For the past week or so, my internet connection has been anything but stable. Restarting my modem/router always fixes the problems, but since it has occurred so often, I'm noticing confusing patterns which I was hoping someone could help answer.

My internet connection kicks out about 4-5 times a day. The sure-fire way to fix it is to restart my all-in-one modem/router. Sometimes I can diagnose the problem on my laptop which resets my wireless network adapter and fixes the problem, but not always. If that doesn't fix the problem, it usually reports that the connection between the modem and internet is the problem which requires a restart of the router.

The odd thing which baffles me is that my connection is supposedly lost such that no browsers can connect to sites, yet things like online games still continue to play without issue. How is this possible? I thought maybe the game was running locally on my PC but that couldn't be the answer because I was still getting messages from other players.

So my real question is: How can my internet browsers (firefox, chrome, even IE) lose connection to the internet, but other applications like online games not? Am I actually losing connection or am I mistaken?

Edit: I'd also like to add that netflix on my PS3 which is directly connected to the same access point will also lose connection. So internet browsers and netflix lose their internet connection while online games continue without an issue.