DNS propagation check

What “DNS propagation” really is

Nothing is actually pushed around the world. When you change a record, your DNS host’s authoritative name servers have the new value straight away. Every other resolver — your internet provider’s, Google’s, a company’s — keeps the old answer in its cache until that answer’s TTL (time to live) runs out, and only then asks again. “Propagation” is simply all those caches expiring at different times.

How to read the result

• Updated — this resolver already returns the expected value (or the same as the authoritative server, if you didn’t enter one).
• Old value — it still has a cached answer. The TTL column shows the most it can keep it, in seconds.
• No record — the resolver says the record doesn’t exist (or only has a different type).
• No reply — the probe or resolver didn’t answer in time. That’s about the probe, not your domain.

If the authoritative answer itself isn’t the value you expected, the change hasn’t been saved at your DNS host — or it was made in the wrong place, for example at the registrar while the domain’s name servers point elsewhere. Waiting won’t fix that.

Different answers can be normal

Large sites, CDNs and email services often return different IP addresses depending on where you ask from (GeoDNS and load balancing). If everything differs from everything, that’s probably by design — enter the value you set in Expected value to check a specific change.

How long does it take?

Usually minutes to a few hours: as long as the TTL the old record had. Changing a domain’s name servers at the registrar is slower, because the parent zone (.com, .gr…) has its own, longer TTL — plan for up to 24–48 hours.

Tip: before a planned move, lower the record’s TTL to 300 seconds a day in advance. The switch then spreads within minutes, and you can raise the TTL again afterwards.

Still seeing the old site on your own computer?

Your computer and browser keep their own small cache. Clear it with ipconfig /flushdns on Windows, sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder on macOS, or restart the browser. For a quick look at a single record from one place, use DiG DNS lookup; for the overall health of a domain’s DNS, the DNS health check.