Modem/router HELP/SOS

This site has NEVER failed to provide me with education as well fixes to my woes.
I have a GATEWAY 2 WIRE..my 2nd one in the last 6 months(hunk of junk!) anyway last year about this time....for someone reason my AT & T phone service was NULL..I had No home phones.....for 15 days..but I still had internet access(I thought this was odd..but evidently AT & T home phone & DSL are on 2 separate lines) I was using a motorola router, because I only had my desktop. A few months later I bought a laptop, thats when I purchased the 2 wire...so I could run them both.....well yesterday at 8:45 my home phones, all went dead...(who knows, I am still waiting for the tech to show up...8am to 8pm...it is 3 pm..and still NO tech) well this time my internet went down also.....I was very frustrated...the girly on the phone...(I'm more geeky then she was) had NO clue....anyway I decided to do my OWN test. I disconnected the gateway and dug out my old MOTOROLA..hooked it up and WALLA...internet....I am going to assume that the 2 WIRE for some reason needs the phone line??? who knows....that would be my guess unless its some eerie strange thing.....anyway I am sick of these Gateway...I need suggestions for a DSL modem/router....so I can run BOTH desktop & laptop...under 100$..reliability & speed...I will say the gateway is way faster than this motorola...but at least I am surfing.:confused