Time for DNS to propagate

[Andy]

I registered a new domain name today and typed the url into my browser about 4 hours later and it resolved i.e. no error 404 not found. The distance between the hosting company and me is half way around the world.

It used to be the case that a .com took several days to resolve but now maybe it is very quick? Even when it took around 4 days, many sites said it takes 24-48 hours which was not the case for me.

Next time you register a domain name try doing checks every 30 minutes say to check how quickly it resolves.

[Manu]

mmmmmmmmmmm.......... I still wonder about the variables on which it depends.

I have experience with domains that propagated in almost real time within 1-5 minutes of changing the nameservers. And some others which took about 2 days to work.

[White Wolf]

Years ago it use to take me 1-2 days, now they propagated within a few minutes.

[Hope]

DNS takes 24 - 48 hours to completely propagate. Now of course this depends on a lot of factors. This first factor is the TTL. The TTL tells the root servers how often to come back and look for updates. If this time is short, then it propagates faster. Other factors are seem to include whether the domain has been used before. I have found that domains that have been used before take longer to propagate than new ones. I am not sure why that is though.

For the most part, if your domain DNS is hosted near you (generally the same country) you will see the changes withing 30 minutes. If if is on the other side of the world, you might need to wait a few hours.

The 48 hours is for remote and small name servers to get updated. This is something that most people do not get concerned about.

[Manu]

Thanks Heidi for the info.

[Andy]

The speed factor is a welcome improvement. Maybe in the past there was manual updating going on since I experienced several days of delay apart from my regional domain names for my own country.