How To Guide

Aug 21, 2008

My Digital Life Editorial Team

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How to Flush and Reset DNS Cache

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DNS (Domain Name System) is a resolution mechanism to translate, resolve and return real IP address of the serving machine against the fully qualified domain name of the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), aka link location. Whenever a domain has been resolved, the DNS resolution is stored and cached locally for future use.

The caching of DNS on local system ensure the fastest speed to resolve any domain name, and reducing hits, and directly load and burn of DNS name servers. However, it may cause some issues such as some website and web pages not loading or cannot be contacted and connected when browsing, causing by changing of IP address or nameservers that hasn’t been reflected and refreshed on local copy. The symptom is more obvious when user set web browser to use proxy to surf the Internet, and these sites now can be loaded properly.

When encountering any inaccessible or unable to load web page issue, one possible resolution is to try to flush (empty and reset) the DNS cache on the system. To flush the DNS on Windows system (Windows XP and Vista inclusive), follow these steps:

1. Click on Start button and then click on Run (alternatively just hit Windows + R keys) to open Run command dialog. Type Cmd into the Run box, and hit Enter. In Windows Vista, open an elevated command prompt.
2. A command prompt DOS window will open. Type ipconfig /flushdns and then press Enter to purge the DNS resolver cache.

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8 Comments

• 
  Adam September 30, 2010 at 1:22 pm

  Cool this helped.

  Reply
• 
  ervin May 12, 2010 at 5:27 pm

  I got it to work but now what?

  Reply
• 
  pratik saha April 23, 2010 at 12:51 am

  you said that Type ipconfig /flushdns and then press Enter to purge the DNS resolver cache.

  but when I did this it's saying that could not flush the dns resolver catch: function failed during execution

  What will I do now?

  please mail me as early as possible…..

  Reply
• 
  DAMON December 23, 2009 at 12:54 pm

  I have the same problem as vivek and

  im getting pissed

  Reply
• 
  JL March 23, 2009 at 3:55 pm

  I have the same problem as vivek.

  I can't install my D-link, because upon internet connection repair it fails to clear DNS cache.

  Does it have anything to do with Kaspersky virus protection?

  Reply
• 
  Kyle December 22, 2008 at 4:51 pm

  Got to start > programs > administrative tools > services

  You'll likley find you DNS client has been disabled

  Reply
• 
  Steve August 26, 2008 at 5:58 pm

  Cool it worked

  Reply
• 
  vivek August 25, 2008 at 12:33 am

  I have tried this several times but getting this error:

  "Could not finish the DNS resolver cache:Function failed during execution"

  Thanks

  Reply