The Silent Network Probing
When you type a single word into the address bar (like “intranet” or “payroll”) and hit Enter, Google Chrome assumes you are performing a Google Search. However, in corporate environments, that single word might actually be the address of an internal web server. To prevent you from constantly searching Google for internal tools, Chrome uses an “Intranet Redirect Detector.” It silently sends DNS probes to three randomly generated, non-existent domain names in the background.
Chrome does this to check if your Internet Service Provider (or your corporate network) is hijacking failed DNS queries to redirect you to a custom search page. If Chrome detects a hijack, it shows an infobar asking “Did you mean to go to http://payroll?”. While clever, this constant background DNS probing can trigger false alarms on strict corporate intrusion detection systems (IDS) and adds unnecessary network noise. If you know exactly where you are navigating, you can disable this probing behavior.
How to Turn Off the Intranet Redirect Detector
You can disable this specific network probe using a command-line flag.
- Ensure Google Chrome is completely closed.
- Locate your Google Chrome shortcut (on your Desktop or Taskbar).
- Right-click the shortcut and select Properties.
- Look for the Target field, which contains the path to the Chrome executable (e.g.,
"C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe"). - Click at the very end of this line, outside the closing quotation mark.
- Type a single space, and then add the following flag exactly:
--disable-domain-reliability- Click Apply and then OK.
- Launch Chrome using this modified shortcut.
Chrome will no longer silently probe your network with random DNS requests to check for hijacking. If you type a single word into the Omnibox, Chrome will immediately perform a standard Google Search without attempting to verify the integrity of your local network’s DNS resolution.