Knowledge Base

"( sequence causes DNS ERROR: 204 Unexpected Token "IN"

Article ID: 163737

Article Last Modified on 11/1/2006

Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q163737

SYMPTOMS

While importing Domain Name Service (DNS) zone files from BIND or Non- Microsoft DNS servers, the following error may appear in event viewer:

Event ID: 204
DNS Server could not parse unexpected token "IN" in database file ( <filename> ) , Line 'x'.

CAUSE

This is caused by a " followed by a ( in the zone file being parsed.

For example:

acc      IN A  128.222.10.187
      IN MX 5 acc.lex.dp.com.
      IN MX 10 dp-lex.dp.com.
      IN MX 20 dp-web.web.dp.com.
      IN HINFO "(NONE) IP ADDRESS" "CLUSTER"

In the example above, the last record (that begins with "IN HINFO") the "(NONE) entry will prevent the zone file from being imported and the above message will be logged in the event viewer.

RESOLUTION

Manually edit the Zone file and remove all "( character combinations manually or install DNS.exe from Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3 (SP3) or higher. This issue has been resolved in post-Service Pack 2 versions of DNS.exe

Additional query words: nt4sp3fix dnsmgr

Keywords: kbbug KB163737