So....this is kinda bizarre (to me at least, because I'm not a techie by any stretch)....but I'd been having this problem for the past two weeks or so.....and even prior to it going bad on me, I can't say as though I was really jazzed about this thing's performance. Anyway, this morning before work I decided I'd had it and I just pulled the power cord out of the back of the unit. Then I was away at work for 10 hours or so. Came back tonight and needed to get on the internet so I plugged it back in. Lo and behold, I have not had an issue at all for the past three hours. (I couldn't go 10 minutes without it failing on me last night.) On top of that, it feels like it's working at super-fast speeds.....faster even than when it was working "fine" before all this trouble.
I don't know what happened. I legitimately did nothing other than unplugging the cord for 10 hours, but my fingers are crossed that it stays like this because this is wonderful.....