[Tut] How to Flush Your Cache on Windows and Router

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How to Flush Your Cache on Windows and Router

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I work a lot with DNS settings for my websites and apps.

Today I added a few new DNS entries to set up a new server. I used DNS propagation checkers and confirmed that the DNS entries were already updated internationally. But unfortunately, I myself couldn’t access the website on my Windows machine behind my Wifi router. I could, however, access the website with my smartphone after switching off Wifi there.

This left only one conclusion: My browser, Windows OS, or router cached the stale DNS entries.

So the natural question arises:

Question: How to flush your browser cache, Windows cache, and router cache and reset the DNS entries so they’ll be loaded freshly from the name servers?

I’ll answer these three subproblems one by one in this short tutorial:

• Step 1: Flush your browser DNS cache (Chrome, Edge, Firefox)
  
  
• Step 2: Flush your Windows DNS cache
  
  
• Step 3: Flush your router DNS cache
  

Let’s dive into each of them one by one!


Step 1: Reset Your Browser Cache



First, reset your browser cache because it may store some DNS entries. I’ll show you how to flush your browser cache for the three most popular browsers on Windows:

• Chrome
  
  
• Edge
  
  
• Firefox
  

Here’s how!

Clear Cache In Chrome

1. Open Chrome
   
   
2. At the top right, click
   Code:

   More
   with the three vertical dots
   
   
3. Click
   Code:

   More tools > Clear browsing data
   
   
4. Choose a time range. To flush everything, select
   Code:

   All time
   
   
5. Check boxes next to
   Code:

   Cookies and other site data
   and
   Code:

   Cached images and files
   
   
6. Click
   Code:

   Clear data

More here

Clear Cache In Microsoft Edge

Go to

Code:

Settings

>

Code:

Privacy, search, and services

> scroll down > click

Code:

Choose what to clear

> Change the

Code:

Time range

and check boxes next to

Code:

Cookies and other site data

and

Code:

Cached images and files

. Then click

Code:

Clear now

.

More here

Clear Cache In Firefox

Click the menu button (three horizontal bars) and select

Code:

Settings

>

Code:

Privacy & Security

. Scroll down to

Code:

Cookies and Site Data

section and click

Code:

Clear Data...

. Remove check mark in front of

Code:

Cookies and Site Data

so that only

Code:

Cached Web Content

is checked. Click the

Code:

Clear

button.

More here

Now your browser has no stale DNS entries — but in my case, this didn’t fix the problem. After all, your operating system may have cached it first!

Step 2: Reset Your Windows OS Cache



There’s a long and a short answer to the question on how to flush the Windows operating system cache. In my case, it worked with the shorter answer but you may want to use the long answer instead if you absolutely need to make sure your Windows DNS cache is empty.

How to Flush Your Windows Cache (Short Answer)



Type

Code:

cmd

into the Windows search field and press

Code:

Enter

. Type “

Code:

ipconfig /flushdns

” and press

Code:

Enter

.

How to Flush Your Windows Cache (Long Answer)

• Type
  Code:

  cmd
  into the Windows search field and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Type “
  Code:

  ipconfig /flushdns
  ” and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Type “
  Code:

  ipconfig /registerdns
  ” and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Type “
  Code:

  ipconfig /release
  ” and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Type “
  Code:

  ipconfig /renew
  ” and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Type “
  Code:

  netsh winsock reset
  ” and press
  Code:

  Enter
  .
  
  
• Restart the computer.
  

Step 3: Reset Your Router Cache



This one is simple (although a bit time-consuming): To reset your router DNS cache for sure, unplug your router and leave it unplugged for 30 seconds or more. This will reset its DNS cache for sure. Done!