All domain names are assigned an IP address, some are shared (meaning multiple sites use the same IP) and some are dedicated (meaning only your site uses that IP address).
If your web site has recently changed IP's (went from a shared IP to a Dedicated IP), changed web servers, (maybe a new host) the IP address that your local computer uses to "locate" your web site will have changed. And your old IP address may still be "stuck" in your local computer. So here is what you need to do if you are using a Windows Based PC, like Windows Vista or Windows 7.
1) You will need to open your "Command Prompt" on your Windows based computer by, here is the instructions if you do not know how:
a) Click on the Windows Start button lower left on your monitor
b) In the Search Programs & Files field type "cmd" and (this is important) RIGHT CLICK it and select "RUN as administrator" (if you do not run as administrator the remaining instructions will NOT work).
2) With the Command Prompt (cmd) Open type in the extact phrase:
ipconfig /flushdns
Once the above is typed in the command prompt hit the Enter (return) key to run
the command. Make sure there is only ONE space between the "g" in
ipconfig and the "/" forward slash in front of flushdns
You will see the following result from running this command:
Successfully flushed the DNS Resolved Cache.
3) Now check to see if your domain name is now pointing to the proper IP on your local machine. By using the Command Prompt to type in this command:
ping your-domain-name-here.com
There will be one space between the "g" in ping and the first
character in your domain name, of course replace
"your-domain-name-here.com" with your actual domain name.
You will see a set of numbers in this format XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX and if those numbers are numbers of your IP address then the dns flush worked on your computer.
NOTE: Sometimes you will need to reboot your computer after you have completed a DNS Flush. If you are site seeing your old site (assuming your site look changed with the new IP address) you might need to clear your web browser cache. The newer versions of Firefox has its own DNS cache, so make sure to close Firefox web browser before starting the above.
4) After running the DNS Flush command in step 2 you might need to run the "net stop dnscache" and " net start dnscache" command if you are still having issues. Here is how:
a) With the Command Prompt still open in running as administrator type the following command:
net stop dnscache
You should see the following after you run that command
The
DNS Client service is stopping.
The DNS Client Service was stopped
successfully.
b) Now Run this command to restart DNS cache:
net start dnscache
You should see the following after you run that command
The
DNS Client service is starting.
The DNS Client service was started
successfully.
