I'm having a hell of a time accessing websites

[DavidC]

I'm getting a lot of "can not find server" errors (DNS server I guess) when trying to access sites that I've never been to before / don't go to often.

Evidence of this: When the pokerace HUD was available for D/L, I said that the page wasn't up: it was... I just couldn't get there.

I go back to the site in 5-10 min and it's up, though...

Now, I use DSL... I think I have the router set to maintain connection for 5 minutes before disconnecting, and I sometimes get this error when I just open the browser for the first time of the day.

So... I think it might be this, but I m not sure.

I'll try refreshing the page after a few min: nothing.

Go to disney.com or somewhere random, works fine. Go back to the first page: dns error. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

So, maybe my browser is using stuff in the cache more than it should (such that I keep hitting this error even when I try to refresh the page).

Any help in the matter is appreciated. It's driving me nuts.

[TheTROLL]

You're on the right track, it is to do with caching, but not at the browser level. Read this (http://cable-dsl.home.att.net/dns_cache.htm), particularly further down the page about not caching failed lookups. A common setup is for Windows to use the DSL router as its DNS server, and the router to use the ISP's DNS servers in turn. It is worth adding the ISP's DNS servers directly to your Windows networking configuration too, as Windows will then try the ISP's servers directly if the router's DNS service has itself cached a failed lookup.