Detailed description: Approximately 2 weeks ago, Norton Safe Search (NSS) search tool will not return results. Shortcuts work. Norton Home Page and Google Search each work fine. I tried to clear all data, verify NSS up to date, verify Chrome up to date, ran all Norton Utility diagnostic tools - NSS is suddenly broken
Product & version number: Norton Safe Search Version 3.20.0.21 on Chrome 147.0.7727.138 (Official Build) (64-bit)
OS details: Windows 11 Home 25H2
What is the error message you are seeing? DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN
If you have any supporting screenshots, please add them:
The DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN error means your browser cannot find the IP address for a domain, often caused by Norton security settings blocking the site, DNS misconfigurations, or network issues. Fix it by temporarily disabling Norton to test, flushing your DNS cache, clearing browser cache, or changing to public DNS. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Immediate Fixes for Norton Users
Disable Norton Temporarily: Turn off Norton Smart Firewall or Norton Safe Search to determine if it is blocking the site incorrectly.
Check Norton DNS Settings: Ensure Norton’s Secure DNS is not misconfigured. Try setting your computer to use Google DNS ((8.8.8.8) and (8.8.4.4)) to see if the issue persists. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
General Troubleshooting Steps
Flush DNS Cache (Windows): Open Command Prompt as Admin and type ipconfig /flushdns.
Renew IP Address (Windows): In Command Prompt, type ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew.
Clear Browser Cache/DNS: In Chrome, visit chrome://net-internals/#dns and click “Clear host cache”.
Restart Network: Restart your modem and router to resolve potential ISP DNS issues.
Check Hosts File: Ensure the website is not incorrectly listed in your local hosts file. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
If the error only appears on specific sites, the issue may be with the website itself. If it appears on all sites, it is a local network or configuration issue. [1]
My wife was having problems using Norton Safe Search a couple of days ago and I looked around the Web for a solution until I ran into that news item (there are many similar reports on other sites).
Apparently, Norton had an arrangement to use ask.com for its search engine.
Because Ask.com has discontinued its search engine, any “Norton Safe Search” tool still functioning likely pulls from a different provider, frequently Bing, depending on your region.
In the United States, Bing has become the primary provider for search results when using the standard Norton Safe Search extension.
Default Provider: If you have the “Norton Safe Search” extension enabled in Chrome or Firefox, it currently redirects and processes queries through Bing. Safety Features: Norton still applies its own “Safe Web” technology on top of these Bing results to flag malicious or phishing sites with its signature icons. Norton Private Browser: If you use Norton’s standalone browser, you are given a choice to set your default search engine to Bing, Google, or DuckDuckGo.
Thank you. I am one of those users that sets everything to automatically update and I’m surprised that this would start happening when Norton knew that that service was no longer available. I guess I’ll just wait for them to fix it. I won’t use Bing and if Norton uses Bing, I’ll find another search engine. I find that the Edge Bing (who comes up with these names) search engine just fills my screen with a lot of minutia that I would prefer not addle my wits. My daughter told me a quote from ready player one : “Once we can roll back some of Halliday’s ad restrictions, we estimate we can sell up to 80% of an individual’s visual field before inducing seizures” That’s what it feels like when I get on a Microsoft-based internet platform.
