Unable to access most internet sites error DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Question

I have problems accessing most websites, only a couple work (grooveshark, google, facebook). On almost all others I get errors. Here is what I got using different browsers:

Opera: This website is not available Unable to look up www.xyz.com

IE: This website cannot be displayed

Firefox: Server not found. Firefox can't find the server at www.xyz.com

Chrome: This webpage is not available. The server at www.xyz.com can't be found, because DNS lookup failed. DNS is the network service that translates a website's name to its Internet address. This error is most often caused by having no connection to the internet or a misconfigured network. It can also be caused by an unresponsive DNS server or a firewall preventing Google Chrome from accesing the network.

Error code: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

I am using windows 7 64bit.

When I log in to my facebook account I can see most things, some photos and videos dot not show though. Doing a google search results in the search results displaying but I can't access the pages linked.

Obviously I do have an internet connection, all the other computers on the same connection work without problems (XP and 7, both surfing with firefox).

Here is what I tried so far:

• Turn off both firewall and antivirus
• Opened CMD as admin, typed netsh winsock reset catalog and restarted
• Turned the router on and off
• Checked for viruses using avira and superantispyware

Any ideas about a fix?

Solution

It seems like you are having DNS problems. First thing I would do is try clearing your DNS cache:

ipconfig /flushdns

If that does not help, then try changing your DNS servers temporarily to Google's (8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) just to make sure that the DNS server that you are using is not having problems. To do this on windows 7:

1. Open Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click "Change Adapter Settings".
3. Find Network Connection that is used to connect to internet (either "Local Area Connection" or "Wireless Connection"), right-click on it and click Properties.
4. Now in new windows select "Internet Protocol 4 (TCP/IPv4)" and click Properties button.
5. In the new window click the checkbox for "Use the following DNS server addresses:"
6. Type in 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
7. Click Ok and close the rest of the windows.

After this is done, check your internet connection and if you can open pages.

Comments

[phoops]

Yes you can, it is intended to be used by anyone. Well I would guess that you were using your routers DNS and on cheaper routers DNS sometimes breaks so you have to restart your router. This is usually due to limited memory on these things on inefficient firmware, thus I would generally advice using either something like Google DNS or just your ISPs DNS servers manually. You can even setup your router's DHCP to set DNS to Google's or your ISP's.

[Admin]

If the routers DNS really broke, why could I access some site but not others and why where other computers connected to the same router not affected?

[phoops]

@Lupy - it's theoretical to answer this, but some DNS records are cached on your computer (for the sites you previously visit). Also, it should affect all computers similar way on the network, but due to DNS caching and no further information it's impossible to answer.

[tim]

worked like a charm!!!!!

[Steven Lu]

This worked great for me, but I am really curious why it worked. My Macbook (plugged into Ethernet) couldn't access an IP. If i ping it, it just times out or "not reachable". Same on windows. I go to my windows machine, run ipconfig /flushdns. Now I can connect! And my Macbook can connect now too! How in the hell did flushing DNS on my other machine open the pipe for my laptop?

[hippietrail]

Would I be right in assuming these Google DNSs would be blocked in China?

[capiche]

@hippietrail Not blocked in China, but not reliable either. If the GFW starts redirecting gmail, for example, queries for gmail to 8.8.8.8 will also yield the redirected IP address.

[Suncatcher]

What if this helps but only temporarily? After a while all is broken again. Where to check?

[Suncatcher]

And in my case this command works only paired with ipconfig /registerdns