There are situations when you need to flush your computer’s DNS cache. The DNS cache within your OS stores the location of all the websites that you visit on the internet. This is intended to improve your web browsing speed, but there are times when it needs to be cleared for better performance. If you moved a website to BrickellHost and you’ve updated your domain nameservers, you might want to see your website while the new nameservers propagate. Follow the instructions below on how to flush your computer’s DNS:
Flush DNS cache on Windows
- Open a command prompt.
- One way to do this is to open the Start Menu, click Run, type cmd, and press enter
- If your account is not an Administrator, you’ll need to run the command prompt as Administrator.
In the command prompt type the following and press enter:
ipconfig /flushdns
Flush DNS cache on Mac OS
The command to clear the DNS cache is different depending on which version of OS X is installed on your Mac.
To determine this version:
- Click the Apple icon at the top left of the screen
- Click “About This Mac” (topmost option)
- Then, open the Terminal application and enter the command listed below based on the OS X version.
OSX 10.10.4 and greater (Yosemite)
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; say cache flushed
OSX 10.10
sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches
OSX 10.9
dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
OSX 10.7 – 10.8
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
OSX 10.5 – 10.6
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
