billion router problem

[busdennis]

its a wired billion router with 4 ports which i have used with my vista pc without trouble for a few years, the mrs got a laptop a few months ago and by plugging in an ethernet cable the internet worked no problem.

recently the router worked ok with my pc but when the laptop was turned on nothing worked on either computer, ive been having to reset the router several times per day.
questions being
do routers have viable shelf lives?
is the problem with the laptop?

 

[cboucher]

Routers do crap out every once in a while. How old is it?

 

[jmacavali]

Sounds like
1. The router is dying.
2. There's an issue with DHCP where the router is trying to give both computers the same IP address. If you know how, you could set static IP addresses on both PC's to see if that solves the issues. (Don't forget to get the DNS servers and whatnot too).