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Why do DNS changes take 24-48 hours to propagate?
Every
domain has at least two nameservers assigned
to it and those nameservers hold records for
the domain. However, when another server somewhere
else in the world, queries the nameservers for
DNS records, it will usually keep a local copy
of the DNS record so that next time it needs
to know what IP address the domain resolves
to, it already has the answer. This is called
"caching" and for example ISP's use
this to speed up their network response times.
Once
changes are made to the actual DNS records on
the two nameservers that
are assigned to your domain, these changes will
gradually filter through to the other servers
in the world so that everything is up to date,
and it is this process that normally takes 24-48
hours.