1. Many reasons: a. yes the Belken is 802.11G

b. it was very old 3-5yrs (had it for a very long time).

c. the wireless seemed to have died (had the laptop setup with it, few months later when I went to connect it wasn't showing up {didn't change anything in the router during that time}.

d. plus needed better range.

e. was considering the D-Link new one they were just bring out but hey had just did a recall on it and you can't find them right now and they are about $100 more then the Linksys.

f. Not many current router run 2.4G & 5G at the same time.

2. Connection setup:

Connected to Router: 3 computers (2 Vista; 1 XP Pro {this is the one that is having the issue}); of course the cable modem; Switch-1 (uplink)

Connected to Switch-1: Router (uplink); Switch-2 (uplink); 1 computer (XP Pro {working fine}); NDAS-1 (this drive is connected to network); NDAS-2 (this drive is not connected {cable is in switch and routed to drive location, but not plugged into drive})

Connected to Switch-2: Switch-1 (uplink); Printer; laptop (laptop in not connected {cable is in switch and routed to location where laptop will be placed if I need it connected through hardwire, but will mainly connect wireless)

3. Through Switch-2 (above)

4. Well my old Belkin router would change the IP address, it did it as a first come first unassigned IP address in IP range (wasn't a big issue when I only had 2 computers and just myself using the computers, just powered up my main then 2nd computer in that order {I needed it for gaming purposes), and I could never get it to work right by assigning them. Now with this new Linksys router you can reserve IPs for specific computers (didn't know this when I was first installing it, and have that currently setup to do so)

5. the NDAS drive is connected to the Switch-1 through ethernet cable. (just to make sure; NAS & NDAS differ in that the NAS uses an IP address to access it, the NDAS uses a driver to access it through a networked connections {I included this cause from what you said I didn't know if you knew the difference, sorry if I was incorrect in thinking that, but if not here is the addy: http://www.ximeta.com }, its suppose to be faster and allow for RAID)

As far as power resetting and default resetting, when I refer to power resetting I am unplugging the power cord from the router or modem or turning off the computer. Default resetting I am pushing the reset button for 10 sec (or how every long the device requires), sorry if my first post may have been a little confusing, I do apprecate any help you or anyone else maybe be able to give.

I work with aircraft electrical and avionics systems so I know sometimes things have quirks but most time I can explain some of them with possible whys. Even computers do the samething sometimes. But I've done just about everything I can think of that might cause the problem, i.e. firewalls, settings, etc.. But there really shouldn't be anything cause it all worked with the Belkin router before. I did a fresh reinstall on the computer with the issue when it was still connected to the Belkin router and everything was working fine on all devices then. When I swapped out to the Linksys is when the one computer started having issues. If all the computer were I would say for sure something with the router, but as I said 3 are fine so I would think possible something with the 1 computer settings. But cause of some of the quirks I had when I was first setting up the Linksys router makes me wonder...

When I first setup the Linksys router I used the setup software (wizard or whatever the call it) and had everything setup. Had an issue with connecting to the internet so I power reset the modem and still had an issue so then I power reset the Linksys router and as still having a problem so then I reboot the computer and then it finally gave me internet access. But what I found out is that when I power reset the Linksys router it reverted back to default settings (not suppose to do that), I know the setting were there before that. So then I manually went in and set the router up again (without the setup software). Now it hasn't done that quirk again, just that once. The other quirk (and maybe this is normal and the Belkin was the quirk) is that when I power reset the modem, in order to get internet access again, I have to power reset the Linksys router and reboot the computers. With the Belkin router, if I power reset the modem, I did not have to power reset the router to get interent access back (at least about 90% of the time I didn't have too)

Maybe this would make more sence:

if I power reset the modem I lose internet access but I still have LAN access

then when I power reset the Linksys router I lose LAN access and/or access to the routers setup pages

When I finally reboot the computers I get back the LAN and internet access

Like I said the Belkin router did not act this way

The other quirk I have had with this Linksys Router: If I try to change settings to the "Network Setup" section on the "Setup" page, like Router Address (IP or Subnet Mask), disable DHCP Server, Max Number of Users, I lose access to the router itself, still have LAN and internet access though. This is currently what I had happen when I changed the default Max Number of Users from 50 to 7. Right now I can't access the router itself but I have both LAN and internet access.

After I send this post to ya I will be trying a couple things (if I can remember what they were... LOL) and if they don't work will reset the router to default again and re-setup the router again (this time I will be smart and save a backup of the settings... LOL)

Well I hope that helps explain it all... again thx for any help you can offer!!

Roger