Internet half quits

[WHVW]

Hi:

Last night the internet connexion started going haywire, what I mean is that I can only use addresses in the form of "http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyy". Just to be clear, I am not talking about local addresses, such as "192.168.1.4". I am on the network, because the devices I am communicating with are as much as 60km away. Any attempt at using standard notation i.e. "www.nameofsite.net" fails with a "we can't connect to the server at..." message. E-mail can't connect, either.
What is worse, is that due to a failure on my only other machine, my only means of contacting this site is on a crippled machine, as root, which really freaks me out. (it is a new install, so If I have to trash it ( after the problem is resolved) it won't be too terrible. LM 17.1.

Thanks