In short: if a site will not open while the internet generally works, the cause is almost always in one of four places - the site itself (down or closed), the path to it (DNS and routing), your device (cache, browser, antivirus) or the network (provider, router, filters). There is no need to guess: the one-minute check below shows where exactly it breaks, and the breakdowns of specific errors - from ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED to “the connection has timed out” - say what to do in each case.
A one-minute check: where it breaks
- Does another site open? If nothing opens, the problem is the internet, not the site: the router, the Wi-Fi, the operator.
- Does this site open on another device or from another network? Check from a phone on mobile data: if it opens, the problem is your device or your home network; if it does not, the site itself or the path to it is more likely down.
- Check the address. Obvious, but a typo produces exactly the same errors as a dead site.
- Reload the page with the cache cleared (Ctrl+F5 on a computer) and try private mode: if it opens in private mode, the cache or a browser extension is to blame.
- Restart the router and the device. The joke of a suggestion with the highest success rate.
Then go by symptom.
Sites will not open, but the internet works
The most frequent and most deceptive case: messengers work, video plays - and sites will not load in the browser. The cause is almost always DNS, the “phone book” of the internet that turns a site’s name into an address. Messengers hold connections that are already established and know fallback routes, so they survive a DNS failure unnoticed - while the browser needs it for every new site and falls over first. The fix: restart the router, which refreshes the provider’s DNS; if that fails, change the DNS manually to a public one (8.8.8.8 or 77.88.8.8) in the network settings; and check the date and time on the device, because with a wrong clock secure connections cannot be established. More on this - in the breakdown of how DNS encryption works and what it gives you.
Some sites will not open while the rest work
If only part of the sites is unreachable, compare what they have in common - that is the diagnosis.
Russian sites (.ru) will not open, foreign ones work.
A frequent cause since 2022 is certificates: some Russian sites moved to domestic TLS certificates, and without the Mincifry certificates the browser shows “your connection is not private”. You can tell by the wording of the error - it is about security and a certificate, not about unavailability. The answer is the Mincifry certificates: what they are and how to install them, or Yandex Browser, where they are built in. The second cause is an outage at a large Russian hosting provider or CDN: then a whole batch of sites goes down for a few hours and it is cured by waiting. Government and court portals have a peculiarity of their own: they are stricter than most about addresses and certificates and are often slow in themselves - with them, more than with others, simply trying at another time helps.
And a third case: you are abroad, and it is Russian sites specifically that will not open - banks, Gosuslugi, the railways. This is not a fault: many Russian services turn away foreign addresses for safety, and some run on Russian certificates, so abroad both causes stack up. The recipe is double: the Mincifry certificates (the breakdown is linked above) plus a stable Russian IP to sign in - at Tainet it is in every subscription, connect in the Telegram bot or in your account, the first 7 days free. The full breakdown of living with Russian services from abroad is in the article on accessing Gosuslugi from abroad.
Foreign sites (.com) will not open, Russian ones work.
Here the options are: the service itself has restricted access from Russian addresses (from the outside that looks like an endless spinner or an access error), problems on international routes at your provider, or the site uses a CDN that works unreliably in the region. It is checked from another network. If the service itself has decided not to work with some addresses, no browser or device setting fixes that: from the user’s side you can diagnose it here, but not repair it.
One particular site will not open.
Most likely it is simply down - a crashed server, an expired domain, an outage at the hosting provider. Check it from another network and wait: this is usually fixed on the site’s side. If the site matters and is regularly unreachable specifically for you, see the error breakdowns below - they will point at the cause more precisely.
ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED: what it means and how to fix it
Literally “connection refused”: the browser reached the server, but it declined to talk (or something on the way answers with a refusal). Step by step:
- reload the page in a couple of minutes, as this is often a server restart;
- clear the cache and the DNS cache (on Windows: command prompt →
ipconfig /flushdns); - check the browser extensions, because ad blockers and proxy extensions produce exactly this error, so turn them off;
- check the antivirus and the firewall, which may have put the site on a deny list;
- change the DNS to a public one.
Two deeper steps if it persists:
- look into the hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts - open it in Notepad as administrator), since viruses and third-party programs write redirects there, and any line with a site address you did not add yourself can be deleted;
- and reset the Windows network stack - command prompt as administrator →
netsh winsock reset, thennetsh int ip reset, then reboot.
If nothing helps and the site opens from no device at all, it is down itself - wait.
DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN: the domain was not found
The error means the DNS service found no such name - “there is no such subscriber in the phone book”. Three causes by frequency:
- a typo in the address (check carefully, including the zone - .ru against .com);
- the domain really has ceased to exist (the site closed or moved - look for its new address in search);
- or your DNS is failing - change it to a public one (8.8.8.8), clear the DNS cache with
ipconfig /flushdns, restart the router.
On a phone, switching Wi-Fi to mobile data and back helps: they use different DNS, so you will instantly see whether that is the cause.
ERR_CONNECTION_RESET: the connection was reset
The connection started and broke off halfway: something along the way reset it. The fix, step by step:
- reload the page;
- clear the browser cache;
- turn off VPN extensions and proxies in the browser (a forgotten extension is a frequent culprit);
- check an antivirus with an “HTTPS scanning” feature, which interferes with connections and breaks them - turn it off as a test;
- try from another network.
