You open your business website and Chrome shows a grey page: 'This site can't be reached'. Under it, a code: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED or ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED. Customers are messaging you that the site is down, and you haven't touched it.
Loading a website takes two steps. First the browser looks up your domain name to find which server it lives on. Then it connects to that server. 'This site can't be reached' means one of those two steps failed. The code tells you which, and that tells you whether to call your domain registrar or your hosting company.
Before blaming the website, rule out your own connection. Chrome's troubleshooting starts with a simple test: check whether the issue affects only one website or several. If other sites won't load either, it's your internet connection, not your website.
- Check the address for typos and reload the page.
- Open the site on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off, so it uses mobile data instead of your office network.
- Ask someone in another place to try it.
- If the site opens everywhere except one computer, work through Chrome's local fixes there: restart the browser, try a private window, turn off extensions, and check the firewall or antivirus.
- If it fails everywhere, it's your domain or your hosting. Read on.
Read the code, then look up your domain
Chrome's help describes ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED as 'The hostname (web address) doesn't exist or now has a different IP address.' DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN is the same kind of failure: NXDOMAIN is DNS shorthand for a domain that doesn't exist. Both mean the lookup step failed, so the cause is the domain or its DNS. See causes one to four.
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED is different. Chrome describes it as 'The page didn't let Chrome connect or the page is blocked.' The name was found, but the server at that address refused the connection. That points to your hosting. See cause five.
Either way, look your domain up on ICANN Lookup at lookup.icann.org. It's free, and ICANN says the results come in real time from the registry and registrar. Three fields answer most of the questions in this guide: the expiry date, the domain status codes, and the nameservers. Keep that page open while you read the causes below.
Cause 1: The domain has expired
This is the most common cause on a site that worked yesterday. Domains are rented for a set period, and if the renewal payment fails, often because the card on file expired, the domain lapses. ICANN requires registrars to send at least two renewal reminders, about one month and about one week before expiry, to the contact email on the domain. If that address is old, or belonged to someone who built your site years ago, the reminders went nowhere.
After expiry, ICANN's Expired Registration Recovery Policy requires the registrar to interrupt the domain's DNS for a period before deleting it, so your website and email stop working. If the registrar sends visitors to a web page during that time, the page must say the domain has expired and explain how to renew. So you may see 'This site can't be reached', or a parking page in place of your site.
- Auto-Renew Grace Period: ICANN describes this as an optional period of 1 to 45 days after expiry, set by your registrar, during which you can renew, usually at a fee they set. Log in to your registrar and renew.
- Redemption Grace Period: for generic domains such as .com, if the registrar deletes the domain, the registry must hold it for 30 days. Your domain status will show 'redemptionPeriod'. You can restore it through your registrar, normally for a restore fee.
- PendingDelete: if it isn't restored in those 30 days, the domain sits in this status for 5 days and is then released for anyone to register. Contact your registrar immediately if you see this status.
- After renewing, ICANN's policy says the registrar must restore the original DNS settings promptly. Then allow time for DNS caches to catch up.
- Country-code domains such as .uk or .pk follow their own registry's rules, so check your registrar's terms for the exact timings.
Cause 2: The domain is on hold
Sometimes the domain hasn't expired, yet it still doesn't resolve. Check the status codes in ICANN Lookup. ICANN's guide to status codes says 'clientHold' tells the registry not to activate your domain in the DNS, so it will not resolve, and that it is usually set during legal disputes, non-payment, or when the domain is due for deletion. 'serverHold' is the same effect, set by the registry. 'inactive' means no nameservers are attached to the domain at all.
For all three, ICANN's advice is the same: contact your registrar, find out what issue they need resolved, and ask them to remove the hold or add the nameservers. You can't clear a hold from your hosting account.
Cause 3: The nameservers were changed or are wrong
Nameservers tell the internet where your domain's DNS records live. They are set at your registrar, and they must point to whichever service holds your records, usually your web host. If they were changed, for example during a host move, by a developer setting up a new service, or by a registrar transfer, your records may now be looked up somewhere they don't exist.
Compare the nameservers in ICANN Lookup with the ones your host tells you to use, which are normally listed in your hosting account or welcome email. If they don't match, update them in your registrar's domain settings. If you're moving hosts on purpose, add all your records at the new DNS provider before you switch the nameservers, including the email records, or your email will stop too.
Cause 4: DNS records are missing, or still updating
The nameservers can be right while the record for your website is missing. A typical pattern: example.com loads but www.example.com gives DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, or the other way round. Each name needs its own record. The bare domain normally has an A record pointing to your server's IP address, and www normally has its own A record or a CNAME pointing to the bare domain. A record deleted by accident, or never created after a move, gives exactly this error for that one name.
Open the DNS settings wherever your nameservers point and check both names. Your host can tell you the correct IP address or target.
- If you just changed something, wait. Other DNS servers keep a cached copy of your old records for as long as the record's TTL (time to live) allows. Until that runs out, some visitors get the old answer and some get the new one.
- That's why a change can look fixed on your phone and broken on a customer's laptop. Don't keep changing records while you wait; each change starts the cycle again.
- Before a planned move, lower the TTL on your records a day or so ahead, so the switch spreads faster.
- Your registrar or DNS provider states its own estimate for how long nameserver changes take. Use that, not a number from a forum.
Cause 5: The hosting is down or suspended
If the domain looks healthy in ICANN Lookup and the DNS records are correct, but the browser shows ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED, ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT or a hosting company's suspension page, the problem is the server. Chrome's help lists server downtime or maintenance as one of the website-side causes of loading errors.
Hosting accounts get suspended for unpaid invoices, using more resources than the plan allows, or a security problem such as malware. Servers also go down for maintenance or outages.
- Check your email, including spam, for invoices or suspension notices from your host.
- Log in to your hosting account and look for an unpaid invoice or a suspension notice. Paying it usually brings the site back.
- Check your host's status page for outages.
- If none of that explains it, open a support ticket with your host and include the exact error code and the time it started.
Prevent it next time
Almost every one of these outages comes down to a renewal nobody saw or a change nobody checked.
- Turn on auto-renew for your domain and keep the payment card on file up to date.
- Make sure the contact email on the domain is one you read. ICANN's renewal reminders go there, and so do registrar warnings about holds.
- Put your domain and hosting renewal dates in your calendar, with a reminder a few weeks ahead.
- Keep a note of your registrar, your host, your nameservers and your main DNS records, so you can see quickly what changed.
- Before anyone changes nameservers or DNS for you, ask exactly what they are changing and check the site afterwards.
If you'd rather not manage this yourself
The fixes above are with your registrar or your host, and once you know which one, most are quick. If you'd rather not manage hosting at all, OneSol builds small-business websites with you on the Max plan ($1 for the first month, then $29/month): your own domain connected, CRM and SEO set up, and we keep it running.