You may wonder why your new website is taking more than 72 hours and not immediately to be seen “live” and “in stable form” on the internet. May be, sometimes, a little less than 72 hours! Definitely, the website does not immediately become “live” on the internet even after you have purchased the domain name, the hosting account with your WHP (Web Hosting Provider) for the domain name to reside, and the website uploaded with the domain name in the hosting account. The domain name takes some time to become live because of the following reasons that are necessary.
The most important reason is the DNS propagation. So, what is DNS propagation and what has it got to do with your domain name?
DNS stands for Domain Name System. DNS servers translates the domain name that is understood by the computers into domain names that is understood by human beings. All the internet service providers, most of the large businesses like the Microsoft, Dell, etc. also have their own web servers, and most of web hosting services have at least two DNS servers. People who use the web use DNS system all the time when they are browsing. Let us see the complete unseen process by outsiders, people who have no knowledge of what DNS is, of how websites actually are being seen by most of the web surfers.
There are top-level 13 master DNS servers which knows which DNS server authorises which domains. When the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) do not know which domain you are looking for, it (the ISP’s DNS server) checks the master-level DNS servers to find that domain, gets the information about that domain, and then passes you that domain. All this happens very fast.
Changing your website to another hosting company will require the changes made to the DNS information about your domain too. This is a very critical process that needs complete knowledge of how to do it, so either learn it even if you are going to change the site only once, or get help from your existing or the new hosting company.
Again, the changes can take another three days to broadcast to all other DNS servers all over the world (and complete the DNS propagation process) that you have moved your site to another hosting company. During this period of DNS propagation process, now called “redelegation”, some surfers find your domain with the old DNS information if they use “whois” service, some will find your domain with the new DNS information. Some surfers will automatically go to the new web server and some to the old.
If you posses a static IP and not a dynamic IP, and use the same ISP throughout your domain’s life-cycle, that is, till you no longer need the domain, you can have your own DNS server. This will need you to be an expert in the related processes. The 2 or more DNS servers for every domain are needed because if one DNS server fails, the other DNS server takes over instantly to keep your domain online.
All the computers communicate with each other on the internet using IP addresses, also called the numerical web addresses. An IP (internet protocol) address looks similar to 72.200.40.20 (this is an fictitious IP address). This works similar to any unique telephone number or the residential postal address. Everything in the process is quite complicated to understand by the common person who knows nothing about the technicalities of how things work on the internet.
We shall learn more about the IP Addresses, the Service Providers, the Domain Names, and the Domain Name Registrars in a separate article. To understand why your website is not seen immediately while the DNS propagation process is going on, we will concentrate only on the DNS and the DNS propagation process here. So what are they?
DNS
DNS means Domain Name System. The dedicated web server that uses the DNS software is called the DNS server. There are literally thousands of such DNS servers, spread all over the world. They act like the internet’s Yellow Pages that keeps track of all the information about all the websites, including your own registered website.
A single such DNS server will keep the information of only those websites that it is responsible for and will have a lot of pointers to find other websites. So, there are no DNS servers that store all the information of all the websites.
The DNS server has 2 main functions to follow:
1) The IP addresses are translated into domain names.
For example, a domain name, say mydomainname.com, is actually assigned digit numbers like 72.200.40.20 (this is a fictitious number). It is hard to recall such digit numbers and easy to use its alphanumeric name, in the above example, the mydomainname.com. The DNS server easily translates this domain name into the IP address of mydomainname.com in the example. This translation is done very fast by the DNS server.
2) The DNS server is the authority for the domain names assigned to it.
The network where your website resides has its own domain name system (DNS). The network, in fact, must have at least two such DNS servers as this is the industry-wide standard. These DNS servers are the authority for your website’s name, or in other words, your domain name. Your network provider service inserts the information of your domain name in its DNS server. Hence, the DNS server that has your domain name’s information has the authority over your domain name.
The DNS server stores some critical information about your domain name which is called your DNS Record.
Now, having seen what a DNS server is, and what it does, we shall look into more information about the Domain Name System (DNS) propagation process that is causing you to wait for almost 3 days to see your website live on the net.
The domain registrar publishes the domain name at the first DNS level in the DNS propagation process. Hereafter, the domain name is broadcasted to the DNS servers all over the world.
This process is called the DNS propagation process which takes almost 3 days to complete. This DNS propagation process takes place if new registration of a website, in this case, your new domain name is formed and must be broadcasted to all the DNS servers in the world. Another case is that if a domain name is changed, and the third case is if the authority assigned to the domain name is changed.
There are so many DNS servers all over the world that it takes so long to broadcast your domain name to all of them. All these DNS servers constantly update themselves, called the DNS propagation process, and will recognize your new domain name in due time. When it will completely do so cannot be guaranteed though!
Only after the complete DNS propagation process is completed then everyone can see and access you website. Sometimes, other people can see your website live, but you cannot! This is because the DNS server that is the authority of those people’s website has completed the DNS propagation process, but your own ISP’s DNS server has not! This is, therefore, you will not be able to see your website and domain name stabilized for about 3 whole days due to the DNS propagation process, ideally.
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