How to Flush DNS

Flushing DNS clears cached domain lookups so your PC fetches fresh IPs. Useful when a server hostname won’t resolve or after network/VPN changes.

Windows

1. Open Command Prompt or Terminal as Administrator.
2. Run:

   ipconfig /flushdns

3. You should see: Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Optional full reset (then reboot):

ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /registerdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh winsock reset

macOS

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run:

   sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

3. Enter your password. No success message is normal.

Linux

Depends on your stack - try one of:

sudo resolvectl flush-caches
sudo systemd-resolve --flush-caches
sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved
sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

Also worth doing

• Router: power cycle 30 seconds.
• Browser DNS (Chrome/Edge): open chrome://net-internals/#dns or edge://net-internals/#dns → Clear host cache.
• Stuck resolving? Switch to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1 / 1.0.0.1) or Google (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) DNS, then flush again.

Related: Connection Reset · GetSockOpt · Authentication