Everyone Can See Our Website Except People at Our Company

Ever run into this strange problem?

You just launched your new website. Everything looks good. It’s live. It’s secure. You’re excited.

But then someone at your company tries to load it… and nothing. The site won’t come up. Maybe it times out, maybe it says something about DNS or connection errors. Meanwhile, people outside your company can access it just fine.

What gives?

Let’s break this down.

The Most Common Cause: Internal DNS or Network Issues

If your website is working for everyone except people on your internal network, chances are good it’s a local DNS or routing issue.

Here’s why it happens:

When you had your old website or server set up, your internal network may have had a DNS record or routing rule pointing to a specific local IP (like 192.168.x.x). After the new site went live on a different server, your internal systems might still be trying to use those outdated routes.

How to Test This

The best way to test what’s happening is to try to view your website from outside your network. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Use a proxy website like hide.me or KProxy
• Use a mobile phone not connected to Wi-Fi (i.e., on cellular)
• Use a VPN to route your connection through another location

If the site loads from those methods but not on your office computer, it’s an internal issue.

How to Fix It

Once you’ve confirmed it’s an internal issue, here are some steps you can take:

1. Clear your internal DNS cache.
   • On Windows: ipconfig /flushdns
   • On macOS: sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
2. Restart your modem/router (just in case there’s cached routing info).
3. Check your internal DNS or router settings
   • If you had custom DNS rules for the old server, update or remove them.
4. Use Google DNS or Cloudflare DNS
   • Try changing your DNS server to 8.8.8.8 (Google) or 1.1.1.1 (Cloudflare) to see if that fixes it.

If your company has an IT team or uses an internal server for DNS (like Windows Server), the issue could be there. Your DNS settings may be overriding the real internet DNS.

A Note for In-House IT Teams

If you’re the in-house IT person and your coworkers can’t access your company’s website internally, here’s what to check:

1. Look for internal DNS overrides
   • Check your DNS zones and remove any A or CNAME records pointing to the old IP.
2. Flush the DNS server cache
   • On Windows Server DNS: open the DNS Manager, right-click the server, and choose \”Clear Cache.\”
3. Check split-horizon DNS setups
   • If you’re using split DNS (where internal and external users see different records for the same domain), make sure the internal zone is updated or removed.
4. Check local HOSTS files on machines where the site doesn’t load
5. Temporarily bypass internal DNS
   • Manually set a test workstation to use Google DNS ( 8.8.8.8 ) and see if that solves it. If it does, the problem is definitely internal.

This isn’t always an easy fix, but with a few careful checks, you’ll usually find an old DNS pointer or network setting causing the issue.

Still Stuck?

If you’ve tried all that and the site still won’t load internally, it might be:

• A firewall issue blocking outgoing access to the new server
• An old DNS zone still being used inside your office network
• A misconfigured hosts file on local computers

At this point, someone in IT should look at how the local network handles DNS and routing.

Final Thoughts: Why Can’t We See Our Own Website?

This weird issue—where your website is live everywhere except inside your office—usually comes down to internal DNS settings or caching. It’s common after a site migration or server switch, especially if the domain used to point to a local IP or staging server.

The fix? Rule out external issues first (use a VPN or mobile data to check), then flush DNS caches, review router/DNS settings, and make sure nothing local is pointing to the old server.

If you would like a downloadable, step-by-step guide with additional information, you can get it for free at PDFReports.com: