router won't connect to the internet

[Prudence]

I'm finally up and running on the router - wireless - and getting a much better connection than with the old router. What was wrong? I haven't the foggiest. I spent some more time on the phone with Verizon's tech support (not a condescending twit this time) who conceeded that they had no idea and transfered me directly to the linksys people. The linksys woman had an accent - but it didn't seem Indian. South African? Not sure. Anyhow, she had me download this magical connection wizard tool thingy and after a bit of struggle (sometimes it couldn't seem to tell that the router was connected) it actually connected.

And then the modem wouldn't connect upstairs, but that's because at some point between last Thursday and now the telephone cord (which I'm sure has a technical name) upstairs decided to stop working. Fortunately I have an abundance of cords of all types, so that was replaced and now we're one happy network again.

I went in and checked the settings and I'm not sure what changed, but I think the MAC address was different...so maybe that's it. I dunno.

Now I can put the downstairs wires away.