.g.aaplimg.com canonical name = apple-cf.g.aaplimg.com.
apple-cf.g.aaplimg.com canonical name = apple-lr.g.aaplimg.com.
> server a.ns.apple.com
Default server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 2620:149:ae0::53#53
Default server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 17.253.200.1#53
> developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net
Server: a.ns.apple.com
Address: 2620:149:ae0::53#53
** server can't find developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net: REFUSED
</code></pre>
It's clearly a botched DNS configuration. Not clear what the intent was. Did they really want to point
"developer.apple.com", a web site, to "developer-cdn.apple.com.akadns.net", which is a DNS server? Or am I misreading that?<p>It's generally considered bad form to have all the DNS servers for "example.com" under "example.com", by the way. If you mess up "example.com", or it goes down, getting to it to fix it can be difficult.<p>Anyway, this looks like an attempt to outsource something to Akamai that went badly wrong.