Edge opens the site. Firefox opens the site. Chrome alone says ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED. When one browser disagrees with every other program on the PC, the network is innocent — Chrome is doing its own name lookups its own way. This page explains that hidden system and how to bring it back in line.
Chrome does not fully trust your network to resolve names. It carries a feature called secure DNS, which sends Chrome's lookups through an encrypted DNS-over-HTTPS service of its own choosing instead of the DNS server your router or office assigned. Most days this is invisible and even protective. But when that chosen service cannot see a name your network can — an office intranet page, a router's admin page, a locally hosted tool — or when the secure path itself is blocked or broken, Chrome fails alone while everything else on the machine works. The symptom pattern is unmistakable once you know it: one browser, same PC, same cable, opposite answers. The fix is one setting, and this page shows the honest test first so you change it for a proven reason, not on a hunch.
Two one-minute tests isolate the browser beyond argument:
nslookup on the name. A clean answer here confirms the network path completelyIf both pass while Chrome errors, no router setting or Windows repair can fix what is happening inside one program. Equally, if Edge fails the same way, leave this page — your problem is the general one covered by the main guide in this series, and Chrome's setting is a bystander.
Normally your PC asks the DNS server your network provides — usually the router, which forwards to your provider. Chrome's secure DNS replaces that path for Chrome only. The browser wraps its question in HTTPS and sends it to a DNS-over-HTTPS provider, sometimes the same one your network uses upgraded to encryption, sometimes a different company entirely.
Two failure shapes follow. First, private names vanish: an outside provider has never heard of your office server, your NAS, or your router's name, so it truthfully answers that the name does not exist — Chrome shows ERR_NAME_NOT_RESOLVED while Edge, asking the office DNS, gets the real answer. Second, the secure path gets blocked: some networks and security tools filter DNS-over-HTTPS, and Chrome's lookups die in transit while ordinary DNS sails through. Both shapes produce one-browser failure, which is why the setting — not the network — is the fix.
chrome://settings/securityIf the site now loads, you have both the fix and the proof. On a home PC where you deliberately want an outside encrypted resolver, the alternative is choosing a provider you trust on purpose — the mistake to avoid is Chrome using one by default that you never picked, silently overriding the DNS you set up for ad-blocking, family filtering or office access.
Secure DNS exists for a real reason: ordinary DNS questions travel unencrypted and can be watched or tampered with on hostile networks. Turning the feature off entirely, permanently, because of one bad afternoon gives up that protection everywhere, including the coffee-shop WiFi where it matters most.
The balanced position: at home and in the office, current service provider mode is the right default for almost everyone — your network answers, and the connection upgrades to encrypted when your provider supports it. Reserve outside providers for a deliberate privacy decision, made knowing it will hide private and local names from Chrome. And remember the restart rule: Chrome caches lookup answers in memory, so any DNS change inside Chrome only counts after the browser has been fully closed once.
Watch the video to see the secure DNS setting found and changed live, and the failing page loading the moment Chrome restarts.
▶️ Watch Full VideoBecause Chrome can resolve names through its own secure DNS service instead of your network's DNS. That outside service may not know private or local names, or its path may be blocked, while Edge asks your normal DNS and gets the correct answer. Same PC, two different phone books.
Open chrome://settings/security and find the Use secure DNS section. Selecting With your current service provider makes Chrome use your network's DNS, upgraded to an encrypted connection when available, and is the right choice for most home and office PCs.
It removes one layer of privacy on untrusted networks, because ordinary DNS queries are unencrypted. That is why switching to your current service provider is preferred over switching the feature off — you keep the protection model while ending Chrome's habit of asking an outside service about your local names.