Modem/router problem?

[1bd4t6h]

Greetings everyone,
I'm not too smart when it comes to the field of networking. I've been having a problem recently with the computers on my network not being able to access the internet. What I have to do is shut down the modem and the router for like one minute and then I have to turn on the modem for 30 seconds and then the router. This seems to work most of the time but some times I'll have to repeat the steps about three times. Why is this? I just don't understand why I have to do this. Is there anyway I can like get around this?
My router is Netgear RangeMax WPNT834
and my modem is a speedstream 5100

[Broni]

What will happen, if you bypass router, and connect one of your computers straight to the modem?
How are your computers connected, wireless, or hard-wire? How many computers? What Windows versions?

[1bd4t6h]

I've never attempted to bypass the router but I can try that. We have one computer connected hard-wire and 2-3 connected via wi-fi. All windows XP SP2. My computer has two Ethernet ports so I have them both active. I've bridged the connections but I don't know if this even helps or is important.

[Spoiler]

Check your network connections on your machine. Look at both NICs for a check box that says something like "Allow computer to shut down to save power" and uncheck it.

What maybe happening is your computer is shutting off the connection and when you reboot the router it comes back up.

Thanks

[gmckinney4]

I have been having the same trouble for the past month.  I have 3 pcs set up on my network.  My connection will drop off from time to time.  I looked online and reset my MTU to 1492, which is the highest setting for dsl.  It seems to have worked but if anyone else has any ideas for correcting the problem I would love to know.