How to Fix ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT in Chrome and Edge on Windows 11

•
Ankit Kumar
Windows 11BrowserNetworkFix

The Problem

The page spins for 30 seconds, then Chrome or Edge shows "This site can't be reached — took too long to respond" with ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT. Unlike DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NO_INTERNET, the name lookup worked — your PC found the server's address — but the connection itself never completed.

The first question is whether it is one site or all of them. One site usually means the site is down or something is blocking that address. Every site usually means a proxy setting, a broken network stack, or security software filtering traffic.

Symptoms

  • ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT on one site, or on every site.
  • Other apps (Steam, Discord, Windows Update) may still work.
  • The same site loads on your phone using mobile data.

Quick Checks

  1. Open the site on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off. If it fails there too, the site is down — nothing on your PC will fix it.
  2. Try a different browser. If Firefox loads the page but Chrome and Edge do not, the cause is browser-side (extensions or proxy).
  3. Restart the router: unplug it for 30 seconds, plug it back in, and wait two minutes.

The Fix: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Turn Off Proxy Settings

A leftover proxy — from a VPN client, a work setup, or unwanted software — sends every request to a server that no longer answers. This is the most common cause of timeouts on every site.

  1. Settings → Network & internet → Proxy.
  2. Under Automatic proxy setup, turn Automatically detect settings on and make sure Use setup script is off.
  3. Under Manual proxy setup, click Set up next to Use a proxy server and turn it off.
  4. Close and reopen the browser.

Step 2: Disable Extensions

Ad blockers, VPN extensions, and "privacy" add-ons can route or block traffic.

  1. Open an Incognito (Chrome) or InPrivate (Edge) window — extensions are off there by default.
  2. If the site loads, go to chrome://extensions or edge://extensions and disable them one by one to find the culprit.

Step 3: Flush DNS and Browser Caches

A cached address can point at a server the site has since moved away from.

  1. Open Terminal (Admin) and run: 
    ipconfig /flushdns
  2. In Chrome or Edge, open chrome://net-internals/#dns (or edge://net-internals/#dns) and click Clear host cache.
  3. Open chrome://net-internals/#sockets and click Flush socket pools.

Step 4: Check the Hosts File

The hosts file overrides DNS. An entry for the failing site sends your browser to the wrong address.

  1. Open Notepad as administrator (search Notepad → Run as administrator).
  2. File → Open → C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts (set the file type to All files).
  3. Every line should start with # except, at most, 127.0.0.1 localhost and ::1 localhost. Delete or comment out (#) any line mentioning the site that fails.
  4. Save, then flush DNS again.

Step 5: Reset the Network Stack

If timeouts hit every site in every browser, reset Winsock and TCP/IP.

  1. Open Terminal (Admin) and run each line: 
    netsh winsock reset
netsh int ip reset
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
  2. Restart the PC.

If that is not enough, use Settings → Network & internet → Advanced network settings → Network reset. This removes and reinstalls every adapter, so you will need to re-enter your Wi-Fi password.

Step 6: Change DNS Servers

Some ISP DNS servers return stale or filtered addresses for certain sites. Switching to Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) or Google (8.8.8.8) rules this out: how to change DNS servers.

Step 7: Check the Firewall and Security Software

  1. Temporarily pause any third-party antivirus or "internet security" suite — many include a web filter that can time out connections.
  2. If the site now loads, add it as an exception in that product rather than leaving protection off.
  3. For Windows Firewall rules that block the browser, see fix Windows Firewall blocking apps.

What Not to Do

  • Don't install "network booster" or "DNS fixer" utilities. Everything they do is covered by the built-in commands above.
  • Don't leave your antivirus disabled once you have tested it. Add an exception instead.
  • Don't edit the hosts file with a normal (non-admin) Notepad — the save silently goes to a different location and changes nothing.

Still Not Working?

If only one site fails on your home connection but works on mobile data, your public IP may be blocked by that site or your ISP may be routing it badly. Test with tracert example.com in Terminal — if the trace stops at the same hop repeatedly, contact your ISP with that output.

If every site is slow as well as timing out, work through speed up a slow internet connection and Wi-Fi keeps disconnecting.

Related guides