[lug] DNS Time

[Walter Pienciak]

On Fri, 3 Dec 1999, Shannon M. Johnston wrote:

> What determines how long a web address will remain in the DNS cache
> before it's reset?
> I'm trying to move some sites to a new server and while it show up
> immediately in my own network, it seem to take a very long time for
> people on the internet.
> What gives? Does anybody know?
> 
> Thanks,
> Shannon

Wow, I'm afraid to answer after the flurry of FTP answers this
morning, but here goes.

The TTL (time to live) field limits the cache life of an answer.

If you fire up nslookup, and then

    > set debug
    > your_favorite_hostname

some interesting stuff comes back for you to ponder.

Walter