Website not accessible? How to resolve Server not found issues when attempting to browse sites?

While attempting to browse some sites, we sometimes encounter the error "Server not found". For example, while attempting to browse YouTube, a Firefox browser might through the error -

Server not found
Firefox can't find the server at www.youtube.com ....

as shown in the image above.

How to resolve "Server not found" issues when attempting to browse sites?

The most common cause for "Server not found" error is due to DNS issues.

To resolve DNS issues, we can manually add DNS address to the Internet Protocol properties of the network adapter in use. We can add the following Google Public DNS address:
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Google Public DNS is a free alternative Domain Name System (DNS) service that are offered to the Internet users around the world. The public DNS service and servers that are offered are maintained and owned by Google. It functions as a recursive name server providing domain name resolution for any host on the Internet. The service was announced on 3 December 2009, in an effort described as "making the web faster and more secure". As of 2014, Google Public DNS is the largest public DNS service in the world, handling 400 billion requests per day. 

Google Public DNS operates recursive name servers for public use at the two following IP addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for IPv4 service, as well as 2001:4860:4860::8888 and 2001:4860:4860::8844, for IPv6 access. [Source: Wikipedia]

Steps to add DNS address to Internet Protocol version 4 in Windows Computer:

1. Right-click on the network icon at the bottom of the screen before the time display
   Or
   Open "Control Panel" > "Network and sharing center"
2. Click on "Change Adapter Settings" on the left hand side
3. Identify the network adapter in use
4. Right-click on the network adapter in use and click "properties"
5. Click on "Internet Protocol Version 4" and click "properties"
6. Select "Use the following DNS addresses" instead of the default "Obtain DNS server address automatically"
7. Enter 8.8.8.8 in the primary DNS server and 8.8.4.4. in the secondary DNS server
8. Click OK, OK and exit
9. Refresh your browser.

You should now be able to browse successfully.

In this example, we picked Internet Protocol Version 4 because it is the most common and widely used Internet Protocol. If you use IP v6 instead, apply the DNS address for IPv6 mentioned above.

Watch this short video to go through the steps of adding DNS address in Windows:



Hope this post is helpful for someone.