what is from [sic (wrong)] with this picture? -- Answer: It's Ubuntu, not FreeBSD

[Jon Radel]

  On 9/29/10 4:24 PM, Gary Kline wrote:
> 	Yes!  changing the line in main.cf lets things get thru to my
> 	server cleanly, thanks for the tip.  I still don't understand
> 	what's wrong with my DNS files.  Hopefully, other folk on-list
> 	will see what's messed up.

Your domain registrar is having your dns delegated to 3 nameservers:

thought.org.        86400    IN    NS    ns1.thought.org.
thought.org.        86400    IN    NS    ns1.silvertree.org.
thought.org.        86400    IN    NS    ns1.twisted4life.com.
;; Received 142 bytes from 2001:500:48::1#53(b2.org.afilias-nst.org) in 
32 ms

The last of the 3, ns1.twisted4life.com, is of the opinion that your 
domain doesn't exist, given that it has no authoritative data and 
refuses to do recursive lookups for the Internet at large.  I would 
suspect that this would result in the coming and going visibility that 
others have reported.  Basically, you don't exist a third of the time.

You need to make sure that all the nameservers you list with your 
registrar are actually admitting to your existence and are getting 
up-to-date data.  I recall having this conversation with you before.

-- 

--Jon Radel
jon at radel.com