Quick Guide to Fix Error Message “This site can’t be reached”

It’s true that the website we visit not always work the way we expect it. Sometimes, it does show annoying error messages. It does give us a hard time thinking what’s gone wrong, is my internet connection alright, is there any problem with my web browser or is it something wrong with the website that it’s not opening.

Many error messages come across different web browsers, and Google Chrome is not any different. The website we try opening in Google Chrome does sometimes gives us an error message. You might have come across different errors, and there’s a chance you might have faced this error: “This site can’t be reached”, too – today, we’ll discuss on this Google Chrome error message.

Before looking at this quick guide to solve this error message: “This site can’t be reached”, let’s first do some background check and try finding answers for:

What does “This site can’t be reached” error message means & What Causes It?
Quick Steps to solve this error message: “This site can’t be reached”.

What Does “This site can’t be reached” Error Message Means & What Causes It?

Generally, this error message gets triggered due to the failure of the DNS lookup. Here, DNS is the network address that is responsible for translating the website name into its respective internet address.

Some of the common reasons that you face this error message while visiting the website are:

Internet connection failure.
Misconfiguration of internet connection.
Misconfiguration of network settings.
The firewall might be preventing Google Chrome from loading the website.

This error message: “This site can’t be reached” can occur on many different systems like Windows, Chrome, Linux, or even Android devices.

Quick Steps to Solve This Error Message: “This site can’t be reached”

It doesn’t matter on which operating system or device it shows this error message. If you face it, then you would like to resolve it. Let’s see some below steps and find out how to solve “This site can’t be reached” error.

Below are some of the solutions that can help you resolve this error message by minimizing or removing it completely while opening your desired website.

Clear browsing history, cookies, and cache.
Resetting settings of Google Chrome.
Resetting Wi-Fi Modem.
Changing IPv4 DNS Address.
Restarting DNS Client.
Removing Extension From Google Chrome.
Resetting TCP/IP.
Disabling Flag “Experimental QUIC protocol”
Scanning Your Device For Malware.
Changing Maximum TLS Version To Allow.
Reinstallation of Google Chrome Browser.

Clear Browsing History, Cookies, and Cache

As the name implies, go to your Google Chrome web browser and clear all the history, cookies, and cache.

Open your Google Chrome browser.
Click on the three dots you see at the top right of the web browser.
Select and click More Tools >> Clear browsing data…. (Ctrl+Shift+Del)
Once Clear browsing data window pops up, select All time from the drop-down menu of the Time range.

Now from below checkbox options select these two options:
- Cookies and other site data
- Cached images and files.

Finally, click the Clear Data button.

Resetting Settings of Google Chrome

Google Chrome has the option of resetting your browser settings into the original one by one simple click. By doing this, it’ll erase all the configuration information of Chrome-like home page, pinned tabs, temporary data such as cookies, disable all extensions. However, bookmarks saved passwords, and history will remain untouched.

Open your Google Chrome browser and click on those three dots you see at the top right side.
Select the option Settings and once the Settings page opens, click on Advanced option at the bottom left side of the panel and select Reset and clean up option.

Now, click on Restore settings to their original defaults. It’ll open the Reset settings option, and then click Reset settings.

Resetting Wi-Fi Modem

Within a matter of minutes, you can restart your Wi-Fi modem. All you have to do is separate the router and reset it.

Unplug and separate the wires from your Wi-Fi router.
Click on the reset button and hold it for few seconds – 15 to 20 seconds.
Now, release that reset button once the light of the modem starts flickering.
Wait for few minutes till the Internet light doesn’t turn green.
Once it turns green try connecting to the Internet.

Changing IPv4 DNS Address

Go to Control Panel and click on View network status and tasks under Network and Internet.
Once the Network and Sharing Center opens, click on Change adapter settings from the left panel.
Now form the Network Connections, select and double click on the Internet connection you’re using, and click Properties.
Select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties button and enter the new DNS addresses.

Enter the public DNS server address of the Google:
- 8.8.8.8 – Proffered DNS server.
- 8.8.4.4 – Alternate DNS server.

Now, click the OK button to validate the changed settings and exit.

Restarting DNS Client

Click the Start button and select Run and type cmd and hit the enter button.
Once Windows command prompt opens, type command: net stop dnscache for stopping the service – it might take a few seconds to stop.
Once it stops, type net start dnscache for restarting the DNS service that you just stopped.
For resetting the DNS cache while removing all the entries from it run below command:
- ipconfig /flushdns

If it goes as expected, you will be greeted with the message “Successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache.”

Removing Extension From Google Chrome

Those little programs called extensions might create an issue and does interrupt network connection.

At the top right bottom, click three dots and select More tools >> Extensions from the menu.
Now disable the extension one by one by dragging that blue slider to disable it and check whether the website is opening.
If the website opens, you know which extension is the culprit. Remove that extension and again turn on all the extensions that you disabled it.

Resetting TCP/IP

Open command prompt by typing cmd in the Run box and once command prompt opens type: netsh int IP reset command and hit the Enter button. Your computer will be restarted. Go and try opening that website again if it’s working.

Disabling Flag “Experimental QUIC protocol”

The QUIC is for making transport, which works better for the internet instead of TCP. QUIC makes use of UDP port 80 as well as port 443. It often lets client bypass transparent proxies, in which UTM features like web filtering doesn’t work properly for Google Chrome – though it’s perfectly fine with other browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

For disabling QUIC protocol on your Chrome browser:
Open Google Chrome and type chrome://flags/ in the address bar at the top.
Look for the Experimental QUIC protocol and from Default change it to Disabled option by selecting an option from the drop-down.
Now, restart your Google Chrome and try visiting that website.

Scanning Your Device for Malware

There’s a possibility that your computer might be infected with malware. For instance, malware is capable of installing a proxy server for capturing and redirecting internet traffic via a malicious proxy server, which may result in such error message like: “This site can’t be reached”. So, try scanning your computer or any other device in which you’re trying to open the website.

Changing Maximum TLS Version to Allow

There’s a possibility that the TLS version of the webserver might be old. TLS (Transport Layer Security) one of the cryptographic protocol which helps web server and client to communicate securely over a network.

Open chrome flag by typing chrome://flags/ in the address bar of the browser and search for Maximum TLS version enabled.
From default, change it to the present one version 1.3 and restart your Google chrome.

Reinstallation of Google Chrome Browser

As the name implies, uninstall your currently installed Google Chrome from the Control Panel.
Now, go to C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Google\ and delete all the files that you find inside that folder.
Download the latest version of Google Chrome and install it. Finally, restart your computer to take effect and then try visiting that website.

Summary

There’s not a specific way to solve this issue. Google Chrome error message: “This site can’t be reached” can come due to different reasons, so their solution may also differ. Here, we’ve listed out 11 different ways through which you can solve this issue.

Try out one by one and see which one works for you. If the first step doesn’t work, look for another step, and if second doesn’t work, then go for the third one and so on. I’m sure you’ll find one of them working in your favor, and you’ll be able to access your desired website at no time without any further issues.

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