DNS Cache is a temporary storage of information about previous DNS lookups on your Operating System or web browser. DNS cache generally accelerates network performance by slightly increasing the loading time. However sometimes DNS cache can get in the way, when you are developing a web site or configuring domain settings, preventing you from accessing the correct site. So, it makes sense to flush DNS cache.
You can view DNS content by following the below mentioned steps depending on your Operating System-
Windows:
Open your command prompt and enter the command
ipconfig /displaydns
Mac:
Open the Terminal app, enter the command
sudo discoveryutil udnscachestats – to display the Unicast DNS cache
sudo discoveryutil mdnscachestats – to display Multicast DNS cache results.
Linux:
If you use linux OS, the name service caching daemon (NSCD) might not be installed by default. But you can install NSCD with the help of yum package manager
yum -y install nscd – to install NSCD packages (apt-get for Debian-based distribution such as Ubuntu)
service nscd status – to display DNS cache
Follow the below mentioned steps to clear the local DNS cache
Windows:
Open your command prompt and enter the command
ipconfig /flushdns
You will see the message, “Windows IP configuration successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.”
Mac:
Open the Terminal app, enter the command
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
Linux:
To clear the cache of a Linux OS running NSCD, simply restart the application with the command
/etc/init.d/nscd restart
