HELP!!! (router problems) (in Off-topic)

I got a call today that my parents' internet is out. I came over and saw that the router's "internet" light was out. The PC's wireless adapter still saw the router as connected and showed sky-high speeds.

I figured there must have been a new IP assigned for some reason and that the router is just confused, so I unplugged the modem & router, waited about 30 minutes, and reconnected the modem first, then the router. The internet/wireless were up and running for about 10 minutes, then dropped, reconnected, again and again, then ultimately stayed dropped. I repeated the procedure multiple time while jamming the hell out of the reset buttons on both, but nothing's changing.

I'm not a router guy, so before I waste time in the land of 168.192.1.1 changing random settings, can someone throw me a bone and give me some advice as to what the heck's wrong?

I'm using my company air card right now, and, man... this is slow.

Confirm your assumption about the ISP renewing their IP. If that is the case you may need to ask how to log into the modem to be sure it is accepting connections from your router.

Modem and Router information always help.

bypass the router to determine for sure that is the issue first.

I figured since the router (a crappy Ativa one) connected for stretches, the modem is fine. I went ahead and plugged a pc directly into the modem and it's connected just fine.

how old is the router?

under 2 years

in my experience cheap or crappy routers have a life of only 6m to 2y. i would go buy a new router before you waste a ton of time on it.

if no one changed any settings in it and there wasn't some kind of electrical event then it likely just died.

Like Dude said, I have not had a router in my possession for longer than 2 years also. It may be that time for another. Place where I go for all my shopping needs is slickdeals.net lots of good deals always on there.

I can usually get a nice find on Newegg, but I can't see my parents wanting to wait a week for the internet. I spent years trying to get them online, and now my mom's addicted.

Hello, overpriced Office Despot... er, Depot.

Problem solved. I reset the router back to factory settings and cloned the MAC.