I've updated the host records on my domain but I don't see the change when I go to my domain. How long will it take to propagate?
There are few reason why you might not see changes you make to your domain's DNS records (host records) right away. These processes are sometime generally referred to as propagation, but these are the specific reasons.
When you change a host record in our control panel, the changes are made in our namservers instantly. There is no propagation or update time between when you make the change in your control panel, to when the records are updated in our nameservers.
However, due to the issues below, you may still see a delay. These factors exist, but our outside of our control. They are sometime referred to as 'propagation' time.
ISP DNS Caching
To obtain addresses for web sites you visit, the operating system on your computer uses a recursive DNS server (this is different than the DNS server on your domain). You can think of this server as your agent that talks to the nameservers on your domain to get the addresses for the records on your domain. To save extra lookups, and therefore resources, every ISP sets a length of time that their server saves, or caches, lookups.
For example, if I use my computer to look up www.google.com in my browser, my ISP's recursive DNS server will go out and find the address 66.249.93.147. If I look for www.google.com 5 minutes later, the DNS server won't go through the trouble of looking up the address again, it will just remember the address from my lookup five minutes earlier. The process is called DNS caching and ISPs have been known to cache DNS lookups from 1 hour to 72 hours.
This affects you when you make a change to the DNS, or host records of your domain as well. For example, you visit your domain and your ISP will lookup the address and cache it for 1-72 hours. Then you go to your domain control panel, make a change to your nameservers or host records, and then visit your domain again. However, rather than looking up, and finding the record you just updated, your ISP still responds with the cached (old) record.
Your PC's DNS Caching
On some, rare, occasions, the address may actually be cached by the software on your PC. For Windows, you can go to a command prompt and use this command to 'flush' your dns. 'ipconfig /flushdns'
We hope that helps answer some of your questions regarding this topic. If it hasn't, or you have further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to Submit a Support Ticket.