Will Namecoin solve today's DNS domain propagation delay?

[gigabytecoin]

As a webmaster on today's internet. There is one thing that I hate most... and that is domain name propagation.

You get a great idea for a startup, register the domain, throw up some content, and then you have to wait 2 days before paying for any promotion for it because half of the world couldn't see it no matter how hard they tried.

So will Namecoin help solve DNS propagation delays?

How long should it take for my nameservers to propagate across the network?

[khal]

When you reserve a domain, you need to wait 6 blocks (around 1h) before activating and configuring it. So, a new domain appears in about 1 hour and 10mn in the namecoin software. An update will take around 10 minuts.

But, your clients have two solutions to resolve .bit domains :
1. use a .bit compatible DNS server
2. use the namecoin software with a proxy

If they use solution 1, the delay will depends on the DNS server configuration (the two existing servers do updates from the namecoin software in less than 5 minuts, if i remember right).
Note : you can use your internet prodiver DNS, except if they add support for .bit (and you will depend their update time)

If they use solution 2, they directly receive the updates, so, you don't have the 5 minuts delay.

If .bit spreads more, and appears in internet provider DNS, all will depends on their update frequency.

[gigabytecoin]

Hrmmm, I suppose if we are simply using other peopls DNS servers still, that we would still have to wait 24-48 hours or however often they update their servers for the domain information to "propagate".

Looks like domain name propagation is here to stay!

[gsan]

Hrmmm, I suppose if we are simply using other peopls DNS servers still, that we would still have to wait 24-48 hours or however often they update their servers for the domain information to "propagate".

Looks like domain name propagation is here to stay!

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Blocks are solved (on average) every 10 minutes, and, for instance, ns.bit DNS server updates records (roughly) each minute, so when I register a domain (as I did a moment ago), I can access it through my browser in about 5-6 minutes on average.

With a local proxy, you might be able to access a minute sooner.

Namecoin domains are propagated through the Namecoin network. That's not like "propagation" in the standard DNS sense.

Theoretically, things can even go faster if we consider that updates are propagated before they get into the block chain. So, in theory, updates can be instant. This technique, I'm guessing, will not be acceptable for first updates though. But 5-6 minutes isn't very long anyway.

Now, with Namecoin, there is an additional reservation step. You need to wait 12 blocks after you reserve the name to make the first update. So, with this, you would, on average, have to wait a little more than 2 hours between coming up with the name and it being accessible by others.