Knowledgebase

Clear your local DNS Cache [ Windows / Mac / Linux ]

When you connect to a website, it will cache the Domain Name Server [DNS] settings to your machine.
Sometimes when you make changes to your DNS, this prevents you from visiting the site at the new location for quite some time until that local record expires which can be 3-48 hours.
Please note that your ISP can also cache settings, so this will only be effective if the ISP has updated their information as well.

How to Flush DNS in Windows

In Windows, use "ipconfig /flushdns" to flush the DNS cache. Open the command prompt via Start >> Run >> cmd.exe and type the following:

C:\> ipconfig /flushdns

You should receive:

Windows IP Configuration

Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

The above command will completely flush the DNS, deleting any incorrect entries too. You can also use the command ipconfig /displaydns to view the DNS resolver cache currently on your machine.

How to Flush DNS in Mac OSX

In Mac OSX Leopard, you can use the command "dscacheutil -flushcache" to flush the DNS cache from Terminal:

bash-2.05a$ dscacheutil -flushcache

In Mac OSX versions 10.5.1 and before, the command lookupd -flushcache performed the same task:

bash-2.05a$ lookupd -flushcache

Terminal is found in your Applications under Utilities.

How to Flush DNS in Linux

In Linux, the nscd daemon manages the DNS cache. To flush the DNS cache, restart the nscd daemon.

To restart the nscd daemon, use the command `/etc/init.d/nscd restart`.