Website won't load, but your internet works?
Here's a genuinely confusing one. Your internet is clearly working — messages arrive, other tabs load, the speed test looks great — but one particular website flatly refuses to open. Instead of the page you get "server not found" or "this site can't be reached." When the connection is fine but a single site won't resolve, the usual culprit isn't your line and isn't the website. It's DNS.
What DNS actually does (in one paragraph)
Every website has a name you type (netflix.com) and a numeric address computers actually use to reach it. DNS is the phonebook that translates one into the other. Every time you open a site, your device quietly asks a DNS server "what's the address for this name?" and waits for the answer before it can connect. If that lookup fails or returns something stale, the site won't load — even though your connection is perfectly healthy and the site itself is up. The call never gets dialled because the phonebook page was blank.
How to spot a DNS problem
DNS trouble has a recognisable shape:
- The error is about finding the site ("server not found", "DNS address could not be found"), not a timeout or a slow page.
- It hits some sites but not others — your favourites that are already cached keep working while a new one fails.
- Everything else about your internet seems normal: a speed test runs fine, other apps are online.
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Before changing anything, narrow it down:
- Try the site on another network. Open it on your phone over mobile data. If it loads there but not on your Wi-Fi, the problem lives in your home network or its DNS — not the site.
- Try a site you know is up. If a rock-solid site like
wikipedia.orgalso refuses to resolve, your DNS is broadly broken, not just for one name.
If the site loads fine from an outside check but not for you, you've confirmed it's local — and DNS is the first thing to fix.
The fix
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Switch to a public DNS | Point your device or router at 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) or 8.8.8.8 (Google) instead of your ISP's default. Often faster and more reliable. |
| Flush your DNS cache | Clears stale entries. Windows: ipconfig /flushdns. macOS: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache. Or just restart the device. |
| Restart the router | Resets the router's own DNS cache and its connection to the ISP — the classic fix, done properly. |
Changing DNS is safe and reversible, and public resolvers like 1.1.1.1 are free. It's the single highest-value move here, because it swaps out the exact component that's failing. If you want to understand why a router restart clears so many of these, here's the mechanism.
When it's not DNS
If you've switched DNS, flushed the cache, restarted the router — and the site still won't load from any network — then it isn't your phonebook. The site itself is probably down. That's the moment to stop fiddling and check whether it's down for everyone or just you, or run the two-sided is-it-you-or-the-site test so you're not chasing a problem that isn't on your end.