How long for DNS to fully propagate and how to be sure ?

I moved one of my site to a new host 24 hours ago and I was wondering how long it take for DNS to fully propagate.

I checked logs (old and new ones) and the traffic share is about 90% to the old and 10% to the new.

Is there any tool to check the state of propagation and know for sure that's it's done ?

Thanks

 

Actually, I know (from my admin panel) that I'm landing on my new site, but when I check the log on my old host I see a lot of traffic still going there.

So I guess that's mean the propagation is still partial.
And before making any big modifications, I'd like to be sure the propagation is over.

 

What does propagate mean?

It means that the new DNS has been communicated to each of the backbones of the Internet and that each backbone has in turn re-mapped its routes to the domain's new DNS location. (DNS = domain name server.) This DNS information does not travel to each of the Internet backbones in a straight line. It travels much like the mapped routes for any given address within the streets, avenues and boulevards included in a map of a country - in a multitude of directions and connecting paths to its states, counties, cities, communities, etc.

Each backbone has to re-map the new DNS and pass it along the routes to be taken through it to the new DNS. This routing information is necessary in order for anyone's computer connected to the Internet to traverse the Internet to a particular domain's site. (Said computers are generally connected to the Internet via an ISP which is another whole topic and has impact on what particular backbone and route your computer will take to a particular Internet location. But I won't get into that aspect of the Internet for now, and not at all if it remains unnecessary to the purpose of this particular article.)

Each backbone must pass the new DNS information to all the other backbones to which it is connected, in order that the connecting backbones can update their mapping and they, in turn, must pass along the new DNS to the backbones connected to them. This process continues until each and every backbone in the Internet has received the new DNS and has re-mapped the route to the domain's new DNS.

Here's an analogy that might help:

Imagine that the Internet, much like a human body, is all connected together by a huge central nervous system. The system transmits signals along its length (backbone and all related connections thereto), through various routes along the way.

The backbone connections in turn take the signal and push it along to sequential connecting points, similar to how a sensation of pain or pleasure travels between the brain and the origination point of the sensation, perhaps the full length of the body all the way to its toes, should you stub a toe.

Within each backbone are various domain hosts. The backbone contains the mapping to those hosts. Without the mapping done by each backbone, no one could travel along Internet routes or view a particular site. In our analogy, if there's a break in the central nervous system, or an impaired area of the central nervous system of the body, it can slow down or even stop the transmission of the signal to the appropriate area of the body.

The actual time it takes a backbone to update a domain's map location (DNS) depends on various factors, such as where along the central nervous system (route) a backbone is located, as well as whether another prior connecting backbone along the route is functioning properly and is able to timely send along the new mapping to this backbone. (Sometimes backbones go down and there's a major outage which affects a multitude of hosts, ISP's, and millions of sites.) The actual time it takes to propagate is impacted by how long it is before each backbone receives the new DNS mapping from the prior connecting backbone. Other factors which impact the process are: which week day and time - and its relational traffic patterns, overall Internet traffic, and the actual response time of the backbone itself to update/re-map. This isn't an all-inclusive list of variables impacting propagation. There are other factors. But you get the general idea.)

How long it takes for a site's new DNS location to propagate across the Internet such that you are able to see a particular site depends on all the above factors and more. Considering the sheer magnitude of the Internet's overall size and the relational requirements involved, it's rather miraculous that it works at all, let alone as rapidly as it normally does.

http://www.serena1.com/internet_info.html

 

Leave it up for 48 hours. There is no way to tell "for sure" other than by checking your logs.

 

I thought there was a tool or some way to check the mains root servers or some action to take on the TTL to accelerate the process...

As mjewel said, I will keep it up and check my logs.

Thanks for your answers.

 

Check out DnsStuff.com

 

Thanks for the link, useful

 

48 hours is almost stable, You can also try DNSReport.com a part of DNSstuff.com. or use traceroute.org to ping through different routers from different part of the world.

 

A few weeks before you move, there's a setting in your DNS that tells everyone how long to cache the results for. Typically you might set that to 4 hours or a day, before a move I ratchet it down to 5 minutes for weeks before a move. If you've left it set at a day, then even after you move anyone who hit your site on the day of the move won't even check for at least a day.

With the change to 5 minutes, I find much of the traffic actually moves over virtually instantly. Within a day the vast bulk of the traffic is moved and after 48 hours I would feel comfortable taking down the old server (I generally try and give myself a week though). Nevertheless, I've seen some cable companies cache the old IP address for up to two weeks after a move. Nothing you can do about that, they just ignore your DNS settings.

 

I guess you're talking about TTL ? Actually, I didn't find any way to change it on my old host.

But anyway, the propagation is over. After 48 hours, logs on the old server show zero connections.

Thanks to all for your answers, you were right

 

Ping the domain and see what IP address is returned. Alternatively, login to your cpanel and see what IP address is shown in the admin panel.

 

It can take up to 48 hours depending on the domain register. My experiance with Enom is that its a couple hours.

 

Maybe Enom is near your location..but we also have to consider other locations

 

hmm... i know most hosts say 24 hours to 48 hours... but it's always been less than 30 minutes for me... weird???

 

No not wierd just a misinterpretation of results. If you change nameservers, the registrar has to update the main registry. They might do so within 30 minutes, or more likely once a night.

However if you're not changing nameservers but just changing information within your nameservers like your IP address, then it's a matter of your ISP just changing their local systems - however long that takes. That might even be virtually instantly.

In either case, the real problem is ISP's that ignore the information and keep it cached way longer than they should. In fact I've seen rumours around that even Google caches nameserver information longer than it should (don't know that this is true though).

 

Has it transfered yet?

Q...