Error DNS · dns

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Q: How do I fix it: Verify the nameservers at the registrar

``` dig +short NS example.com ``` These must match the nameservers your DNS provider gave you, exactly. If they do not, you are editing records in a zone nobody consults — and no amount of waiting will help. Nameserver changes at the registry can take up to 48 hours, considerably longer than ordinary record changes.

Q: How do I fix it: Create www as its own record

Add it explicitly alongside the root: ``` @ A 203.0.113.10 www CNAME example.com. ``` The trailing dot on `example.com.` is significant in zone files: without it, many DNS providers will append the domain again and you get `example.com.example.com`.

Q: How do I fix it: Confirm the domain has not expired

``` whois example.com | grep -i 'expiry\|expiration' ``` An expired domain needs renewing at the registrar. Nothing in DNS or hosting can work around it.

In one line

DNS has no record for this hostname at all — the browser never got as far as contacting a web server, so nothing about your hosting is involved yet.

Ben Johnson · last verified 2026-08-02

Also seen as: NXDOMAIN · This site can't be reached · server IP address could not be found

What it actually means

NXDOMAIN is a definitive answer from the DNS system: this name does not exist. Not “the server is down”, not “the site is broken” — the name itself has no record.

This matters because it tells you where not to look. Your hosting account, your files, your .htaccess and your database are all irrelevant to this error. The problem is in DNS, which is between your domain registrar and your DNS provider.

The usual cause is simply time: DNS changes are not instant, and you are looking at a resolver that has not caught up yet.

Diagram illustrating dns errors on shared web hosting.

Why it happens

The record was created but has not propagated

Resolvers cache aggressively, and they cache the absence of a record too (this is called negative caching, and it is governed by the zone’s SOA minimum — commonly 300 to 3600 seconds).

If you visited the domain before creating the record, your own resolver may be holding a cached NXDOMAIN. This is why a site can work for a colleague and not for you.

The nameservers are wrong at the registrar

You created the record at one DNS provider while the domain’s nameservers point at another. The record exists, but nothing is asking the server that holds it.

This is the most common real cause, as distinct from the most common apparent cause (impatience).

The subdomain was never created

example.com existing does not imply www.example.com exists. They are separate records and both must be created explicitly.

The domain expired

An expired domain is removed from the zone entirely and every hostname under it returns NXDOMAIN. Check the expiry date before debugging anything else if the site was working yesterday and nothing changed.

How to fix it

1. Check what the public internet actually sees

Not what your machine sees — your machine has a cache. Query several independent resolvers with the CWP DNS Propagation Checker, or from a terminal:

dig +short example.com @1.1.1.1
dig +short example.com @8.8.8.8

Empty output from all of them means the record genuinely does not exist yet. Different answers from different resolvers mean it is mid-propagation and you simply need to wait.

2. Verify the nameservers at the registrar

dig +short NS example.com

These must match the nameservers your DNS provider gave you, exactly. If they do not, you are editing records in a zone nobody consults — and no amount of waiting will help.

Nameserver changes at the registry can take up to 48 hours, considerably longer than ordinary record changes.

3. Create www as its own record

Add it explicitly alongside the root:

@      A      203.0.113.10
www    CNAME  example.com.

The trailing dot on example.com. is significant in zone files: without it, many DNS providers will append the domain again and you get example.com.example.com.

4. Flush your own DNS cache

Once the public resolvers show the right answer but your machine still does not:

# macOS
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

# Windows
ipconfig /flushdns

# Linux (systemd-resolved)
resolvectl flush-caches

Chrome keeps its own cache as well — clear it at chrome://net-internals/#dns.

5. Confirm the domain has not expired

whois example.com | grep -i 'expiry\|expiration'

An expired domain needs renewing at the registrar. Nothing in DNS or hosting can work around it.

On CWP specifically

Our platform

If you are using a free CWP subdomain, DNS is handled entirely by us and NXDOMAIN should only ever appear in the first few minutes after the account is created, while the record is being published.

For a custom domain, point your nameservers at the values shown on the Domains page of your control panel, then allow up to 24 hours. Our panel shows the live status of each domain’s DNS, so you can see whether the delay is on our side or at your registrar.

Still stuck?

Post the exact error and your account name on the community forum — staff and other users answer there, and the thread helps the next person who hits this.