What does DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN mean for my website?

The internet has no address for your domain name. For a business site that used to work, the domain has usually expired or its nameservers or DNS records were changed. Look the domain up at lookup.icann.org: an expiry date in the past or a clientHold status means renew it at the registrar named there.

My domain expired. Can I still get it back?

Usually yes, if you act quickly. Right after expiry most registrars let you renew normally and the site returns within hours. Later the domain may enter a redemption period with a higher fee, and after that it can be released for anyone to register. The exact days depend on the registrar and the domain ending, so renew the same day.

Why does my website say Account Suspended?

Your hosting company switched the account off, most often for an unpaid invoice or an expired card, sometimes for malware or heavy resource use. Check the host's billing page and your email, including spam, pay or fix the stated reason, and ask them to reactivate it.

Why does my site load on my phone but not on my office computer?

The site is up and your own connection is blocked or caching an old address. A security plugin or the host's firewall may have blocked your internet address after failed logins; ask the host or unblock it in the plugin. Otherwise restart the router or flush the DNS cache.

More fixes

Website down: "This site can't be reached"

You type your business address and get a grey error page, a "this domain has expired" page full of ads, or a plain "Account Suspended". Customers see the same thing, and often your business email has stopped too. The error code under the message says which of four things broke: the domain, its DNS records, the hosting account, or the server. Each has a different fix, and two of them get harder to undo the longer they wait. Below is a rebuilt example (not a real client), how to read the code, and the fix for each.

What a customer sees

What the checks found

First: is it down for everyone, or only for you?

Open the site on your phone with Wi-Fi turned off. If it loads on mobile data but not on your office Wi-Fi, the site is up: your own connection or address is blocked (last row of the table).
Try both addresses: yourbusiness.com and www.yourbusiness.com. If only one fails, one DNS record is missing, not the whole site.
Read the small grey code under the browser's message (Chrome and Edge show it; Firefox says "Hmm. We're having trouble finding that site" for the first kind). Then find it in the table below.

What the error code means

You see	It means	Usual cause
`DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN` or `ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED`	The internet has no address for your domain name	The domain expired, or its nameservers or DNS records were changed or deleted
A "This domain has expired", "Renew now" or "This domain may be for sale" page	The registrar parked the name after it expired	Renewal failed: an old card, an old email address that never got the reminders
"Account Suspended" or a hosting company's page	The domain works; the hosting company switched the account off	An unpaid invoice, or the host found malware or heavy use
`ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT`	The address exists but nothing answers	The server is down or overloaded, the DNS points at an old server, or a firewall is blocking you
`ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED`	A machine answered and refused	The DNS points at the wrong server, or the web server on it is stopped
"Your connection is not private"	The site is up; its security certificate is not	See the not-secure guide

The causes and their fixes

Cause	How to confirm it	What to do
The domain expired	Look the domain up at `lookup.icann.org`: an expiry date in the past, or a status of `clientHold`, `redemptionPeriod` or `pendingDelete`. It also names the registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Squarespace Domains...)	Log in at that registrar and renew it, then turn on auto-renew and update the card and the contact email. Right after expiry a normal renewal usually brings it back within an hour or a few. Wait longer and many registrars move it to a redemption period with a much higher fee, and after that the name can be released for anyone to buy. Exact days vary by registrar and by ending (.com, .co.uk...), so act the same day
Nameservers or DNS records changed	The domain is paid, but the ICANN lookup shows nameservers you do not recognise, or `dnschecker.org` shows no A record, or an address that is not your host's. Common after a hosting move, a registrar transfer, or a "connect your domain" step in a site builder	Set the nameservers back to your host's (your host's help pages list them), or put back the A record and the `www` CNAME the host gives you. Copy the MX records too, or email stops. Changes take from minutes to a day to reach everyone
Hosting account suspended	"Account Suspended" on every page, and an email from the host. Check the host's billing page and inbox, including spam	Pay the open invoice or update the card; the host usually switches it back on the same day. If the reason was malware, the host wants it cleaned first: see the hacked-redirect guide
The server is down or overloaded	Times out for everyone (phone on mobile data too); the host's status page reports an incident, or the site fails every afternoon when traffic peaks	Check the host's status page and open a ticket with the exact time and error. If it keeps happening, the plan has run out of room or something is hammering it: see the 502/504 guide and the 429 guide
Only you are blocked	Fails on your office Wi-Fi, loads on mobile data. Often right after several wrong passwords: a security plugin (Wordfence, iThemes) or the host's firewall blocked your internet address	Ask the host to unblock your address (search "what is my IP" and send it), or unblock it in the security plugin from another connection. If nothing was blocked, restart the router, or on Windows run `ipconfig /flushdns`

Things that also stop when the domain lapses

Email at the domain. If your address is you@yourbusiness.com, it stops receiving with the website. Customers' emails bounce. Renewing fixes both.
Your Google listing's website link. Google keeps showing it, and every click lands on the error. Once it is back, open the link from the listing to check.
Payment and booking links that live on the site, and the confirmation emails they send.

What not to do

Do not buy a "new" domain with a different ending and start over. Every link, review site and printed card uses the old one. Renew it, even late.
Do not pay anyone who emails offering to "recover" or "restore" your expired domain. Renew only by logging in to the registrar the ICANN lookup names.
Do not change nameservers to "test". If you do not know the old values, write them down before touching anything; a wrong change can take a day to undo.
Do not let a suspension sit. Some hosts delete a suspended account's files after a few weeks.

Most of the time this is an expired card on a renewal, ten minutes' work once you know which login it is. If you would rather hand it over, or the DNS is a tangle of old hosts, that is what the box below is for. Related: a site that stopped loading, brought back, "Error establishing a database connection", a blank white screen and a home page that says "Page not found".