connected but no internet - help!

Trying to help a friend with the following. She has an older desktop (XP) with a wired connection to netgear modem/router (working for 3 years with no problems) and a 1 year old laptop with a wireless connection to the same modem/router with no problems till yesterday (windows 7). The laptop could not make a connection. (the SSID name would at times appear and then disappear of the and maybe connect for a second and then drop of the connections list. Tried letting windows 7 fix it with no success (they could not identify the problem). The router according to the settings and lights etc appeared to be working normally. The wired connection to the old desktop was still working normally. The same laptop was able to connect to an unsecured network near by. I took her laptop to my house and it connected also to me router/modem with no problems whatsoever (have ruled out problem with laptop). To confirm the laptop is not the problem I took my laptop to her house and it failed to connect via her wireless settings.

Thought was a problem then with her wireless settings in her modem/router although all was normal when I looked. I then reset the modem/router to factory settings and reinstalled with no success – the same problem. Thought maybe the wireless part of router was broke beyond the repair. I had an older version of a netgear wireless modem/router in storage so decided to try that from scratch. It appeared to fix the problem and both her and my laptop connected wirelessly for the next few hours (desktop with wired connection worked as it should also). Thought problem solved but she contacted me late yesterday evening to say she lost internet on BOTH wired desktop and laptop (wireless). The difference this time apart from also loosing the wired connection is that according to windows seven network on the taskbar the laptop is connected but has no internet. The desktop (XP) appears to be sending the same message (she is relaying this to me as I cant get down to her today). The lights on the router still says its working as it should.

Sorry for such a long post but thought it useful to provide a detail log of what happened. What are the possible causes? Could this be a virus of some type and without internet access how can I download and/or update various programs on top of the basics she has to try and identify and clean? Surely both routers cannot be broken. Would really appreciate some help as will need to go down tomorrow again to try and resolve.

 

Sounds like the router is failing, or have died.

Power off the router, modem if you have one and all pc's. Turn the modem n first wait till lights settle down. Start the router, wait till it settles down, then turn on your pc's 1 at at time. If it does not come up, time to get a replacement.

 

thanks for taking time to respond - I am well ahead of that fix at this time - have tried three factory resets - each resulting in both wired and wireless working for a few hours and then failing again. I do suspect the router (both) has failed but according to all the settings/tests and lights etc on the router - it is working as it should ......strange

 

How hot are the routers? They could be overheating after those couple hours, and thus failing from the heat.

 

Have you tried to change channels? Don't set the channel to automatic, and select anyone from 9 to 1, try different times and restart the modem/router.
It could be that the radio signal is disturbed by something.