ERR_CONNECTION_RESET appears in Chrome when a TCP connection between your browser and the server was established but then forcibly terminated before the page finished loading. Someone in the network path sent a RST (reset) packet, which abruptly closes the connection without the normal four-way TCP teardown sequence. The most common causes are your ISP resetting connections to specific servers, antivirus software intercepting and dropping HTTPS connections, a firewall terminating idle connections, or the server itself crashing mid-response.
The key distinction between ERR_CONNECTION_RESET and ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED is timing. A refused connection means the server rejected your request before any data was exchanged. A reset connection means data exchange started but was interrupted. This narrows troubleshooting significantly: if ERR_CONNECTION_RESET appears consistently on one site, the problem is either an ISP-level reset or a server crash. If it appears across many sites, look at your local network stack, antivirus, or VPN.
What Causes ERR_CONNECTION_RESET
ISP-level connection resets are more common than most users realize. ISPs use deep packet inspection (DPI) to monitor traffic and may reset connections to specific servers for traffic management, regulatory compliance, or throttling policies. This produces ERR_CONNECTION_RESET rather than a block page because the RST packet terminates the connection before any content is delivered. A VPN bypasses ISP-level DPI entirely, which is why the page often loads through a VPN when it fails on a direct connection.
Antivirus HTTPS scanning is a frequent local cause. Security products from Avast, ESET, Kaspersky, Bitdefender, and others intercept HTTPS connections by installing a root certificate and acting as a local proxy. When their inspection process encounters a certificate, cipher, or response format they cannot process, they terminate the connection with a RST packet. Chrome sees this as ERR_CONNECTION_RESET even though the actual connection failure is between your antivirus and the remote server.
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) misconfiguration is a less common but specific cause. When your MTU is set too low, large TCP packets get fragmented. Some servers and network equipment drop fragmented packets and send RST packets in response. This produces ERR_CONNECTION_RESET specifically on pages with large responses (images, downloads, complex JavaScript) while smaller pages load fine.
Reset the TCP/IP Stack
A corrupted TCP/IP stack sends malformed packets that servers respond to with RST packets. Open Command Prompt as administrator and run netsh int ip reset followed by netsh winsock reset. Both commands modify the Windows Registry to restore the TCP/IP stack and Winsock catalog to their factory defaults. Restart your computer after running both commands for the changes to take effect.
After the restart, run ipconfig /flushdns to clear the DNS cache and ipconfig /release followed by ipconfig /renew to get a fresh IP lease from your router. This combination clears all accumulated network state and is the most thorough reset available without reinstalling Windows network components.
Disable Antivirus HTTPS Scanning
Open your antivirus software and navigate to its settings or advanced configuration. Look for options labeled HTTPS scanning, SSL inspection, Web Shield SSL scanning, or Network Inspector. Disable this feature and test the affected site. If the page loads, your antivirus was interrupting the TLS handshake and generating the RST packet.
You do not need to disable your antivirus entirely. Adding the specific domain to your antivirus exclusion list, or disabling HTTPS scanning only for that site, resolves the ERR_CONNECTION_RESET without reducing your overall security posture. Avast calls this feature Web Shield settings. Kaspersky lists it under Network settings as Encrypted connections scanning. ESET calls it SSL/TLS protocol filtering.
Antivirus Fix in Chrome
Chrome’s net-internals tool at chrome://net-internals/#events shows the exact error event that caused the reset. Look for SOCKET_BYTES_RECEIVED followed by TCP_RST. If the RST appears immediately after the TLS ClientHello, antivirus HTTPS inspection is almost certainly the cause.
Adjust the MTU Size
The standard MTU for Ethernet connections is 1500 bytes. VPN connections often require a lower MTU (typically 1472 or lower) to account for the VPN header overhead. If your MTU is misconfigured, large packets get fragmented and dropped, producing RST packets from the server.
Open Command Prompt as administrator and run netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces to see your current MTU. To set a new MTU, run netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Wi-Fi” mtu=1472 store=persistent, replacing Wi-Fi with your adapter name and adjusting the MTU value. Test with values between 1400 and 1472 if 1472 does not resolve it. For VPN connections, 1380 is a safe starting point.
Flush DNS and Check Proxy Settings
Run ipconfig /flushdns in an elevated Command Prompt. Outdated DNS cache entries can route your connection through CDN nodes or load balancer endpoints that are overloaded and reset connections under high traffic. Fresh DNS resolution routes you to a currently healthy server endpoint.
Also check for proxy settings. Go to Settings, Network and Internet, Proxy and verify that Use a proxy server is disabled. A leftover proxy configuration from a VPN, corporate network, or security software routes your Chrome traffic through a proxy that may be sending RST packets. Setting Use a proxy server to Off routes traffic directly through your network adapter.
Disable VPN and Test Across Networks
VPN tunnels add network hops where RST packets can originate. If your VPN provider’s server is overloaded or misconfigured, it may reset connections to specific destinations. Disconnect your VPN, test the site, then reconnect to a different VPN server if you need the VPN for privacy or access purposes. Also test on a completely different network (mobile hotspot) to rule out ISP-level interference.
If the site works on mobile data but fails on your home internet connection consistently, your ISP is resetting the connection. Using a VPN on your home connection bypasses ISP-level DPI and is the workaround in this case. Contact your ISP and report the specific domains that trigger ERR_CONNECTION_RESET if you prefer not to use a VPN permanently.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between ERR_CONNECTION_RESET and ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED?
ERR_CONNECTION_RESET means the connection was established and then forcibly terminated by a RST packet from somewhere in the network path. ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED means the server actively rejected the connection before it was established. Reset errors happen mid-connection; refused errors happen at the connection initiation stage. Reset is more often a network or antivirus issue, while refused typically indicates the server is not listening on the requested port.
Can an antivirus cause ERR_CONNECTION_RESET?
Yes, and this is one of the most common causes on Windows computers. Antivirus products with HTTPS scanning intercept TLS connections and act as a local proxy. When they encounter a certificate or cipher they cannot process, they terminate the connection with a RST packet, which Chrome reports as ERR_CONNECTION_RESET. Disabling HTTPS scanning in your antivirus settings resolves this while keeping the rest of your antivirus protection active.
Why does ERR_CONNECTION_RESET only happen on one specific website?
Site-specific ERR_CONNECTION_RESET almost always indicates either an ISP-level connection reset targeting that server’s IP address range or the remote server crashing mid-response under load. Test using a VPN or mobile hotspot to bypass ISP-level resets. If the site loads through a VPN, your ISP is resetting the connection. If it fails everywhere, the server itself is unstable and the problem resolves when the operator fixes their infrastructure.
Does ERR_CONNECTION_RESET mean I was disconnected from the internet?
No. ERR_CONNECTION_RESET is specific to one TCP connection with one server. Your internet connection remains active for all other connections during a reset event. If you see ERR_CONNECTION_RESET on every single website you visit simultaneously, that indicates a local network issue such as a corrupted TCP stack, a blocking firewall rule, or a VPN tunnel failure. The reset command sequence in this guide resolves those cases.
For connection failures that happen before any data is exchanged, see the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED guide. If the connection closes cleanly rather than being reset, the ERR_CONNECTION_CLOSED article covers that specific failure mode. For SSL-related connection failures that appear alongside reset errors, see the guide on ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH.
