After Your Domain Name Has Been Mapped

When you adjust the name servers for a domain to point to a new website, the new website may not be visible straight away.

This will likely be the case if you have an existing website on a domain, and are replacing the old website with a new website using the same domain.

The cause of this delay (up to 48 hours) is known as DNS propagation.

So what causes this the DNS propagation delay? Does it mean you will miss website visitors? Or email messages?

Caching and DNS Records

Whenever a web site’s nameservers or DNS records are modified, the changes are made then and there.

However, for the Internet to work the way it does, copies of DNS records are made (cached) and kept on numerous servers around the world. For example, your ISP (the company that connects your home or business to the internet) is likely to keep a copy of DNS records used by its customers – this copy is called a cache.

Your computer also caches DNS records itself. Your web surfing would be slower if your computer had to go and find the IP address each time it had to load a new page on the same website. Instead your computer stores (caches) the IP address for each new website it encounters in case it needs to load more web pages from that site. Your computer doesn’t keep the cached IP address forever, after a period of time the cache is cleared and the next time the site is accessed the IP address is fetched again.

When the IP address for a website changes, the Internet takes care of propagating changes to update all of the cached copies of the IP address. While it can happen very quickly for some, it can take up to 48 (occasionally up to 72) hours for DNS changes to propagate all around the internet. The rate at which it occurs isn’t something that can be controlled by you, us or your ISP.

During this time some visitors will still be sent to your old site, and some will be sent to your new site. For this reason we advise customers to keep their old web site hosting active for at least 72 hours after a Go Live, just in case cached DNS records send visitors to the old website for a period.

Speeding up the Process

You can’t speed up the process with the ISPs. However you can help speed up the propagation for yourself by restarting your computer and rebooting your modem. This helps clear any local DNS records that might be cached.

If this doesn’t work, you’ll have to wait for your internet provider to update their DNS records. This usually happens automatically, but there’s no way of telling how long it will take.

Don’t be surprised if some people can see your new site, while others see your old site.

Avoiding DNS Propagation Delays

To avoid DNS propagation issues for a new domain name, make sure you update the name servers at least 72 hours in advance of the Go Live. That way when we map your site to your new domain, it will appear straight away.

You can’t do this if you want to map a domain with an existing website you want to keep running until the changeover is ready. In this case a bit of patience is required.