mattk

That's the trade-offs with power line. Since you're using your house electrical wiring as an Ethernet cable, you're at the mercy of how your house was wired up. Dramatic drops like that isn't uncommon. Sometimes mine outright does not get any data.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant
CPU: Intel Core i7-6900K 3.2GHz 8-Core Processor  ($1044.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($96.99 @ Best Buy) 
Motherboard: Asus X99-A II ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($223.99 @ B&H) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($78.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($94.89 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($72.88 @ OutletPC) 
Video Card: NVIDIA Quadro M4000 8GB Video Card  ($766.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: NZXT S340 Elite (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($89.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($74.99 @ Jet) 
Monitor: HP Z27s 27.0" 60Hz Monitor  ($466.74 @ B&H) 
Total: $3011.44
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-11-18 14:16 EST-0500
 
Here is a decent build around $3000 that has thunderbolt, a good Quadro, a great 8 core CPU and a great cooler if you want to overclock. Lots of USB ports, a lot of storage, and the minimum amount of ram you wanted which can easily be upgraded later. I included a good IPS color accurate monitor that is 4K, but there are lots of other great monitor choices.
 
If you don't need the monitor you can easily get a better Quadro in the $900-$1100 price range or change the CPU from a 6900k to a 6950X for two more cores.

If he has a budget of $3000, why not spend that money to get the best equipment he can? Why would he only spend $1000 and then have to eventually keep upgrading it to meet his needs? If he is willing to spend $3000, then this would be the best build he could get with that money.

Have a look at pfSense. It is an open source router/firewall software. The only thing you have to do is supply the hardware - any x86/x64 processor based system! You do not need a lot, for example 4GB of memory, 1GHz CPU. The only expensive part is the network card. In your case you would need a 4-port Gigabit PCI-e network card. Because 1 port is the WAN (Outside connection), other is LAN and the other is the WLAN (Wireless LAN separate to the normal LAN).
 
I find it really fun trying to deploy it. And the learning curve and knowledge you gain is great. It has so many different features that you can try and learn about.

The Reds have a 3 year warranty
The gold has a 5 year + 24x7 support. 
https://support.wdc.com/warranty/warrantypolicy.aspx

So you connected to the modem before, did you get internet?
What's your internal IP address?
What's the DNS you get?
What's the Gateway it gives you?
 
Can you ping the Modem's internal address while plugged into the router?
 
I bet you either need to set your modem in passthrough mode OR set your D-LINK to "switch" mode. e.g. disable firewall/dhcp
 
 
 

And they said that you couldn't fit a 3*140 rad on a 50 dollar case

Intel 3770K @ 4.6 GHz.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H.
Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB DDR3-2400.
2 x HD 7970 3GB @ 1125/1575
Intel X25-M G2 80GB
Seagate 3TB
Seagate 500GB
WD Green 1.5TB
Water Cooling:
XSPC EX240
XSPC RS360
XSPC D5 Dual Bay Reservoir
Swiftech MCP655
EK Supreme HF - Full Copper
2 x EK-FC7970 - Acetal CSQ