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DNS Cache


Think+

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When a computer visits a website for the first time, it stores the website's DNS information in cache. The next time the computer visits a website, it looks in the cache to see if the website's information is present to use. This can cause problems if the website's DNS information has changed since the computer's last visit. Flushing the cache removes all the information stored in cache, forcing the computer to find the new DNS information for the website.

 

You can safely clear the DNS Cache if you're having trouble accessing a website due to a DNS error which may or may not fix the problem.

 

The DNS Cache does list websites visited by name, so clearing it can also help protect privacy.

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You can see what is in your DNS Cache by opening a command window (Win + R, "cmd", Enter). Type "ipconfig /displaydns". And you can flush the cache manually with "ipconfig /flushdns".

 

If you have lots of entries in your hosts file ( %SYSTEMROOT%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts ) these will still appear after you have flushed the cache, because these are your explicit DNS overrides.

 

As Jamin4u says, privacy is probably the main benefit of clearing this in CCleaner.

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Think+ the DNS cache is a relatively 'minor' setting and it's just down to personal choice whether you select it or not.

 

The only thing it really effects is privacy unless, as Jamin4u says, you have a DNS problem. It doesn't save much space or improve performance. Cached content expires after a while anyway.

 

How you set this isn't really a big issue either way, unless you're obsessed with privacy issues, in which case you may as well turn the caching service (DNS Client) off in the first place.

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