What Is DNS Propagation?

Have you ever pondered what makes your website accessible among millions of others on the internet, before learning about DNS propagation?

As you are aware, each website is registered with a distinct domain name using the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS servers have a record of each public IP address, domain name, and other pertinent data, such as a website’s hostname.

At least two name servers must be referred to and registered with a domain name. The DNS zone file for that particular domain will be hosted by these name servers.

The query is: What would happen if a DNS record was updated or changed? Would doing it on each of your other nameservers be necessary?

Note

The DNS information should be the same on all servers if you want the domain to be stable and work without any problems.

Answer: No, you don’t have to make these changes for every nameserver. The DNS propagation makes these changes on the nameservers across your domain’s DNS zones around the world.

It is a process that takes up to 24 hours or less where the propagation of your nameservers, A records, etc. happens in real-time. The propagation time depends mainly on the information to be updated. There are cases when it takes 72 hours to propagate the DNS Records.

You can verify the status of your DNS propagation online. Here’s how you do it:

1. Open the DNS Checker application in your browser.

2. Enter your domain name in the search bar and click Search.

It will show you the list of the resolved nameservers and their global locations.

Moving on, while your updated record is propagating, you can flush DNS cache.