Question Author
Sorry, i'm not sure if you understand the problem 100%. After i got the adsl router i configured it and after a bit of tweaking i got it to work fine, it's always on so you don't even need the aol software to connect (unless you want to to use their browser/email thing). Before this i was using the usb modem but found it wasnt all that reliable, but it worked a small bit at least. Now both have just stopped being able to find a connection with the servers, on the same phoneline. I also used my brother's laptop which is configued to (and did perfectly for quite a long time) use the usb modem as well, and it still didn't light up the 'link' light.
Basically what i'm saying is that it worked fine, then stopped, without any changing of settings. Then we tried another modem which doesn't even have any settings to change, and that couldn't connect, then we even tried that modem with another terminal to rule out the slight posibilty of it being the computer (which is unlikely since the router doesn't need any computer input to connect once it's been set up). Since we tried two cables as well, all that leaves me with is a problem with the phoneline, or a general problem with AOL.
I will be phoning them tomorrow (although i dont have very high hopes for success), but i just wondered if anyone else had come across the same problem and how they fixed it.