Hi
Could someone explain to me, in uncomplicated English, how it is that, after having a 'glitch' with my wireless router which meant I could not access any web-sites nor emails, I was still able to 'chat' using Skype?


Once I finally worked out what was wrong with my system, ie that it was the router, I unplugged it and replugged it and all was well. But for the intervening 26 hours, I felt so 'lost' without access to the internet - and yet I was able to chat on Skype! I do not understand that?

Thanks!

Hi

I'm going to try and use plain ol' english, but if you have something you don't understand ask some more questions.

You have a number assigned to your computer, called IP, it is, of course numeric and it looks something like xxx.xxx.xxx (where xxx are numbers). Each computer has an unique number assigned to their computer when they login to the Internet. Now you might have noticed that that there are hosts made out of letters, like castlecops.com. Each host (letters) points to an IP (number). For example castlecops.com points to 204.152.184.144 - you can feed either one in your address bar and you'll get the same page.

Now, when your computer requests a castlecops.com, it is pointed to the right IP by a Domain Name Server, that,basically speaking, contains a list of hosts and their IPs. If your Domain name server (DNS for short) cannot be reached you will not be able to access any hosts because your computer doesn't know to what IP it should go. This is, what I think, happend to you. Your DNS server was down and you couldn't visit any webpages. Skype however communicates only with IPs (numbers) and thus it doesn't need the translation from host to IP.

This is not 100% because the reason of the malfunctioning router is not determined, but I think this is what happened.

Thank you for putting this in understandable English!

I take it then, that the 'glitch' in my router somehow prevented any DNS being reached?
When you refer my "DNS server", I guess that was the router...?
I think that if I understand correctly, my router must have 'mangled' *MY* DNS, and hence I could not access any others because it could not talk back to me?

It had to be the router, because I unplugged the modem cable from the router and plugged it directly into my PC and that worked.... put it back via the router, and it did not work, until I disconnected the router from the power, and then plugged it back in.

Thank you for your help! It is all beginning to make more sense.

Hi

The DNS is provided to you by your internet provider. IT works like this:

You > Router > Internet Gateway provided by your ISP > DNS > destination IP