When your website is being worked on by your web development company, it’s common for the test site to be running on a different hosting company. Then your live website remains live whilst you work together on building your new, fresh website.
Hosting companies are in different locations. When you type a web address in your browser, it’s hosting location is looked up in a database that tells your computer where the web address (domain) is. It’s a similar idea to a phone/address book where the name of the person or company remains the same, but where they live changes. Sometimes your computer relies upon it’s memory of where it is rather than looking this up fresh.
You can force your browser to find it in its new home by telling your computer to flush away it’s DNS memory. Here’s how on Windows and MAC computers, followed by a way to do it as a Google Chrome User.
Windows operating systems
Open a DOS command window. To do this, click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then press Enter.
- At the command prompt, type the following flush DNS command and then press Enter: ipconfig /flushdns.
- The DNS cache is now clear.
Clearing DNS cache on Mac OS
You can flush your local DNS cache in Mac OS (up to El Capitan) from your Terminal:
Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
- Type the following command and press Enter:
dscacheutil -flushcache
- After that type the second command and press Enter:
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Clearing DNS cache on Google Chrome
- Type the following in your Chrome browser:chrome://net-internals/#dns
- Then:Click on “Clear host cache.”
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