When people are moving hosts a common question asked by people moving hosts is how will I know when my domain propagation is completed or when will it be able to be seen from the new host’s server.

Information regarding site locations is recorded on DNS tables or nameservers. These records are updated by Internet Presence & Service Providers to reflect the addition and changes of site locations. The update of these records is referred to as propagation.

Nameserver or DNS changes usually take 24 to 48 hours to start working and not everyone will see the changes at the same time. While you may see the change your neighbour may not. DNS propagation is based on multiple factors like your location and ISP and is not something anyone has any real control over.

If it loads in your browser, it has propagated to the name server that your ISP routes requests through.

There are a few ways to check which server your domain is resolving to for yourself:

Ping:

How to perform ping checks in Windows, Linux and Mac OS?

Here are instructions on how to perform a ping check on different operating systems:

•  Windows:

1. Open Start menu
2. Click Run
3. Type cmd and press enter
4. In the command prompt type ping domain.com and press Enter

Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=6ms TTL=56
Reply from IPADDRESS: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=56

You can also use ping with an IP, i.e. ping 1.2.3.4

• Linux:

Open a terminal window and type ping domain.com

• Mac OS:

Go to the Applications folder > Utilities > Network Utility > ping and specify a domain or IP.

Alternatively, you can open up Terminal, type ping domain.com and press Enter. You can also use ping with an IP, i.e. ping 1.2.3.4

Online Tools:

Other tools you can use to check on a wider scale ate:

http://viewdns.info/propagation/

http://www.osischool.com/concept/communication/DNS_Propagation_Checker

DNS Zone check: http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/DNS_check_domain_propagation_checker