retry limit for master x.x.x.x#53 exceeded error

I'm getting: zone "somedomain.com.au/IN: refresh: retry limit for master x.x.x.x#53 exceeded" in my event logs on the slave DNS server ever since I added another ip address.
I am running Bind 9 on Windows NT 4.0 sp6a
Any Ideas?
TIA
Martin

There is a problem in your configuration where the slave is failing to recieve an update of the zone. You should verify that x.x.x.x is the right ip address. If you provided the master server IP and zone name I can test to see if I can transfer (that is if you didn't restrict it).

Thanks for your response - x.x.x.x is right ip address and I can ping it from the slave.
I think it may have something to do with the ip address bindings??? because it only started happening after I added another ip address to the slave.
Is their a way to bind the master and slaves to an ip address?

by default BIND listens on all interfaces. If you want to customize the behavior you should use the listen-on statement.

Try this command from the slave server:

dig @x.x.x.x somedomain.com.au axfr

show me what you get.

Thanks Again - this has me baffled....
Here you go - as requested:

; <<>> DiG 9.2.1 <<>> @203.220.58.5 stagewhispers.com.au axfr
;; global options: printcmd
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN SOA ns1.xtreme.net.au.
martin.xtreme.net.au. 2002110101 3600 1800 864000 3600
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN MX 10
mail.stagewhispers.com.au.
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN MX 20 mx2.backuphost.com.
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.6
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN NS ns1.xtreme.net.au.
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN NS ns2.xtreme.net.au.
localhost.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 127.0.0.1
mail.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.6
ns1.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.5
smtp.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.6
webmail.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.6
www.stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN A 203.220.58.6
stagewhispers.com.au. 86400 IN SOA ns1.xtreme.net.au.
martin.xtreme.net.au. 2002110101 3600 1800 864000 3600
;; Query time: 460 msec
;; SERVER: 203.220.58.5#53(203.220.58.5)
;; WHEN: Mon Dec 08 09:20:19 2003
;; XFR size: 15 records

huh, so it looks like the slave server should be able to connect and get the zone transfer. Although, that depends on the source address I suppose. Cause I tried to download a zone transfer and it refused. So let's add a transfer-source statement. Your slave server zone block should look something like this:

zone "stagewhispers.com.au" IN {
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;type slave;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;masters { 203.220.58.5; };
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;transfer-source 203.220.58.6;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;allow-transfer { none; };
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;file "stagewhispers.com.au.zone";
};

I saw you attempt to connect on my logs! this is the current zone block:
zone "stagewhispers.com.au" {type slave; file "stagewhispers.txt"; masters
203.220.58.5; };};

and in the global section:
acl mynameservers {203.220.58.5;203.220.58.6;};
directory "c:\winnt\system32\dns\etc";
forwarders {203.194.27.58;203.194.27.59;};
allow-transfer {mynameservers;};
transfer-source 203.220.58.6;
listen-on {203.220.58.6;};
query-source address * port 53;

Thanks again for your help!!

So does it work now that you use transfer-source?

Yes all is ok now! - Thanks for your help

Why would it do this all of a sudden?

BTW - is the format correct for the .conf file?

What you showed me is fine.

What happened is this. The master server only allows transfers from 203.220.58.6. So always before by default, the BIND server slave would submit a transfer request FROM the IP address 203.220.58.6. But when you added another IP address to your system the BIND server slave suddenly had a choice. It chose to connect to the master server FROM the NEW ip instead of from the old IP. When the master server saw this request coming from the new IP it didn't recognize - it refused transfer. By adding "transfer-source" you tell BIND which IP to choose to connect from.