[rwfok]

The internet just went down on the 2 W2K machines. Every request returns a DNS error. I typed FR's IP address into the address bar and FR pops up other than the graphics that are, I'm guessing, stored on another server. Can I assume that the error is being caused by some failure of the W2K's DNS handling? The web applications that were loaded in the morning continue to function.

[ThePythonicCow]

Try pinging your DNS servers, by the numeric (IP) address. I don't have W2K, so can't guide you exactly to the right spot. On my WinXP, its in:

• My Computer
• Control Panel
• Network Connections
• Right Click for Properties on the Local Area Connection
• Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
• Click on Properties
• Preferred and Alternate DNS server IP addresses

If you can ping other sites (like freerepublic.com) by number, but can't ping your DNS servers by number, then they went down. Contact your ISP or whomever runs them. All but the most incompetent ISP will be well aware of any such DNS server crash. You need at least one DNS server to translate the human readable URLS (such as freerepublic.com) into numeric IP addresses (such as 209.157.64.200).

If you can ping at least one of your two DNS servers (most folks have two) by numeric IP address, but not ping any site by name, then the hardware system that runs the DNS server software is up, but for some reason (difficult to debug from here) you aren't able to use that service, perhaps because that DNS server software isn't running on that hardware system like it should be.