If you’re running a Mac, it’s more complicated. You’ll see a confirmation message to say this has been done.

Simply boot to the desktop, enter “CMD” into the search box to run the Command Line Utility and run: If you’re using Microsoft Windows, clearing the DNS cache is very simple. There’s very little risk in clearing your DNS cache but as always when making any system-wide change to your system, make sure to save and close any open files, as well as run backups before you start. It will stop pages from failing to load properly using the new DNS servers.Ĭlearing your DNS caches isn’t hard to do but to make sure your settings are updated, you need to do it on each device and browser you use. This is not only better for your privacy. If you’re considering subscribing to a VPN or updating your DNS settings, you should always “flush” your DNS cache first to clear out any old web data. This is because if you connect to a VPN but continue to use the DNS servers supplied by your ISP, anyone monitoring your connection can see which websites you’re visiting, as well as what services you’re using, such as Netflix. If you sign up with one of the best VPN services (and reliable free VPN providers), they will also supply their own DNS servers. Public DNS servers such as those offered by Google and Cloudflare are often much faster than those offered by your ISP, and they can filter out harmful links. DNS settingsĮven if you’re not worried about slow web pages or being targeted by cybercriminals, you may want to update your DNS settings. This is known as ‘DNS poisoning’ and is very dangerous : if, for instance, you typed in the website address of your bank, a hacker could redirect you instead to a copycat ‘ phishing’ website. This can cause web pages to load slowly, or sometimes not all.īad actors like hackers will sometimes target your DNS cache. Perhaps the website in question has updated its IP address or maybe they’ve added a new server to which you can connect even faster. Problems occur when things start to go stale. Many modern devices and operating systems store the IP addresses of the sites you visit in a special DNS cache to help you access them faster in future. Each time you type a new web address into your browser’s address bar, your device connects to a DNS Server to translate its simple human-readable name into a machine-readable IP address, so you can connect to your web server of choice.

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