ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED error on Google Chrome

DNS server is basically responsible for our internet to draw out any web page irrespective of what it is. They interact through internet protocols as addresses to land a page that has been requested. These servers basically translate the domain names to IP addresses to connect to the web content. Sometimes DNS becomes faulty and does not resolve the domain names. The corresponding IP address is not identified rendering the page not found. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED is the error that is thrown in cases like that.

This issue is fixable and diagnosable to a large extent. It occurs when a website cannot be opened, or sometimes because of some misconfiguration of a computer or a router. Even if the website is down on maintenance, it would still throw the same error as the DNS will not be able to solve the domain name. The IP address of the website cannot be recognized by the server and hence it would display a time-out error showing ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED.

It has to be either the website or the complete network that is faulty. One has to figure out and diagnose what the issue is. If it is a website, then we have to check its registers and hosting. If the network is the issue, then the whole system or the router has to be validated.

Check your own website:

Sometimes when you set up your own website, it is natural to have an evaluation as to whether it is functional and opens up at that click of the site. However, it is very common that initially, it would throw up errors due to some kind of misconfigurations or setups that is not properly done.

The name server should be registered in a prominent domain cloud and therefore it should be redirected to that web page once the IP address is referenced. Any famous hosting provider will not have any issues in redirecting the page as they have a self-configuration that is pre-set already. However, if you are trying a new hosting provider, then there could some amount of mitigations which has to be worked on before it becomes utterly functional in all sense.

You have to also make sure that you use the nameserver given by the hosting provider. Anything other than what is provided could actually change the IP address thereby rendering problems while navigating. nsLookup in command prompt would be of great aid to show what really has gone wrong.

Check whether a random website is working:

If a website is not opening with a click, then the dilemma of where the issue stems from is inevitable. It could come from the client side or simply a problem with that website alone. Either way, a simple method to check it out would be feasible and convenient. To check the servers, the following procedures will be followed.

1. Open the command prompt
2. Type nslookup and the URL you are trying to navigate to

A valid IP address should be displayed, but if it does not, then there are high chances that there is something faulty about the server name or host. You must check with the hosting provider in case of this issue to resolve this immediately. However, if you are not the owner of the website, then you have to wait it out until it is resolved. If a valid IP address is given, then the DNS server has to be checked.

Change the DNS server

If there is a problem with the DNS server, then changing the server could be the right way to go about it. A Google DNS or a Cloudflare DNS would do to mitigate the problem.

1. Open the window setting tab
2. Click on the network and internet tab
3. Click on adapter settings
4. Right-click on the network adapter and go to properties
5. Click on TCP/IPv4
6. Select “use the following DNS address”
7. Type the preferred DNS server IP
8. Open the command prompt and type the below commands.

Clear the cache

If all the above step fails, then the last step to resort to is to just clear all the cache data and try checking once again. The whole cache data of an already typed IP address jams the web space and gets clogged to throw a time-out error also hampering the DNS server in consequence. ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED is a very common error in cases like this as the call is not initiated with so much cache space being filled. Only thing is to mitigate this by following the below procedure

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Chrome://net-internals/#dns
3. This will open the cache window
4. Clear the cache
5. Restart Google Chrome.

This should have probably solved the issue. Checking on the website will give you a response.

Deactivate preload page option

This is similar to the cache option, but this purges the DNS cache in the websites. It will load a bit slower but would not throw any error.

1. Open Google Chrome
2. Navigate to settings and cookies
3. There is an option for preloading pages and searching
4. Uncheck it
5. Restart your Chrome and redirect to your site.

Change the configuration settings:

All the network settings and configurations will be changed in this method. We can use third-party software to mend it and also change the server name completely. This will completely reconfigure your network settings and start from scratch.

Conclusion and other mitigations:

If none of the above solutions work, then the best thing to do is just shift to another browser or even a completely different network system. If this is not helpful, checking on customer support should work in your favor. Mostly all the above solutions or the other should work. Since they are all tried and tested in most cases, one of them should be effective.