Is my router possessed?

[Prudence]

This is part rant, part request for cofirmation of diagnosis, and part request for advice on the next step. I've got a lot of pent-up frustration right now, so I'm going to do this in a couple different posts.

Rant:

So, I get home from class last night, turn on the laptop to hopefully finish the first round of internship applications, and I get the "limited or no connectivity" icon. Not the first time this has happened - I've been having issues with the wireless router and a neighbor has started using the same channel and sometimes I get a moment or two of no connection.

I headed upstairs to where the router was physically located and still -no connection. This is now weird. So, I power cycle the router and DSL modem and restart everything, including my laptop. Still nothing. I turn on Ryan's desktop, which is on a wired connection to the router. Same "limited or non connectivity" icon.

I futz around and can't make anything work. Not with wired connections, not with wired connections directly to the modem, nothing.

So, I call Verizon. I wade through the menu. And I'm connected to some guy in India. (No surprise. Even the hold music was Indian.) Then I spend an *hour* being talked down to by some guy who has no clue what I'm talking about. He has no idea what a router is, and yet refused to acknowledge that I know what a command prompt is, instead insisting that I look at the black screen.

I ipconfig over and over and get a 169.etc IP address, which I understand is not optimal. I release and renew, and the renew part times out. After sitting on and off hold and being treated like the biggest moron on the planet (now, in the bottom of your screen you should see the word "start". Do you see the word "start"? Ma'am, I need you to tell me if you can see the word "start". It's very important for my notes.) he tells me that my NIC card (isn't that redundant?) is bad and that I need to call Dell.

I inform him that I don't think that is the correct diagnosis, as neither computer can connect to the internet, I was just using this computer on a network 45 minutes before arriving home, and that just doesn't make sense. Now he becomes belligerant and extremely aggressive and starts yelling at me that his computer says that's what's wrong and therefore that's what's wrong. I ask to speak with a supervisor. He asks if there's anything else he can assist me with. I say yes, connect me to a supervisor. He hangs up on me.

So, I call back, wade through the menu, get a chick whose accent is so good I almost can't tell what continent she's on. I state that I would like to speak to a supervisor and that I was just hung up on the last time I asked. She is very polite and puts me on hold. And I sit. And I sit. And I sit. And I figure that's it and resolve to call Comcast in the morning and hang up. In mere moments, miracle of miracles, someone actually uses the call back number they made me provide and it's a woman with a southern accent.

She has me isolate the desktop and connect it directly to the modem again. Still nothing. Then she has me do a system restore, which I had never thought to try. We sit through that, it takes forever on Ryan's ancient desktop. She assures me that there's no rush. One system restore and one power cycle on the modem later and the desktop is connected. She commiserates with me on how some guys treat women on tech issues. I'm relieved that at least I'll be able to look up the firm addresses for my cover letters.