ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT: What It Means and How to Fix It

1Find out in thirty seconds whether it is one site or all of them

This is the step that saves the most time, and almost everyone skips it. Without knowing whether the error is general or isolated, you can spend an hour fixing something that is not broken. The test is quick and needs no tools at all.

1. Open two or three very different sites in the same browser. If all of them fail, it is your connection: go to Solution 4.
2. If only one site fails, try that same address on your phone with mobile data on and Wi-Fi off.
3. Did it load on mobile data? Then the site is fine and the block is on your network or your computer: Solutions 3, 5 and 7.
4. Did it fail on mobile data too? The site is down or blocking you. There is nothing to fix on your side: wait and try later.

2One site only: clear the data for that address

When a single site stalls and the others are fine, the number one suspect is the data the browser saved for that address: old cookies, an expired session and cached files pointing at a server that has moved. Clearing just that site is safer than clearing everything, because you do not lose your logins elsewhere.

1. Open a private window and load the site. If it works, the problem is saved data or an extension, not the network.
2. Click the padlock or the icon to the left of the address, in the browser bar.
3. Find the site settings or cookies and data option, and choose to delete this site's data.
4. Close all of its tabs and open it again.
5. If it works in the private window but not the normal one, disable extensions one by one until you find the culprit. Ad blockers and security extensions are the most common.

3One site only: test another browser and another DNS

If the private window fails too, the remaining possibility is that the route to that specific site is broken only for you. Switching browsers separates a program problem from a network problem, and switching DNS fixes the cases where your provider's server no longer knows where the site lives.

1. Open the same address in another installed browser. Did it work? The problem is the first browser, and a new profile or a settings reset fixes it.
2. If it fails in both, switch your computer's DNS to a public one such as 1.1.1.1 and 8.8.8.8, following Solution 5.
3. Check that you have not typed the address with a subtle typo, or forced http when the site only accepts https.
4. If the site belongs to a bank, a government body or a company, test from another network too before concluding the problem is yours.

4All sites: restart the router and renew the connection

When nothing loads, start with the basics and with what fixes the most cases. Routers pile up open sessions and sometimes freeze in a state where requests go out and nothing comes back, which is exactly what produces this error. Restarting clears that, and the commands below force the computer to ask for a fresh address and forget old network data.

1. Unplug the router, wait a minute and plug it back in. Wait for the lights to settle.
2. On Windows, open Command Prompt as Administrator and run the lines below, one at a time.
3. Restart the computer afterwards and test again.
4. If you use a cable, swap the network cable for another one before deciding the problem is configuration.

ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /flushdns
netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset

5Switch the DNS server to a public one

DNS is the internet's phone book: it translates the site name into the server address. When your provider's DNS is slow or down, the browser waits for that translation and runs out of time, even with the connection working. Switching to a public DNS is one of the changes that most often fixes this error, and you can undo it at any time.

1. On Windows, open Settings > Network and Internet, go into the connection in use and find the hardware properties.
2. Under DNS server assignment, switch to Manual and turn on IPv4.
3. Enter 1.1.1.1 as preferred and 8.8.8.8 as alternate, save and reload the page.
4. On a phone, the same change sits in the settings of the connected Wi-Fi network.
5. After switching, run the DNS cache flush from Solution 4 so the computer forgets the old answers.

6Clear the browser cache and the internal DNS cache

Besides the system cache, the browser keeps its own list of addresses and open connections. If that list has stored an address that no longer answers, the error continues even after you fix the network. Clearing both is quick and does not break anything important.

1. In the browser, open the clear browsing data screen from the three-dot menu, under privacy and security.
2. Tick cached images and files. Ticking cookies also works, but it logs you out of every site.
3. Choose a time range that covers before the problem started and confirm.
4. In Chromium-based browsers there is an internal network settings page with a button to clear the browser's own DNS cache. It sits in the developer tools menu or at an internal browser address.
5. Close the browser completely and open it again.

7Turn off the VPN, the proxy and anything between you and the site

VPNs and proxies change the route your traffic takes, and when the server on the other end is congested the request simply does not come back in time. It is the classic cause for anyone who only sees the error with the VPN on, or only on the company network. A proxy set by an old, forgotten program produces exactly this error too.

1. Disconnect any VPN and test. If that fixes it, switch to another server inside the VPN before giving up on it.
2. On Windows, open Settings > Network and Internet > Proxy and turn off the manual setup, leaving only automatic detection.
3. Temporarily disable your antivirus web protection and test. If that fixes it, add the site to the allowed list rather than leaving the protection off.
4. If you are on a work or school network, the block may be deliberate. Check with support before changing anything else.

8Check the hosts file and the Windows firewall

This is the fix for when a site keeps failing in every browser, on a different network and with no VPN. The hosts file is a local list that overrides the entire internet, and old programs, optimisers and blockers write lines into it that stay forever. Handle it carefully: editing that file wrongly can break other access.

1. Open Notepad as Administrator and use Open to load the hosts file, which sits in the drivers and etc folder inside the Windows directory.
2. Look for any line containing the name of the failing site. Put a hash sign at the start of the line to disable it, rather than deleting it.
3. Save, close and run the DNS cache flush from Solution 4.
4. In the Windows firewall, check that the browser is allowed on both private and public networks. If someone restricted it, allow it and test.
5. As a last resort, create a new Windows user account and test there: that separates a system problem from a problem with your profile.