After switching providers yesterday, I noticed that my net access was mysteriously dying every 4-5 hours. I hit up the status page on my router and see that everything looks fine. I can do a DHCP Release/Renew and immediately get a good response, but I still can't do anything on the Internet. Unplugging the router fixes it every time. Is it a bad router? If so - it seems like a bit of a coincidence that it died the same day I switched providers. However - I'd be less likely to blame the hardware if a simple restart didn't fix it each and every time. The router in question is a Linksys BEFSR41. The firmware hasn't bee updated since 2004, which is probably around when I picked up the device. I'm tempted to just swing by Office Depot and pick up a new Linksys model. If it works again for 5 years I'd consider that a fine investment for 40-50 bucks.

p.s. And may I say for the 100th time how much I hate dealing with hardware and networking?