You’ve registered your domain name, and paid for hosting with a hosting provider, and uploaded your website to the web server. If this is all done, why can’t you see the results of your hard work right away? What is this DNS propagation people keep telling you about?

In order to understand DNS propagation, you must first understand a little about how DNS works. When you set up your website with your hosting provider, they create a Master DNS record in their Domain Name Servers. Your domain registrar (the company you paid for the honor of owning your domain name) points to your web host’s DNS server as being the master authority of your domain.

When any outside source wants to know how to find your website, they first go to the registration database to find out who the DNS authority is for your website. Then they visit your hosting provider’s DNS servers to find out what the IP Address is for your domain name, and from there your audience can now view your website.

The problem with this whole scheme is that in order to speed up the rate at which their customers can view the internet, each Internet Server Provider caches their DNS records. This means that they make their own copy of the master records, and read from them locally instead of looking them up on the Internet each time someone wants view a website. This actually speeds up web surfing quite a bit, by (1) speeding up the return time it takes for a web browser to request a domain lookup and get an answer, and (2) actually reducing the amount of traffic on the web therefore giving it the ability to work faster.

The downside to this caching scenario and what makes it take so long for your website to be visible to everyone, is that each company or ISP that caches DNS records only updates them every few days. This is not any kind of standard, and they can set this time anywhere from a few hours to several days. The slow updating of the servers cache is called propagation, since your websites DNS information is now being propagated across all DNS servers on the web. When this is finally complete, everyone can now visit your new website. Being that the cache time is different for all servers, as mentioned above, it can take anywhere from 36 to 72 hours for DNS changes to be totally in effect.

DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware.

More Web Hosting Articles Articles
More By Rich Smith

 

developerWorks - FREE Tools!

IBM DB2 Deep Compression ROI Tool The IBM DB2 Deep Compression ROI tool is designed for DBA’s and IT management personnel to perform a clinical analysis of the cost savings gained from the Storage Optimization feature of DB2 9 for Linux, UNIX and Windows. The feature, also known as Deep Compression, compresses data that lies within a database by up to 80% at times. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Did you say mainframe? e-kit Learn how you can extend modern application lifecycle management to IBM System z through the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform (SDP). The Did you say mainframe? e-kit includes podcasts, webcasts, tutorials, white and red papers, demos, and articles designed to help ease the challenges of modernizing your enterprise. This complimentary kit for mainframe developers is a practical, how-to guide for making the most of an existing development environment, including the skills and infrastructure already in place at an established enterprise. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Don't wait! Try the Rational Application Developer (RAD) v7.5 open beta code today Download the Rational Application Developer (RAD) v7.5 open beta code and start developing applications for the JEE5 standard which features EJB3.0, JPA, JSF 1.2, JSP 2.1 and Servlet 2.5 standards. When you use this beta you will see how you can increase developer productivity for already existing applications with improved support for refactoring, as well as adding new features to existing applications. In addition, the beta provides tooling for JD Edwards, Oracle, SAP, Siebel and PeopleSoft to improve the developer productivity with these enterprise systems. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Download a free trial of Lotus Quickr 8.0 Visit IBM developerWorks to download a free trial version of Lotus Quickr 8.0, which enables collaboration by transforming the way everyday business content such as documents, rich media, photos, and video can be shared. Lotus Quickr makes it faster and easier to share content of all types (not just documents) within virtual teams. It is designed to make it easier to collaborate across organizational boundaries, while continuing to work within the context of familiar desktop applications. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! IBM Rational AppScan Standard Edition V7.7 Secure your Web applications with IBM Rational AppScan Standard Edition V7.7, previously known as Watchfire AppScan. This Web application security testing tool automates vulnerability assessments and scans and tests for common Web application vulnerabilities. Visit IBM developerWorks to download a free trial of IBM Rational AppScan Standard Edition V7.7. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Rational 'Talks to You' Teleconference Series This Fall, IBM Rational talks to you directly through a special teleconference series giving you access to the best minds in IBM Rational - product experts and market thought leaders who will answer your questions during these pre-scheduled telephone conference calls. Register today! FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Run your first CICS application on a PC using TXSeries for Windows Learn the basics of the IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS). With a hands-on exercise, learn how to get your first CICS application up and running on your desktop using TXSeries V6.1 for Windows. The tutorial shows you how to download and install a free trial version of TXSeries V6.1. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Trial download: IBM Rational Manual Tester V7.0.1 Try the latest version of IBM Rational Manual Tester V7.0.1 by downloading a free trial from IBM developerWorks. This manual test authoring and execution tool promotes test step reuse to reduce the impact of software change on testers and business analysts and addresses the needs of teams performing at least a portion of their testing manually. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Webcast: Quickly provide customized, integrated user interfaces with Lotus Notes 8 IBM Lotus Notes 8 provides a wide range of developers the ability to provide customized, integrated user interfaces via composite applications and via custom sidebar and toolbar plug-ins. This webcast provides you with tips and techniques to use with out-of-the-box capabilities of Lotus Notes 8, and survey how you can share useful components within your own company and within a larger community. FREE! Go There Now!

NEW! Webcast: Striking the right balance between manual and automated testing Join this webcast to learn how IBM Rational's Functional Testing solution enables you to implement automation your way, at your pace, with your existing staff. In this webcast, you’ll learn how you can eliminate redundancy of manual test scripts, reduce errors, and increase test coverage through test automation. After this presentation you will understand how IBM Rational Functional Testing solution can streamline your manual testing and make test automation easily attainable. FREE! Go There Now!

All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!