Are you facing an internet problem or a DNS cache issue? You may try to clear Windows DNS Cache that will let the chrome browser start working again. When you type the website you want to visit, then your browser automatically goes to a DNS (Domain name system) server. Here, it searches for the IP address of the website whose name you typed in the URL and then directs you to that website.
What happens basically here is, the system store the DNS server address in order to speed up the browsing, thus it won’t check the DNS every time.
So, the DNS Cache has all the information about the location of the web servers that have the webpage you visited in the past. Therefore, if the location of any of these servers changes without being stored in the DNS Cache, then you will not be able to visit that webpage or website.
DNS Cache should be removed when:
- You get errors pertaining to “Website not found”
- When you are not able to visit a web page previously visited.
It is important to clear the DNS cache from your system because of the following:
- To erase your browsing history trace that can be misused by hackers
- To avoid DNS cache spoofing that may misuse login and other secure user data.
- DNS Cache gets broken at times
- DNS Cache gets outdated over time.
There are three ways by which you can clear your DNS Cache in Windows 10. Below given method works with Windows 8, 7 and XP as well. Let us look at each of them:
Quick Overivew
Flush Windows DNS Cache using Command Line
1) Type CMD in the left corner of your Windows screen and hit Enter
2) Type ipconfig /flushdns and press the Enter key.
3) Once you get the message “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache“, type exit and hit the Enter key again.
This will clear the DNS Cache on your Windows 10 system and you can start browsing the internet using your favorite browsers like Chrome or Mozilla.
Clear DNS Cache Using Windows PowerShell
1) Type Powershell on the Cortana search box and click on it
2) Once the PowerShell window opens, type Clear-DnsClientCache and press the Enter key.
3) Close the Powershell window once the DNS Cache is successfully cleared.
Shortcut to Clear DNS Cache
Another simple and easiest way to remove the DNS cache from your system is to follow below 2 steps
1) Press Windows+R button together
2) Type ipconfig /flushdns and click on OK button
This method works on Windows 10, 8, 7 and XP.
How to check whether DNS Cache Cleared?
Once you have cleared the DNS cache and want to re-confirm whether it works or not then type below command line and hit Enter:
ipconfig /displaydns
This will display the list of DNS cache entries if stored any.
How to Turn On or Off DNS Cache
There is an option available to turn on or turn off the DNS caching, all you have to do is to type below line in Command prompt:
To Turn Off:
net stop dnscache
To Turn On:
net start dnscache
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