newbellies: I would say it's worth buying a new modem regardless then. Old modems are terrible. The new one they sent me automatically reconnects after dropping. That raised my sanity and lowered my blood pressure tremendously.
I'm afraid I can't recommend one in particular. I'm just using the latest spark provided VDSL.
The current one which is a Belkin N of some type is actually pretty good, it does reconnect by itself; I'm just going to plug in the old D-link long enough to see if it also falls over in the wet; if it does then it's the line/wiring not the modem at fault. I got the Belkin after our previous one (The one I used after the D-link) didn't cope well with mobile devices. I was constantly having to reboot that one to get it to talk to the iPad or my cellphone. The Belkin likes the mobile devices though.