If the site opens over mobile data but is reset on your home connection, the cause is the home network or the provider: restart the router, and if it repeats, raise it with the provider.
”The connection has timed out”
The full text in the browser usually reads: “the connection to the site has timed out”. This is the timeout: the browser waited the allotted time for an answer and did not get one - the server is silent or answers too slowly. What to do:
- reload the page and wait a few minutes (overload is the most frequent cause, especially on popular sites at peak moments);
- check from another network;
- restart the router;
- and if the site is “heavy” and always slow, the cause may be the route to it, in which case changing the DNS or connecting through another region helps.
”This site can’t be reached”
This is Chrome’s generic line, under which the real diagnosis sits in small print - one of the codes above (ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN and others). Run your eye below the error heading, find the code, and go back to its breakdown above: the fix depends on the code, not on the generic line.
Where it breaks: browser, device or network
- Only in one browser (it opens in one browser and not in another): the browser is at fault - clear its cache, disable the extensions, check the proxy settings and the “secure DNS” inside the browser. In Safari on an iPhone, additionally: Settings → Safari → Clear History and Website Data.
- Only on one device (it will not open on the phone, but opens on the computer on the same network): the device is at fault - cache, date and time, antivirus, a forgotten VPN extension or profile.
- On every device on one network (it will not open at home, but opens over mobile data): the network is at fault - restart the router, change the DNS on it, and if it repeats, raise it with the provider.
A site will not open without a VPN - what that means
The symptom “it works with the connection and not without it” sounds mysterious, but two very specific cases lie behind it.
- The first: you are abroad and the site is Russian - banks, Gosuslugi, the railways and other services turn away foreign addresses, so without a Russian IP they simply do not open. That is the case described above in the .ru section, and a stable Russian address is the standard answer to it, not a trick: at Tainet it is in every subscription, in the Telegram bot or in your account - the first 7 days free, working on a phone, a computer and a TV at once.
- The second: the site is a work one - corporate portals, intranets and some company services are reachable only from their own network, so without the corporate connection they will not open from anywhere, and that is your employer’s setup rather than a fault: a question for your own IT people.
And if it is the other way round and the site stopped opening with the connection, that is a different diagnosis: the breakdown of why a VPN is not working.
How to check whether a site is reachable at all
A quick way to tell “is it down for everyone or only for me”: open the site from another network (mobile data instead of Wi-Fi takes thirty seconds), ask someone in another city to open it, or use online availability-checking services, which show whether the site answers from different points. If the site is down for everyone, all that is left is to wait: only the owner can fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Why will sites not open in the browser while apps work?
Apps hold their own addresses and connections, while the browser needs DNS for every site. If the browser opens nothing while the apps are alive, start with DNS: change it to a public one and restart the router.
Why will sites not open on my phone while they open on the computer?
The phone itself is the problem.
On an iPhone: clear Safari’s data (Settings → Safari → Clear History and Website Data), check the date and time (“automatic”), turn off forgotten VPN profiles (Settings → VPN); a special case is iCloud Private Relay being on - turn it off while testing.
On Android: clear the browser cache, check Private DNS (Settings → Network and internet → Private DNS - if an unfamiliar name is set there, switch it to “Automatic”), the date and time, and whether a forgotten VPN app is running in the background.
What if some sites will not open over mobile data but open over Wi-Fi?
A mobile operator has its own DNS and its own routes, and those are what play up. On Android, Private DNS helps (Settings → Network and internet → Private DNS → enter dns.google), which replaces the operator’s DNS with a public one; on an iPhone it is simplest to try later or over Wi-Fi. If you need the site urgently, another route solves it faster than waiting.
The site says “your connection is not private” - is that dangerous?
It is not a virus: the browser could not verify the site’s certificate. If it is a Russian bank or government site, it most likely needs the Mincifry certificates (the breakdown with the link is in the .ru section above). If the error appears on every site in a row, check the date and time on the device.
In summary
In summary
A site fails to open for one of four reasons: the site itself, the path to it, your device or your network. Which one it is shows in what else still works.
Start not with the settings but with a check. The order is this:
- Open another site, and open this one from another device or another network. That alone says whether the site is down or the problem is on your side.
- Look at what the unreachable sites have in common: only .ru points at certificates, only .com at a restriction on the service’s own side, a single site at that site simply being down.
- Find the error code under the browser’s heading and open its breakdown above: ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED, DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, ERR_CONNECTION_RESET and the timeout are cured in different ways.
Did not find your case - go through the full diagnosis of why a VPN is not working: the symptom table there is wider and there are breakdowns per device.
And an observation to close with: if unreachable sites are not a one-off but the regular weather of your network, it is more reliable to keep a stable route than to fix each site separately - a Tainet subscription works on a phone, a computer and a TV at once, from 8 roubles a day, the first week free. Questions about our connection go to support, where real people answer; honestly, we cannot fix other people’s sites or providers from our side, but helping you work out where it breaks - that we can do.
