On occasions you will hear Site Support tell you:
"Please clear your browser, local DNS cache and then give it a try."
when you are working through some glitch, for example if you've made an update to your pages or posts and that update is not showing when you go onto your site.
These refer to two different things to clear cache issues in your computer.
1. Clearing your browsing cache
2. Flush DNS
-Flushing DNS does not remove your passwords so I'm going to show you that step first.
-Clearing the browsing cache removes some passwords [depending on how much history you remove, so you may need to have your email passwords handy before clearing your browsing history]
Both of these things are very simple and easy to do, however the first few times I had to do them I had to watch videos and read instructions and was a bit confused at the instructions as my screen seemed slightly different in 2017, and I could see shortcuts and people doing things different ways, so this is the short version I got to work and the one I now return to, as these things are easily forgotten.
I will tell you in a nutshell what's involved and then on the next pages detailed pics what to click and where to find it.
Summary of how to Flush DNS
- Update: currently in Windows the fastest way for me is to type command prompt into the search and the black box we need comes up, then type ipconfig/flushdns and hit enter
Previously and for older windows: Type cmd into the windows start screen in both Windows 7 and 8, hit enter to bring up the command prompt screen [or press the windows key and x]
- Once you have that screen up just type ipconfig/flushdns and hit enter, and that's it.
In the next two pages I will give you detailed instructions with photos to show you precisely where and how to do this for Windows 7 and Windows 8, [and Windows 10 is similar to 8].
Clear Browser Cache: On the last page I will show you where to remove browsing cache / history in Chrome, also Firefox and Opera.
John
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And I did a google and have not seen a straight answer to it but when you consider blogs out there saying the following about the DNS then very regularly would seem like a great idea, though I haven't heard anyone give a time period for how often should you clear your DNS outside of regularly, but I'm thinking now maybe every day until I hear better:
This is a quote from the website itstillworks.com
" Clearing the cache can be especially important for websites that rely heavily on steady repeat traffic.
Privacy
Another reason to clear your DNS cache is privacy. The DNS cache records every website visited, ...particularly useful if you are using a public computer, where clearing your DNS cache can help reduce the chance of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands.
Maintenance
Cleaning up your cache is also a reasonable maintenance practice. ... Sites you no longer visit can be expunged and free up space for new entries. This can also prevent the cache from returning bad results and 404 errors when revisiting old websites..."
