Comments on: Flush the DNS cache on Windows workstations

By: Flush DNS

Flush DNS — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:59:50 +0000

Hey great post, one thing that you need to remember for anybody who is trying this in Windows that in later versions of Windows (Vista/7) you will need to make sure that you’re running the command prompt in administrator mode.

By: jon

jon — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:06:05 +0000

This article explains why a flushdns might fail:

http://windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/86041/jsi-tip-10577-when-you-run-the-ipconfig-flushdns-command-on-windows-xp-you-receive-could-not-flush-the-dns-resolver-cache-function-failed-during-execution.html

By: stu

stu — Sun, 25 May 2008 10:09:52 +0000

yes in some cases a reboot will be needed. ipconfig /flushdns is not working and I’m using firefox so it is not an IE issue I will need to reboot tred and tried no go

By: - Marius -

- Marius - — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:12:20 +0000

Spike: thank you for your pertinent addition.

By: Spike

Spike — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:36:29 +0000

… and as for how to refresh your DNS server data on Linux, can’t you just send SIGHUP to the ‘named’ or BIND process? That works on other flavours of unix.

By: Spike

Spike — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:31:31 +0000

There are 2 problems that interact with each other to make a very big problem: the caching in Windows (DNS Resolver Cache), and the “added extra” caching in Internet Explorer. In the Bad Old Days IE would cache for 24hrs. On current MS software you should get away with a few minutes of caching for A records and 30 min of caching for aliases (CNAME records). There is a good article on the site above with info on registry hacks and links to tools. Obviously if you play with your registry, it’s your funeral.

If you can’t be bothered with any of this, close all IE windows, and/or just reboot.

PS. The people reporting problems with running ipconfig /flushdns, there are some known bugs, check support.microsoft.com

By: alex morris

alex morris — Sat, 19 May 2007 12:21:15 +0000

..Same problem as Brad

I was trying to repair my wireless connection but windows could not finish the operation because it could not clear the DNS cashe?

I tried to do this using ipconfig/flushdns but this failed also?

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 15 May 2007 08:58:47 +0000

I have the same problem as you brad. My internet connection has become 50 times slower over the last week and i cannot delete the DNS cache.
I have fixed it before but i cant remember how as it was more than a year ago.
Anyone know how to fix this please?

By: Brad

Brad — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:23:03 +0000

i get an error saying could not flush the dns resolver cache: function failed during execution. any help would be much appreciated, i think it is slowing down my internet speeds…

By: - Marius -

- Marius - — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 08:08:37 +0000

Usha,

No idea… Maybe you are seeing application level caching and this can be solved by restarting the application. hth.