Router Issues

I have a Netgear wireless router. I can't be bothered checking the model number at the moment. Anyway, it has been causing some annoyance lately with a nasty habit that it seems to have picked up; it randomly stops talking to the modem, and therefore cuts off the connection to the interweb. The only solution seems to be resetting it, a process which takes at least 20 seconds. The router then functions normally for anything from 5 seconds up to indefinitely. As you can imagine, it's rather annoying to have to go through the 20 second process of resetting the router, only to have a mere 5 seconds of operation. The "wireless" symbol goes off on the display panel when the problem occurs, but it affects cable connections as well. Has anyone encountered this problem before, and if so, do you know of an effective solution?