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You are here: Home » TTL or Time to Live Explained

By Abhishek Ghosh March 30, 2014 7:39 pm Updated on March 30, 2014

TTL or Time to Live Explained

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Time to Live or TTL is the term of validity of data in a given computer networks that limits the lifespan or lifetime of data, that determines how many intermediate stations (hops) a packet of data is allowed to pass in the Internet. We usually use Time to Live or TTL for Domain Name System (DNS) for Name Server Propagation. In brief, if TTL or Time to Live is very short like 300 Seconds, the propagation will take lesser time, but if it is set to higher value; DNS caching possibly (depends on setup) will take place, significantly reducing query time.

 

TTL or Time to Live : Basics

 

In computer networking, TTL or Time to Live prevents a data packet from circulating indefinitely. In computing applications, TTL or Time to Live is used to improve performance of caching or to improve privacy.

Internet Protocol (IP) specifies the TTL or Time to Live, which determines how many intermediate stations ( hops ) a packet in the Internet is allowed to pass. The data field for the TTL is an octet (8-bit field), so the maximum number of hops is 255. With each hop, the TTL is decremented by 1. When a data packet after its TTL has not yet reached its destination, it is discarded. The applied usage of this process is used  with traceroute. In IPv6, it has been replaced by a simple equal-sized hop limit and the lifetime is up to the higher layer protocols. We have limited the terminology TTL to DNS records in this article for practical usage.

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Checking TTL or Time to Live

 

Here are the practical usages of how TTL is checked :

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~  nslookup -type=A -debug google.com

It will give the output :

TTL or Time to Live Explained

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Server: 220.226.100.40
Address: 220.226.100.40#53
 
------------
    QUESTIONS:
google.com, type = A, class = IN
    ANSWERS:
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.33
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.34
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.35
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.36
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.37
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.38
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.39
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.40
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.41
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.46
ttl = 159
    ->  google.com
internet address = 74.125.236.32
ttl = 159
    AUTHORITY RECORDS:
    ->  google.com
nameserver = ns2.google.com.
ttl = 257854
    ->  google.com
nameserver = ns4.google.com.
ttl = 257854
    ->  google.com
nameserver = ns1.google.com.
ttl = 257854
    ->  google.com
nameserver = ns3.google.com.
ttl = 257854
    ADDITIONAL RECORDS:
    ->  ns1.google.com
internet address = 216.239.32.10
ttl = 126291
    ->  ns2.google.com
internet address = 216.239.34.10
ttl = 125016
    ->  ns3.google.com
internet address = 216.239.36.10
ttl = 124622
    ->  ns4.google.com
internet address = 216.239.38.10
ttl = 129165
------------
Non-authoritative answer:
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.33
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.34
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.35
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.36
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.37
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.38
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.39
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.40
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.41
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.46
Name: google.com
Address: 74.125.236.32

Simple usage :

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nslookup www.rackspace.com

Output :

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Server: 220.226.100.40
Address: 220.226.100.40#53
 
Non-authoritative answer:
www.rackspace.com canonical name = www.wip.rackspace.com.
Name: www.wip.rackspace.com
Address: 173.203.44.116

For more information on nslookup tool, use :

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man nslookup

on OS X, Other UNIX OS and GNU Linux. The command nslookup works for Microsoft Windows too. You can easily get a text copy of the manual by running this kind of command :

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man nslookup > /path/to/nslookup.txt

Tagged With time to live explained , txt ttl explained , ttl time to live or live , ttl explained , time to live types , time to live ttl detailed explanation , Time to live explanation , nslookup ttl explained , nslookup time to live , what establishes a time to live ttl packet

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Abhishek Ghosh

About Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh is a Businessman, Surgeon, Author and Blogger. You can keep touch with him on Twitter - @AbhishekCTRL.

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About This Article

Cite this article as: Abhishek Ghosh, "TTL or Time to Live Explained," in The Customize Windows, March 30, 2014, January 31, 2023, https://thecustomizewindows.com/2014/03/ttl-time-live-explained/.

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