I keep receiving the 'Windows Smart Screen can't be reached right now' prompt when Installing software. I visited the Microsoft Community for support, but it only provides troubleshooting steps for connecting to the Internet.

1. Windows 10 This Site Cannot Be Reached

My internet connection is working properly, so I don't know why the prompt is appearing.

Steven M. Vascellaro

How to fix Windows SmartScreen can’t be reached right now problem in Windows. If you trust the website or the application then click on the Run anyway option to proceed otherwise click on the Don’t run option to protect your PC from any type of virus attack and hacking attack. Sometimes this problem occurs due to the connectivity to the internet.

user285oo6user285oo6

• Cannot login to This site can’t be reached The connection was reset. PC windows 10. I have reinstall the PC. I - Answered by a verified Tech Support Specialist. We use cookies to give you the best possible experience on our website.
• Find out how to fix the 'this site can't be reached' issue in Chrome when trying to connect to select Microsoft web properties.

Windows 10 This Site Cannot Be Reached

6 Answers

One possible cause is if a firewall is blocking Windows Explorer from accessing the internet.

Nothing in my applications list looked obviously related to Smart Screen, so when I had this error, I went through my firewall settings MS application by MS application. Windows Explorer is the one where it didn't work before I created an exemption allowing it to connect, and did work (or at least, didn't give this error) after.

(note: this is Windows 8.1, it might be different in Windows 10, but it's something to try)

user568458user568458

First off - check the date and time on your computer to make sure that it is accurate.

If that doesn't work then your TCP/IP or Winsock stack could be borked and will need to be rebuilt.

Open a command prompt as Administrator.

1. Type netsh i ip r all and press enter.

2. Type netsh winsock reset and press enter.

Note: If you have set your computer's IP address as static on your network, you will need to reapply those settings as the TCP/IP reset clears these settings. Most people should be fine if they are using DHCP at home to connect. I wouldn't run these on any type of work computer though, because you'll probably have to annoy your IT department to fix the IP address settings up again.

This happens when your private network is not set up. I am using wifi, so I will tell you how I fixed this issue on a computer connected to wifi.

How to fix:

1) Click on the wifi icon in the taskbar, it will open the window with wifi connections

2) The network highlighted in purple is mine. Next click on properties. It will take you to this window:

mine is set to 'Private', because I have already reset it, but yours is set to public and that is why your smartscreen can't be reached, because it doesn't use untrustworthy public networks and only works with private networks. Reset to private and your smartscreen will work again.

Do not just set any network to private, because you can compromise the security of your computer. Choose only the one you trust.

Have you tried opening the command prompt as admin and running.

I usually have this problem if airplane mode or Bluetooth was turned on for awhile then turned back off.

DavidPostill♦

they changed it into a setting called 'App & browser control'search in settings and you will find it

On Windows 10, You may turned off SmartScreen feature in settings. Open Windows Defender Security Center >App and browser control. Here check that the SmartScreen settings are set to their defaults:

Check apps and files: Warn
SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge: Warn
SmartScreen for Windows Store apps: Warn

Mokubai♦

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged windows-10securitymicrosoft-edgemicrosoft-smartscreen or ask your own question.

The Windows user may get with the error messages “Site’s Server DNS address could not be found” in Google Chrome while trying to open some websites (as www.reddit.com, www.facebook.com, www.youtube.com), fix it here.

This error is caused when the Domain Name Server is not able to translate the website IP address. The Domain Name System (or also known as DNS) is used to convert Internet domain and host names to IP addresses and vice versa. DNS makes sure you will go to the right place when typing a domain name in the web browser address bar. Hence, when you access any websites then the first thing the browser does is contact the DNS Server but sometimes this DNS lookup fails and you get the following error message:

www.facebook.com‘s Server DNS address could not be found

Read more: How To Fix DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN in Chrome
In this tutorial, I am going to look at user-supported methods to this issue happening on Google Chrome.

How To Fix ‘This site cannot be reached. Server DNS address could not be found’ error in Chrome

Method 1: Delete files in folder System32/driver/etc

This fix has gained a lot of popularity which suggests that the Windows 10 user should remove all the files in “etc” folder. To do so, you navigate to C:WindowsSystem32driversetc. And then delete all the files in your etc folder.
You can now try accessing Youtube, Facebook or Reddit again with Google Chrome and the error is gone.

Method 2: Change Your DNS Server With A Third-Party Provider

Why you get the “Server DNS address could not be found” error. Sometimes, there is an issue with your default DNS server from ISP and then your computer doesn’t respond or can’t be connected thus it can’t match your requested domain name to the right IP address. So, if you are facing this DNS address error, I would recommend you change your DNS Server with a third-party service like OpenDNS or Google’s DNS. This will help to load a website faster, more stable and especially more securely and you will not get any DNS errors anymore.

Step 1. Press Windows Key + R then put ncpa.cpl in Run dialog box. Click OK to open Network Connections.

Step 2. In the Network Connections window, you right-click on the connection icon (either Wireless Network Connection or Local Area Connection), then click Properties.

Step 3. Moving on, in the network adapter’s property sheet, you select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click Properties.

Step 4. Go to the General tab, do one of the following, make sure that Obtain an IP address automatically is selected. And you check the radio button for Use the following DNS server address then type the following server address and click OK:

• The IP addresses of Google’s DNS are as follows: 8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4
• The IP addresses of OpenDNS are as follows: 208.67.222.222/208.67.220.220

Step 5. Reboot the machine and check to see if the error is resolved.

Method 3: Clear the Google Chrome DNS cache

If the Chrome DNS cache becomes outdated or corrupt, you may not be able to access any websites. That’s the reason why you get this DNS error, and quite a simple one to fix. This method will show you how to flush and clear DNS cache of Google Chrome in Windows.

Step 1. Open your Chrome browser.
Step 2. In the address bar, enter chrome://net-internals/#dns and tap Enter.
Step 3. Next, click on the Clear host cache button and restart your Chrome browser.

If you have any problems related to DNS servers, this method could help you.

Method 4: Reset IP Configuration and Flush DNS Cache

All DNS entries and the IP addresses of the websites you access are stored in the computer’s cache memory so they open faster the next time you access them. However, if a website has changed its IP address or DNS entry recently, then you have to clean up all outdated entries. Otherwise, it can prevent you from accessing the internet and cause DNS errors. To check if this is what’s causing the “Server DNS address could not be found” error, just reset IP Configuration and flush DNS Cache.

Step 1. Open the Command Prompt program with administrator privilege.
Step 2. In the Command Prompt window, execute all the following commands below, one by one:

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /registerdns

ipconfig /release

ipconfig /renew

Step 3. Next, execute these next commands:

netsh winsock reset catalog

netsh int ipv4 reset reset.log

netsh int ipv6 reset reset.log

Step 4. Reboot the machine and then check if the issue is resolved.

Method 5. Restart DNS Client Service

If you are still getting the “Server DNS address could not be found” error, you should restart DNS Client Service in Windows Services.
Step 1. Press Windows Key + R then put services.msc in Run dialog box and click OK. This will open the Services Manager.
Step 2. Then, locate the DNS Client service and right-click it and select Restart.
Step 3. After the process is completed, restart your Windows PC.
Check the following video to learn how to fix server DNS address could not be found and dns_probe_finished_bad_config, Site cant be reached:
Hope something helps you. If you have any other DNS address error you can see for the solution on my webiste.