DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN for those of you working with WordPress on a regular basis, errors specific to the CMS such as the white screen of death or database connection errors are somewhat common occurrences. But another subset of errors you will probably stumble upon are those tied to your internet connection and DNS. A very common error that Google Chrome users get when trying to browse to a web page is DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN. This can be downright frustrating as suddenly you can’t browse to your website or perhaps even anywhere at all.
How to Fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN Error?
1. Flush DNS Cache
DNS cache keeps the IP address of your previously visited sites. Clearing the cache can help solve DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error since outdated IP addresses might be the cause of the problem.
To flush the cache on Windows, you’ll need to do the following:
- Click the Start button, search for the Command Prompt, and then right-click to select the Run as administrator option.
- Once a new window appears, type in:ipconfig/flushdns
- When you’re done, click Enter.
2. Release and Renew IP Address
If the previous solution didn’t do the trick, this is a more in-depth way of clearing the DNS cache which is similar to the previous step. Open the Command Prompt administrative rights just like before and enter the following commands one by one:
- You can release your current IP address by entering:ipconfig/release
- If you want to display the full IP configuration for all of your adapters, use the following:ipconfig/all
- In order to reset the DNS cache, we’ll use:ipconfig/flushdns
- This will renew configuration settings for all adapters:ipconfig/renew
- Enter the following commands to reset the IP settings of your previously stored IP and reinstate the Winsock Catalog.netsh int ip set dns netsh winsock reset
- Once that is done, restart your computer.
People use this process to renew their IP address and reset the Winsock on their systems. Resetting Winsock is useful because it’s responsible for controlling requests from Internet applications and you may want to do so once in a while.
3. Change DNS Servers
If clearing the cache does not work, you can change your DNS servers. By default, your computer is using DNS provided by your internet service provider. If you’re having issues, you can change that to Google DNS or OpenDNS.
Here’s how to change your DNS server on Windows:
- Open the Control Panel menu and search for Network and Sharing Center.
- On the left side of the window, click the Change adapter settings option.
- Right-click on the connection that you currently use and choose Properties.
- Find the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) option in the list and click the Properties button again.
- Under the General tab, you’ll see two spaces at the bottom of the window — Preferred and Alternate DNS server. Select the Use the following DNS server addresses option and type in Google Public DNS IP addresses respectively:8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4
- If you want to use OpenDNS, include the following:208.67.222.220 208.67.220.222
- Once you’re done, simply click OK to save your changes.
4. Reset Chrome Flags
Sometimes, one of the solutions to fix the DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error message is to try and reset Google Chrome settings and experimental features that were accidentally modified. To do this, type in the following in your address bar:
chrome://flags
You’ll get access to all experimental Chrome features available. Click Reset all button on the upper right corner. Then close and reopen your browser.
5. Disable VPN or Antivirus
Using a VPN or antivirus software offers incredible security solutions for people who spend a lot of time online. Unfortunately, these features can sometimes prevent users from accessing some websites.
If that’s the case, you may want to try turning off any active VPN or antivirus to see if that solves the error.
Disabling your antivirus is easy – you usually only need to open its control panel and find the option to temporarily turn it off
Read also:How to Fix the WordPress Updating Failed
