router problems: resets and takes about an hour (or longer) to connect back to internet

What kind of router do you have?

Can you describe the reset/restart process? Are you doing anything as part of the process? Or does it fix itself? If the former, what do you do, if the later, describe some of the light sequence on the modem and router.

Router- Netgear CG-3000D-RG. 

When it resets, I usually try to manually reset to default settings and turn it on and off a couple times, which usually doesn't work. It fixes itself almost every single time, though. 

(order of lights:power, downstream, upstream, internet, Lan 1-4, blank, blank, wifi, wps...just in case you dont have a picture of it)

The power light and, i guess, the wifi light above the first of the two buttons on the right side of the modem/router usually stays on. The downstream light under the downward thunderbolt usually just blinks repeatedly, while all the other lights usually stay off until connection to the internet gets reestablished(e.g. the upstream light below the upward thunderbolt and the internet light under circle with the arrow around it). The wps light (the one below the second button on the right of the router/modem) is almost never on.

I'm not usually paying attention as to what sequence the lights turn back, but I'm pretty sure the downstream light stops blinking, which i guess means it gained signal, in which case the upstream light turns on, starts blinking, finds signal, and then the internet light starts blinking and finds a signal(they basically turn on from left to right) and then I'm able to use the internet again.           

First, let me define some common language to avoid confusion. Using the picture above, going from left to right, I would call the lights; Power, downstream, upstream, internet, LAN1, LAN2, LAN3, LAN4, Wifi, WPS. For more info, see here.

From your description, it sounds like the power and Wifi light stay on, and the downstream light blinks. If not, please correct. If so, then sounds like you're not getting enough signal into the modem through the cable line, and it's resetting every time it looses the signal to try to reconnect. 

To confirm, could you post your signal levels? See instructions below, as per page 8 and 22 of manual.

1. On the computer that is connected to the gateway with an Ethernet cable, type http://192.168.0.1 in the address field of your Internet browser.

2. Log in with the user name admin and its default password of password. When you connect to the gateway the Gateway Status screen displays

3. From there go to the "Connection Status" tab/button and copy/paste everything between "Downstream Bonded channels" to "Current System time". Should look like picture on page 22.

Yea, those signal are very low. The downstream power levels should be above -10 and probably closer to -5 for best performance. Do you have any splitters you can bypass or try replacing? For more info on signal levels, see here. 

Downstream power level (Receive): -15dbmV to +15dbmV
A value of -10 or worse indicates a poor downstream signal path. A tech would aim for a value close to the optimal 0 dBmV, but a good cable modem should be capable of working within the broader range of -10 to +10 dBmV, provided the downstream Signal to Noise Ratio remains good enough. Additionally all downstream channels should be within a +/-2db window with respect to each other.

Theoretically, how much of an increase in performance(or power) will i see if i just replace all the splitters? and is this the only solution?

will replacing the cable do any good?

reidzll said:
Theoretically, how much of an increase in performance(or power) will i see if i just replace all the splitters?

Hard to say. If nothing is wrong with them, you won't see any change. If one goes bad I have seem them drop the signal as much as 2-3dB each. The only way to tell is to know what the signal is a point A, and what it is at point B (modem) and then know how many splitters and what kind are between point A and B. 

reidzll said:
will replacing the cable do any good?

Yes, especially if the cable wiring is of the older type called RG59. You would want the newer RG6 quad-shield with compressor connectors. See here for a article on the difference between the two.