How does the propagation tool work?
The DNS propagation tool will retrieve the records from the primary (and authoritative) name server of
the domain. It will compare these records, with the DNS records from the secondary name servers and +20 other
DNS resolvers from around the world.
It will - per name servers - show how the records are propagated out into the world. If there
is any differencenes (records not yet propagated correctly), these differences will be
highlighted as well.
That way, you can monitor if the world is updated with the correct records, and/or how
your DNS changes are propagated to the whole world.
Samples
If you would like to have a quick go, and see what it's all about, try out these DNS propagations checks:
World coverage of the tool
The names servers being checked are:
- The primary name server
- The secondary name servers
- Global name servers (like Google, OpenDNS and Cloudflare)
- North American name servers (US, Canada and Mexico)
- European name servers (UK, Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Cyprus)
- South American name servers (Argentina and Peru)
- Asia (Israel, India, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore)
- Oceania (New Zealand and Australia)
- Africa (Egypt and South Africa)
It is also possible to specify multiple alternate name servers for this check.
Supports A, AAAA, MX, NS, SOA and TXT records.
DNS propagation TLDR
DNS propagation refers to the process of updating the information in the DNS servers across the internet, so that the latest changes to a domain name's records (e.g. an IP address change) are reflected everywhere.
It typically takes some time for the updated information to propagate to all the DNS servers around the world, that's why it is called propagation.
The amount of time it takes for DNS propagation to complete can vary, depending on factors such as the location of the DNS servers and the time-to-live (TTL) value of the DNS record. Typically it can take from 24 to 48 hours for the DNS update to propagate to all the DNS servers worldwide.
How about DNS propagation and GeoDNS?
GeoDNS is a variation of the Domain Name System (DNS) that directs users to different IP
addresses based on their geographic location.
In GeoDNS, the DNS server uses the IP address of the client that is requesting the DNS
resolution to determine their geographic location. Once the location is determined,
the DNS server will respond with the IP address of the server that is physically
closest to the client. This improves the performance and speed of the website or
service, as the client is connecting to a server that is physically closer to them.
As a side effect of this, the response will vary, depening on the geographical location
of the DNS server resolveing the lookup, because US based resolvers, will get records from
the domain nameservers, that are specific to US users, and EU based servers, will get
records specific to EU users. This will in turn mean, that the DNS records vary thrughout
the world. DNS propagation still occures, but not in the traditional way.
You may actually see this in action as well:
DNS propagation check of A-records for iamroot.tech