Google Chrome is one of the most widely used browsers. It is based on the open-source Chromium browser. Google adds some additional features and release it as a free browser for Windows, Mac, and Linux OS.
One such feature is the built-in DNS cache system available in Chrome that makes browsing on Chrome fast.
DNS or Domain Name System is responsible for translating a website name to its IP address e.g www.mysitename.com corresponds to 192.69.23.23. As soon as you enter www.mysitename.com on the browser, the DNS resolvers find its IP address and your browser can connect to the site.
What if you visit the same site again? Ideally, the same process should happen. But modern browsers like Chrome provide an in-built DNS cache to avoid this subsequent call to a DNS resolver to get an IP address.
This saves network traffic and helps to improve the speed of browsing.
Sometimes, the DNS cache may get corrupted or DNS resolved may have changed or the website is not loading as expected or not loading at all getting a “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN” or “ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED” error.
Although Chrome is intelligent enough to understand the DNS change, sometimes, it is necessary to flush Chrome’s in-built DNS cache.
In this article, we will understand how to use chrome://net-internals/#dns to flush the Chrome DNS Cache.
What is chrome://net-internals/#dns and how to use it?
The chrome://net-internals/#dns is a page interface provided by Google Chrome to clear the in-built DNS cache system. This only clears Chrome’s DNS cache, not your OS DNS Cache. Your OS also caches DNS information.
This is how you do it.
Open Google Chrome and put chrome://net-internals/#dns in the URL field to open the below interface.
Here, you have options for DNS lookup and Host resolver cache.
DNS lookup is used to check ip address of website. Simply enter the name of the website and click the lookup button to see IP address.
To flush the DNS Cache, simply click the Clear Host cache button. You will not any feedback as such from Chrome, but it does clean up the cache in the background.
Next, restart your Chrome browser and go to this link chrome://net-internals/#sockets.
Hit the Flush socket pools button and then restart your browser.
That’s it and you are done.
Summary
Google Chrome’s in-built DNS cache system is an important element in providing a swift and efficient browsing experience. It stores DNS information for previously visited websites, reducing the need for repetitive DNS queries.
However, in cases where you encounter issues like websites not loading, DNS errors, or missing content, you can use the chrome://net-internals/#dns utility to clear the DNS cache and potentially resolve these issues.
Appendices
The net-internals/#dns, also known as Net-Internals, is a NetLog event stream visualization tool where you can view real-time logs or load NetLog dumps of later dates that keep the browser’s network-related events and state, helping troubleshoot and debug problems.