Wireless Router Has Fainting Spells

[Xiahou]

Complete swap. The old Netgear router was completely burned out as a wireless device; some Googling showed this was a common problem with the model. The wifi just ... dies. Still a lovely 4-port switch, but useless to me as a household networking device.

I don't know how much time you want to spend on this but.... I'd consider bringing your Netgear back online as your router and DHCP server and attach your Linksys for wireless only. Just disable DHCP on it and attach it to your Netgear via LAN ports. Then see if the problem still occurs. This would narrow it down to either the wireless or the router portion of the Linksys.

And I am intrigued by the double-barreled recommendation of powerline networking. Models/makes you guys particularly like/have experience with?

I have 3 of these guys. I've used them for years with few problems. If I had to buy the hardware over again, I'd probably go with the Western Digital Livewire kit, since it gives you 4 useable ethernet ports on both sides of the bridge- and it has very positive reviews. I know TC used something else for his setup that he seems pretty happy with.