I know in the past the DNS nameservers change took 24-48 hour. I wonder if it still takes so long? - with e.g. Godaddy. Doesn't it take a few minutes nowadays?
Well - that depends on the TLD - and other issues. To try an explain this, I'll give a couple scenarios. Lets take com/net (registry is Verisign) - Verisign offers close to real-time updates of the root zone file so assuming you are using a registrar worth a damn, the root zone file will get updated almost right away. BUT - lets say your domain is remotely popular, the SOA/NS DNS records are already cached throughout the internet according to whatever TTL is set on those records - typically 24 hours for SOA/NS records. So whois and the root zone file will update quickly so new lookups that are not cached will use the new name server right away - but for al cached records (which are distributed across the internet), you have to wait for the TTLs to expire. But instead of explaining all this - it is MUCH easier for your registrar to tell you to wait 24-48 hours
Last time I changed one at godaddy it was working within minutes. I would still wait a bit before uploading or moving a lot of files. I would think about using ip based for 12-24 hours just to make sure.
DNS changes take effect according to the TTL you have set to certain records. It depends on ISP too - some ISPs ignore TTL completely and have their own interval for renewing the cache. So, setting a low TTL can be useful - for example, when your site's host goes down and you want to switch quickly to another by changing a DNS record. The only downside is that there's always people who still can't reach your site in a maximum of 72 hours, because of their ISP rules.
Mostly any DNS does not take 24-48 hours as said by any registrar.All DNS usually take sonly 4-5 hours to change