I very stupidly as it turns out dusted the keyboard of our desktop without turning it off. Since then the computer has been dropping connection every few minutes. It says DNS server not found? I have obviously done something to it.
Any idea what or how to find out how to solve it? Please……
There’s a pretty widespread issue at the moment that’s affecting a big chunk of the internet. The attention has been on Meta (Facebook) as all their sites have had issues all afternoon, but it seems much wider from what I can see, everything from banking to Netflix to Google to Microsoft is having issues. There are conspiracy theories about infrastructure attacks but who knows whether there’s any basis in fact there or if someone just knocked over their coffee into a very important machine or unplugged the wrong plug 
Don’t worry Jane, it would be nigh on impossible to wreck your computer’s internet settings by dusting the keyboard.
As always switch it off then on again.
Ditto Sir William, your connection issue is unrelated to the cleanliness or otherwise of your keyboard.
More likely your internet service provider has an infestation of ragondin or sanglier in their servers… 
I perhaps dusted rather vigorously…. And despite the problems with some major companies Orange are not saying there are problems.
It strikes me that I might have inadvertently bashed a series of keys that instruct compute to self destruct? Have unplugged and turned everything off and will let in contemplate its innards overnight.
It could be as simple as your internet dropping out - there’s usually a lag between the internet dropping out and your device deciding there’s no internet.
Well, if infinite monkeys bashing away at their typewriters ever do produce the complete works of Shakespeare I will concede it might be possible to direct your computer to open the internet settings dialog and change the DNS server - but until then I’m going to file it as improbable
What sort of duster did you use?
A computer wipe…
Still not working this morning. Although iPad fine neither desktop or lap connect to internet.
Sorry you’ve still got problems. Regardless as to why it’s happened, here are a few suggestions for possibly solving it.
Some of this looks fairly complicated, maybe someone techy on here could have a look at these various fixes and see which ones (if any) might be safe for Jane to try and might work.
That’s my worry. It seems the next investigative step is to flush the DNS cache….but what might unwanted side effects of that be? Will I loose all our saved settings and passwords and bookmarks? Is it safe? Will aliens appear and cart me away?
(OH being allergic to tech and even less interested in it than I am has decided this is the moment to take dog for a walk)
@SuePJ and thanks for a link that is largely written in english.
Mmmm.
If two machines are affected then definitely not due to your enthusiastic keyboard polishing.
I presume the laptop is wifi - what about the desktop?
Do you mean browser cache - although a “DNS cache” does exist it’s not something you can flush manually.
Essentially DNS is like a glorified phone book. Rather than names and phone numbers it consists of IP addresses and website names like Google.fr and survivefrance.com.
DNS is managed globally, and your ISP will replicate it and allow you to perform “lookups”.
When your browser requests a website it first needs to translate the human-friendly name to determine what the machine-friendly IP address is. Once it’s got the correct IP address, it uses that to communicate with the web server to retrieve the content to display to you.
This lookup from “domain name” to IP address is pretty quick, but once your PC knows that the IP address for survivefrance.com is 94.130.148.54, then it doesn’t make sense to repeatedly ask your ISP the same question over and over and over again.
So, once your PC has obtained the relevant IP address it stores it locally in its DNS cache. This DNS cache just consists of domain names and their associated IPs. So flushing it won’t cause you to lose your bookmarks, passwords, etc… It will just mean that the next time you browse a website or send an email or use Spotify or do anything that involves translating a human-friendly name to a computer-friendly IP address, your PC will need to reach out to your ISP to request it, rather than using the much-quicker local cached copy.
I forgot to say… if you’re using Windows then you can display your cached DNS entries by opening a command prompt and typing:
ipconfig /displaydns
If you want to flush it, then it’s:
ipconfig /flushdns
Computer has ethernet cable, but cycles through connected- disconnected at approx 30 second intervals,
What do I know….i just follow instructions with meaningless words. Which of these would be better to follow?
Guide A
Flushing and renewing the DNS resolves this. You will have to run a couple of commands in an elevated Command Prompt. Simply follow the steps presented below:
Alternatively, you can open the Command Prompt (Admin) option through the WinX menu. To do so, press the Windows logo key + X combination or right-click on the Windows icon on your screen. When the menu appears, locate and click on Command Prompt (Admin).
ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /renew
ipconfig /registerdns
netsh int ip reset
The above command lines will flush the DNS and renew/reset TCP/IP.
**Guide B
**Flush Your DNS Cache and Reset Your IP
If you’ve eliminated your browser, antivirus software, and router as the source of the issue, it’s time to turn your attention to your DNS settings. As with the router cache, it may be that your DNS needs to be cleared before it can properly make a connection to the internet, or your IP might need a reset.
Never known for my patience….this is what I get when i start the renew orocess. Does this mean it’s a cable problem?
Trust windows to be annoying and to have an easy way to do this which I forgot about (what can I say, I’m a Linux user 90% of the time )
But the symptom of a DNS cache problem is not being able to reach a single host - not getting “can’t reach DNS server” errors
That does not sound right - in fact it sounds like it might be the cause of your problems.
Do you have another Ethernet cable to try?
I will go and hunt in black hole of cables, chargers and adapters…
Yeah… I’m not entirely sure why the advice is often to flush the cache for a DNS server issue 
I only ever flush the cache when I’ve changed IPs somewhere and am impatient or need to update to the new address.
