A client and myself had trouble reaching his web site that was previously hosted with us and then deleted, and then recreated. There was an update to the name servers and the local cache on both his pc and mine it seems was not updating. We needed to flush local DNS cache on our pc’s to fix the problem.
Another reason you may want to flush your local DNS cache is that it has become corrupted. In our case my client and I could have waited for the dns to be updated but quickly fixing it was best as he had to work in his website urgently.
Here’s how to flush local DNS cache:
Windows 10
- Right click the Start Button
- Click on ‘Windows Powershell‘
- Enter the following command: ipconfig /flushdns
- If successful you should now see the following confirmation message: Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache
Windows 8
- Press Win+X to open the WinX Menu.
- Right click on ‘Command Prompt‘ and select ‘Run as Administrator‘
- Enter the following command: ipconfig /flushdns
- If successful you should now see the following confirmation message: Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache
Windows 7 & Windows Vista:
- Click on ‘Start‘, then go to ‘All Programs‘, and then ‘Accessories‘.
- Right click on ‘Command Prompt‘ and select ‘Run as Administrator‘.
- A Command Prompt window will open, type in the following and hit enter: ipconfig /flushdns
- If successful you should now see the following confirmation message: Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache
Windows XP
- Click on ‘Start‘, then go to ‘All Programs‘, and then ‘Accessories‘.
- Right click on ‘Command Prompt‘.
- A Command Prompt window will open, type in the following and hit enter: ipconfig /flushdns
- You should now see the following confirmation message: Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache
Mac OS X (Mountain Lion or Lion)
- Issue this command: killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Mac OS X 10.5.2 to Mac OSX 10.6
- In your dock click the ‘Finder‘ icon.
- Open your ‘Applications‘ folder.
- In the Applications folder click ‘Utilities‘ then click ‘Terminal‘.
- In the Terminal window that opens type the following command and hit enter: dscacheutil -flushcache
- You won’t receive any feedback in the Terminal window that anything happened after executing that command so don’t stress.
Mac OS X 10.5.1 And Below
- In your dock click the ‘Finder‘ icon.
- Open your ‘Applications‘ folder.
- In the Applications folder click ‘Utilities‘ then click ‘Terminal‘.
- In the Terminal window that opens type the following command and hit enter: lookupd -flushcache