Network Netgear DG834v5 Issue

So I am having to the same problem that a lot of other people are having. And my house-mate refuses to blame anything other than Windows 7. It was fine for about 2 days, then I get the dreaded Triangle, and it saying I have 'No Network Access', I troubleshoot to no avail, at first it was just that I was connected to the network, but no access type.

I have tried everything. BUT on top of this constant disconnection every few hours, my house-mate says his Limited or No Connectivity is because of this. He refuses to believe otherwise, because it all started messing up once I got Windows 7, he has XP btw - we share nothing except Internet.

We did have duplicate IPs when my network decided to reconnect at some random time, so I did a /release /renew and it seems to have fixed that. But its almost like we both cant be on at the same time.

I have disabled IPv6. And I checked, both my firewall, and his.

And I also reloaded the Firmware to the router, but cant get the newest one because it downloads as a .chk file and my router doesn't accept that file type (if anyone can give me some pointers on that too)

The router is a Netgear DG834v5. This is the firmware I cant seem to use -

Answer

My network card is a Atheros L1 Gigabit Ethernet 10/100/1000Base-T Controller, with up to date drivers. Screen-shots included for extra thoroughness. Please help, or hes going to make me uninstall, or just keep me unplugged. And yes, he IS what your thinking.