DNS is that network address that translates the website name to its internet address. … Most often it causes for not getting the internet connection or misconfigured internet or network settings. Another reason could be the firewall preventing Google Chrome to load the webpage.

What does this error mean server IP address could not be found?

What Does It Mean When You Have a DNS Address Could Not Be Found” Error?

The error prevents you from browsing the site and indicates an issue with the system. It occurs when the computer fails to lookup the IP address associated with a domain.

To solve the problem,take the following steps

Step 1: Check for working internet connection

First of your network is out. You cannot access any website. Hence you’ve to make sure that you have a working internet connection. Use different browsers like Microsoft Edge or Firefox to check if you can access the web from them. Also, you can use ping command from cmd (in Windows) or terminal (in Mac or Linux), by

1. Open cmd from the Start menu or using the Run command cmd OR, press Ctrl + r and on the dialogue box, type cmd and hit Enter.
2. When the command prompt opens, type ping google.com and check for results.

If the result shows statistics instead of an error, this means you have a working connection, and you can proceed with step #3, or you’ve to go through step #2 to fix network issues.

Step 2: Fix Network issues

Network issues may occur due to poor configuration of network settings and Network drivers. And such network issues can give rise to Site can’t be reached, Server IP address could not be found errors.

Windows Network Diagnostics

First, run the troubleshooter available with Windows to run diagnostics and fix. To do so,

1. Right-click on the ethernet or wifi symbol from the taskbar and click on Troubleshoot problems.
2. Wait for the troubleshooter to check errors in the background and fix them for you.

The troubleshooter will automatically apply the best network settings and make the changes. It might ask to make some adjustments if things are out of its control (something that needs administrative access).

Update Network Drivers

There could be issues with network drivers that aren’t supporting the network hardware within the computer. The best thing you can do is to update the network drivers.

Reinstall or update drivers for your Network devices following below steps:

1. Open Device Manager using the Run command devmgmt.msc in the run dialogue box.
2. Right-click on the Network adapter and click Update driver command.
   
3. You can also use drivers provided by the manufacturer from their website—for example, Realtek or Atheros.

This will automatically lookup for driver and hardware changes and repair to rectify the network issues.

Step 3: Check proxy settings

Proxy settings, when configured improperly, will cause errors. Allowing proxy to automatically detect will solve the problem. To check this setting in the Chrome browser:

1. Click on  at the top-right corner.
2. Select the Settings menu.
3. On the Settings page, scroll down until you see Advanced, click to open it.
4. Now scroll down until you see, Open your computer’s proxy settings.
   
5. Click to launch the Proxy settings within the operating system.
6. Set the proxy setting it to Automatically detect settings.

This will automatically choose the best proxy setup and make sure your internet is working without any issues.

Step 4: Change IP and DNS settings:

IP and DNS are vital for connecting to the internet hence it has to be configured properly. IP will be automatically obtained using the DHCP protocol. So, here we can enable DHCP to configure IP automatically.

In most cases, the options are set to default. However, if you’ve made any changes or any antivirus software has deliberately misconfigured it, then you can just revert back the changes. To do so,

1. Right-click on the network icon on the taskbar and click on Network and internet settings. OR
   You can also lookup for Network and internet settings in Windows Search.
2. From the Status, menu click on Change adapter settings.
3. When the control panel is launched, right-click on the network adapter through which you’ve connected to the internet
4. Select Properties sub-menu.
   
5. From the properties tab, click on Internet protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click on Properties.
6. In the properties tab, select on Obtain an IP automatically and Obtain DNS server address automatically.
   
7. Hit Ok to save the changes and reconnect to check if the problem persists.

Note: If your PC belongs to a private DNS service or you are using proxy-based connections, then you can contact your network admins to get those configuration settings.

Step 5: Reset IPv4 settings and flush DNS cache:

Resetting the IPv4 settings and flushing the DNS resolver cache is the last steps that can fix all the issues within your computer.

Reset IPv4 settings

If nothing works, you can simply reset every setting to avoid conflicts. Using cmd, we can issue netsh commands to reset IPv4 settings. To do so,

1. Launch CMD prompt as administrator, and type netsh winsock reset and hit Enter.
   
2. Now restart your PC.
3. Open CMD again and type netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log and keypress Enter.
   
4. Again restart your PC and check if you can connect to the internet.

This will completely reset all the IP configurations and changes that we made in our system to default one for automatic resolution.

Flush DNS Cache

You can also flush the Domain Name Server (DNS) information that is cached on your system. Now to flush DNS cache:

1. Open cmd as admin and type ipconfig /flushdns
   
2. If everything is running right, you should get this as output — Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.

Finally, check if this solves your issue and you are no longer receiving the error — The site can’t be reached; Server IP address could not be found.