Even with a router, if Shaw's modem has connection issues, nothing will work.  Shaw will never admit the issue is on their end unless there are visible signs of ground disturbance by their crews in the field.  Online Shaw agents keep the customers busy by getting them to restart/reboot their own equipment multiple times until suddenly, the agent says "I'll book you a service call", and nothing changed.  That's to make the customer think that everything that could possibly be done was done by the customer.  I remember when over the phone, a Shaw agent could fix 90% of problems from their end.  Now, they are given limited tools that they won't use unless the customer requests them use those tools, and limited authority to perform fixes.  My simple fix which the online agent won't do is just to reactivate my modem because it simply got inactivated by their nationwide maintenance a few days ago. But instead I have to wait a week for a tech to come out to do the same thing, and I'll probably just end up getting a modem replacement to make me feel better, in their world.  This same scenario happened a year ago with Shaw's nationwide maintenance then as well.  Their Bluecurve TV system sucks.  Menus get slow, slow to change the channels, takes up to a half hour to reboot the TV boxes.  This is all from their end.