Router question from my kids mom....

Our kids set up a router so my husband could use the internet connection I
use. My computer is hardwired to it, since I have no wireless card.
Yesterday I unplugged everything to try to clear out stuff so my speed would
recover. That worked. Speed was fine. My connection was fine. But after
I did that my husband couldn't connect to the internet. I have basically
two questions.

1 - Could I have connected the wires improperly but still have my own
connection and his computer still see the network name in his wireless
connections?

2 - Is there anything to do besides buy a new router (and get our kids here
to set it up....)

Here's the story.

His initial symptom was "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage."
(also couldn't connect Outlook Express)

I clicked "Diagnose connection problems" and got into "Network diagnostics
for Windows XP." I got the message "Windows is not currently managing your
wireless network."

I don't know if Windows SHOULD be managing it.... kids don't listen to phone
messages or read e-mails regularly. But through Google and newsgroups I was
able to get Windows to manage the network connection.

I get the same "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage." But now I'm
able to further with the diagnostics. I get to the point where I have to
swear that I turned off the modem (I turned off, unplugged it and the
router), and I'm told I need to talk to my provider or manager or something.

Possible relevant info. In the course of this I learned how to START the
Wireless Zero Configuration, but it is not in START mode after a re-boot.

The problem computer does see that the local network is available.
Status - connected (yeah, sure....); Network Hunts Corner, Signal Strengh
5 bars.

I went to my provider's speedtest website, and the speed is fine.

help