DNSChecker.ca instantly looks up a domain's DNS records on 12 public resolvers at once — including CIRA Canadian Shield, Canada's own DNS service — so you can see whether your change has spread. Free, no sign-up.
Map key: each dot is the country where a resolver's operator is headquartered (number = resolvers), coloured by result. It does not show where the query ran — most of these resolvers are anycast networks with servers in many cities.
These are 12 large public resolvers, queried live over encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS from our servers. Most are anycast networks with many locations, so we show which resolver answered — not a city. Two (CIRA Canadian Shield) are run by the organization that operates .ca. Your ISP's resolver may still show an older answer until its cache expires.
When you change DNS records — pointing a Canadian business site to new hosting, switching email to Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or moving a .ca domain to new nameservers — the change is not instant. Every resolver keeps its own cached copy of the old answer until the record's TTL (time to live) runs out. Your ISP's resolver (Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw/Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco and others) is one more cache on top of the public ones.
| Change | Usually visible |
|---|---|
| A / AAAA / CNAME / TXT / MX record edit | Within the old record's TTL (often 5 min – 4 h) |
| Nameserver (NS) change at the registrar | Commonly a few hours, sometimes up to 24–48 h |
| New domain or first-ever record | Usually minutes |
These are typical ranges, not guarantees — the TTL you set before the change is what really decides it.
| CIRA Canadian Shield | IPs |
|---|---|
| Private (no filtering) | 149.112.121.10 149.112.122.10 |
| Protected (blocks malware/phishing) | 149.112.121.20 149.112.122.20 |
| Family (also blocks adult content) | 149.112.121.30 149.112.122.30 |
Canadian Shield is run by CIRA, a not-for-profit. See our Canadian Shield setup guide and best DNS servers in Canada.
It is the time it takes for resolvers around the internet to stop serving a cached copy of your old DNS record and start returning the new one. Nothing is "pushed" out — each resolver simply refreshes when its cached copy expires.
Record edits (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) follow the record's TTL, so they are often visible in minutes to a few hours. Changing a .ca domain's nameservers at your registrar can take longer — commonly a few hours and occasionally up to 48 hours — because the parent zone and resolver caches must refresh.
Each resolver caches independently. One that looked up your domain recently keeps the old answer until the TTL expires; one that hasn't looked it up will fetch the new answer straight away. Disagreement between resolvers means propagation is still in progress.
Lower the TTL to 300 seconds a day or two before you change the record, make the change, then raise the TTL again. You can't force other people's caches to clear, but you can flush your own: ipconfig /flushdns on Windows, sudo dscacheutil -flushcache on macOS.
It queries 12 public resolvers, two of which (CIRA Canadian Shield) are Canadian-operated. The queries are sent from our servers, not from specific Canadian cities or ISPs, so we don't claim city-by-city results. If your own Bell, Rogers or Telus connection shows an old answer, wait for the TTL to expire or flush your cache.
Yes. No account, no limits to worry about for normal use, and we don't store the domains you check.