The information in this article applies to home users who haven’t changed their DNS configs.

you might think of it as a phone book.

This is what happens behind the curtain when you ask yourweb online window to load a website.

Person using a computer with a displaydns command on the screen

Maddy Price / Lifewire

You punch in in a URL likelifewire.comand your web net net app asks yourrouterfor the IP address.

This happens for every website you want to visit.

What Is DNS Cache Poisoning?

A DNS cache becomespoisonedorpollutedwhen unauthorized domain names or IP addresses are inserted into it.

This poses a massive problem for popular websites.

clear, reset, or erase) a DNS cache.

These new addresses are taken from the DNS server your online grid is set up to use.

In Microsoft Windows, you might flush the local DNS cache using theipconfig /flushdnscommand in aCommand Prompt.

Linux users should enter the/etc/rc.d/init.d/nscd restartcommand.

The exact command will vary based on your Linux distribution, though.

A router can have a DNS cache as well, which is whyrebooting a routeris often a troubleshooting step.