When you change a record or your nameservers, the change is live on the nameservers within minutes. But networks and computers everywhere keep a copy of the old answer until its TTL expires. The time it takes for every copy to expire is called propagation.
| Change | Usually seen everywhere within |
|---|---|
| A record, CNAME, MX, TXT | The record's TTL — often an hour or less |
| Nameservers | A few hours, up to 48 in rare cases |
During that time some visitors see the old site and some the new one. Nothing is wrong; it settles on its own.
See the change on your own computer
- Open the site in a private window, or another browser.
- Try from your phone on mobile data instead of your Wi-Fi.
- Clear your computer's DNS cache:
ipconfig /flushdnson Windows,sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponderon macOS.
Preview a site before DNS changes: the hosts file
Your computer's hosts file overrides DNS for the names you put in it. Use it to see a site on its new server before you point the domain there.
- Find the new server's IP address — on Digipacket hosting, it's under Connection details.
- Open the hosts file as an administrator:
- Windows:
C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hostsin Notepad, run as administrator. - macOS and Linux:
sudo nano /etc/hostsin Terminal.
- Windows:
- Add a line with the IP address and the names:
``
text 203.0.113.10 yourdomain.com www.yourdomain.com`` - Save, then open the site. Your computer now goes to the new server; nobody else is affected.
Important
Remove the line when you're done. Left in place, it keeps sending your computer to that address long after DNS has moved on — a classic "the site works for everyone but me".