DNS Propagation SLOW

[gruntre]

Hi,
I have had a small business web site for 2 years hosted on a free server with a domain name that I own pointing to it with a URL redirect by the company I bought the domain name from.

I have decided to go for hosting so I can do some form of SEO and have access to CGI etc.

My problem is that I have jumped the gun and got the new hosting and set up my site there but lot long after I changed my DNS name servers to my new hosts the redirect stopped working.

My old site is useless to me without the URL redirect and I now have had 36 hrs of down time which is costing me income.

How long should it take before propagation is complete?
I feel helpless because the cheapish hosting company I have chosen doesn't give me any answers but: just wait.
Is there any way to check the progress of this?
I have tried this site [squish.net...] but the results are too technical for me to understand.

It seems like a catch 22

Please Help!

[mack]

Unfortunatly there isn't anything you can do to speed up this process.

did you set up the dns records or your domain host?

Mack.

[gruntre]

Thanks for the reply
Not sure what you mean there?

With the DNS records I logged into the management area of my domain name and changed the name servers 1 & 2 to the ones given to me by the new hosting company.
Is there something else I need to do in regard to DNS records?

The Domain host I assume you mean the new host of my site? was provided by the hosting company all I had to do was copy my site to a specific folder call var/www/html. Is this what you mean?

I am a real amateur at this and this is my first experience with real hosting, I am a little daunted by all this! I am thinking that I should maybe have payed 3 or 4 times more to get much better support.

Thanks again for any advice