TalkTalk Connection Issue / Modem Router Belkin

Hi again all,well let me tell you whats happened to me - I joined up in November 2006 and was extremely happy with my service until March 2007 when my exchange was unbundled - I got a letter telling me I may have problems for an hour or so etc.etc. - I actually had serious problems in connecting at all for a couple of weeks and as such I eventually found time to ring up. The issue was that the modem router (Belkin F5D7633) told me I was connected via its interface but each time I tried to access the internet I got the message - 'page cannot be displayed' - no settings have been changed since the last time it connected OK. Eventually (68 mins) I spoke to a nice chap who knew what he was talking about and whatever he did addressed the problem ( he told me he had speeded up my connection ?? ) Anyway that was that - the connection would at times drop out but I was happy to put up with it as it is only a domestic use connection. That was it until last Thursday when things got worse and it was taking me 30 mins or more to connect and since Friday I have had no connection at all - however my modem router still says I am connected and my stats.seem OK - nothing has changed in that department but if it will help then I will of course publish them - tonight I decided to ditch the router and connect with my old Sagem modem which as you can see is working fine so here are my questions :
1. Is it possible that a router (less than 6 months old has issues?? If so - can anyone recommend one to buy from a compatibility point of view?
2. Is this just a coincidence - is it a connection issue with TT really and I have just happened to get connected easier with only my modem ?
Any advice would be VERY gratefully received - Thanks - Graham.

If so - can anyone recommend one to buy from a compatibility point of view?

If the router's still under warranty, send it back for a new one (at least you'll have a shiny new one to put on ebay if it still doesn't work).

Have you treid restoring the Belkin to factory settings and starting again (sounds like it might be a DNS or MTU issue).

Can you ping the sites (from a command window) that you can't get to via IE?

Can you post your stats, noise margin, attenuation and sync speed with Sagem and Belkin?

Hi again - thanks for the replies ETEE and Adebov ! I have tried to get the stats for my Sagem without success.Basically the diagnostic tools were not installed and despite my attempts at uninstalling the drivers - changing the default values in the setup.ini file etc etc it still wont show me the stats so this is all I have for the time being ??? - I will of course keep trying !
Sagem : speedtest.net result Download 1859 Upload 378 and I can ping the bbc average 43ms. The connection is sound and reliable - I can surf fine.(I realise I need more information re stats but this is the best for now until I manage to get the stats up) any ideas ? - Anyway here goes :
Belkin : (from Belkin interface screen) states connected but cannot ping bbc result shows ping could not find host. Cannot surf at all - but interface shows no defect.
Speed Download 3000 Upload 443
Noise 6.1 (Down) 6.6 (Up)
Output pwr 0.0 Down 11.2 Up
Attenuation 58.5 Down 32.7 Up
Many thanks for your replies so far and I will keep on trying to sort the tools issue for the Sagem stats. Cheers, Graham.

No ping means MTU needs setting to the correct value on the router and possibly your computer.

Read this http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/tweak2.htm

That web site also has a good section on getting stats out of modems.

Hi again all,
Finally sorted it out today - just thought I would ring Belkin to get a new router on route and was told to do the following :
control panel
network connections
right click LAN
properties
internet protocol TCP/IP
properties and then enter the following in the DNS box
4.2.2.2 and in the next preference box 4.2.2.1
........then bingo all back up and running !! Many thanks for your help folks. Regards- Graham.