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Old 15th July 2017
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sacerdos_daemonis sacerdos_daemonis is offline
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Default How do routers work?

I would like to expand my very meagre knowledge about routers to understand a situation I have. This is not a support question, but mearly a querry for information.


Because of the nature of the Chinese internet, in order to use Linux, BSD or Apple a router must be used unless connecting to a LAN. (An indirect connection through someone else's router/server.) The reason being the government has made the internet accessable only after entering a name and passcode. However the software was written specifically for Windows. Any other OS cannot access the internet. Thus, the need for a router. Everything was fine until a few months ago when I moved to another city. After plugging into the school's connection a problem started and has continued to this day, despite an upgrade and moving to yet another city. After the initial connection to that LAN my .Xauth file developed a bad exit command. My "interesting" situation is thus:

When connected directly to the internet:
- After entering startx the GUI takes minutes to load.
- After exiting the GUI it takes minutes before the command line becomes available to enter the shutdown command.
- Some websites, such as Deviantart and Linux Questions cannot be accessed.

When connected to the internet through a router:
- The system works normally.
- No problem accessing the aforementioned websites.


I have two questions:
1. I understand the most basic idea of how a router works, but how does it circumvent a problem that affects non-internet functions, like startx?
2. Or does a router simply block some evil government mines in the water of the internet?
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