Well, here's an update...
I decided to try to see if my laptop's mac address was in my routers security, so I entered the string of numbers to access the router and got a "webpage not avaliable" message. So then I reset my router and still got that message

I hooked up the laptop directly to the router with an ethernet cable and was able to temporarily get the internet and then it wouldn't work anymore. I then hooked up directly to my modem and was able to get online. Then I put everything back like it was and my vonage phone, desktop and ipaq were fine (the only problem is I have no security anymore), but the laptop would not hook up to the network.
Fast forward to this morning...tired to use the phone and ipaq...nothing worked. Went to the basement to discover the router was on, but the modem was on standby. I powered the modem on and viola, everything works including the laptop. Very bizarre.
So now I need to attempt to reset the router security. Wish me luck.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm wondering if my router is flaking out on me. It is three years old.