As others has stated, it's like a 'bridge' or a connection. If the connection is severed.. yeah.
Ex:
Imagine each site has a specific IP address. If the 'DNS' is down, you can still access the site as long as you know the IP address for the site. How do you find it? Easiest way I can think of: tracert http://www._____.net/com/edu/etc
You type that in your DOS/CLI, and fyi for the non-techies, tracert = Trace Route. So even if the name is down, you can still access it. But if you were to type the web's address, it'd do no good. I'd elaborate more, but I'm sure other IT-majors here can explain it way better than I can. I'm terrible at phrasing something at my own level down to another person's level if they're below mine.
Ex:
Imagine each site has a specific IP address. If the 'DNS' is down, you can still access the site as long as you know the IP address for the site. How do you find it? Easiest way I can think of: tracert http://www._____.net/com/edu/etc
You type that in your DOS/CLI, and fyi for the non-techies, tracert = Trace Route. So even if the name is down, you can still access it. But if you were to type the web's address, it'd do no good. I'd elaborate more, but I'm sure other IT-majors here can explain it way better than I can. I'm terrible at phrasing something at my own level down to another person's level if they're below mine.