Time to Propagate Dns

[David]

When moving to a new IP on a new server. Once I have changed the DNS settings with the registrar How long does it take.

The Registrar says with-in 48 hours. Now is this a gradual thing where you could have site visitors on the old IP and the new at the same time ?

I really don't understand this network;dns thing very well.

[bmcgee]

Yes, that is exactly it. What happens is that every time you type in a URL, it take the domain name and looks it up in the DNS to figure out what IP address to send the request to.

Therefore, for a couple days, you will still have people whose DNS is not updated, and when they try to go to your site, it will resolve to the old IP address.

It can really make things hairy if you have orders and things like that that you will still need to have access to.

[David]

Thanks,
This could be interesting, Orders, database, and emails in two places.

[Xoc]

There is a setting in DNS server that tells things caching the domain name how often they should come back and refresh. So if that was set to 48 hours, it really should update within 48 hours. More frequently, though, it gets set to something like a week. This is an overview article about the plumbing of the Internet [xoc.net].

[David]

>>There is a setting in DNS server that tells things caching the domain name how often they should come back and refresh. <<

Is this a setting that I can control on my server?

XOC: Nice Site..
I am going to have to come back and spend some time.

[Brett_Tabke]

Excellent page Xoc. That is one of the most clear cut presentations of IP communications I have ever read. Pull it offline - that's chapter one for your book.

How fast the DNS propogates is all up to the particular dns service. I'm on some dns services that have direct agreements with root server hosts, and updates are within minutes - net wide. You may still have to deal with some dns caches here and there, but most of them go stale and refresh within 1-6 hours.