Router Constantly DCing

I recently got a new router. A D Link N 300 Wireless Router. It is connected to my Desktop with an ethernet cable, while my sister and mom connect wirelessly with their laptops. They report no issues. I, on the other hand, lose connection every 3 or so minutes. This does not affect me, but anyone who tries to communicate with me on AIM sees "Hazzy Signed On/Off" every 3 or so minutes, and communicating in real time while playing a game (Minecraft) is difficult.

Not sure why its doing this, or why it only affects AIM. I can stream YouTube, play video games online, etc. with no problems at all. Any help in fixing this is appreciated.

AIM could be asking for a port that might need to be statically configured on the router rather than just relying on UPNP to auto assign the port.

However, I will ask, what type of motherboard and what Ethernet chipset does it use? There are several brands of chips that are known to have issues, some of which are Nvidia nForce based ones.

I have no idea what you mean. Nvidia nForce rings a bell, and I'm pretty sure my computer has something like that somewhere.

nForce Ethernet Controller are low-quality and often tend to burn out fairly fast, however if it's just with AIM, it could be a problem with AIM and port forwarding.

Starting to think Routers hate me. My Model, if it's any use.

Installing it does not work. On step 5/7, it tells me to add power to the router. I do just this, and it never lets me move on. That, and it will not accept the factory defaults to login.

Currently on a computer->modem connection. No router inbetween. Parent and sister will not like this, but it seems to be stable right now.

Routers from what I know, can be a big headache at times even if they aren't meant to. Often this is due to poor quality testing of Firmware prior to release, sometimes it's just the chips they use are just bad. Often routers than have bad quality firmware can be set to sue DD-WRT's firmware with some guided instruction to run the router better. It works 95% of the time in fixing or replacing poor quality firmware with higher quality firmware, but if the firmware isn't the problem, then usually it's just bad hardware.

You you are willing to risk it, DD-WRT can really help if it's just having issues running correctly.

Try also setting your LAN Connection to Home or Office and WAN to Public in the Windows settings.