I use split DNS and sometimes need to add external DNS names which are propagated to the rest of the world. But I need to wait a long time, sometime 36 hours, before I can see the name propagated outside my domain. Is there any way to speed up the process so I can get to know instantly that the DNS name has been propagated correctly?

I have already tried to use query from free web-based nslookups and digs but they are the last ones to know about my changes; I also tried querying opendns servers but found them pointing to themselves. Since I use split DNS I cannot test it from my internal network either. I also don't have a machine available outside my network.

Thanks for any suggestions.

RR's have a TTL (time to live). Changes to an existing record won't be noticed by external servers until the TTL expires, and they fetch the new record. Lower your TTL before you make a change, so that the cached records timeout and your changes take affect within the shorter TTL.

For non-existent records, there is a negative response timeout value as well. Clients that have queried the non-existent client will wait until the negative answer timeout has expired. You can reduce this value.

If a client has never queried a new name, all DNS lookups will be immediate from your authoritative server. There is no delay.

This is your only influence on the data other server's have cached (as instructed by your DNS server).

There are many DNS servers you can use for queries using the form of:

dig @external-dns-server. hostname.example.com.