Lea,
To add to Charles comments about routers:
Having a router connected complicates troubleshooting in certain areas. A router allows the wired connection of additional computers possible so speed problems can develop if too many computers are active at the same time. Your Hughes connection is a shared resource and that includes devices on your LAN side.
Multiple computers also complicate investigating data loss issues as the loss may be caused by only a single computer.
The Big Complication however of having a router connected during troubleshooting lies with the routers wireless capabilities.
The wireless portion of the router can be open or encrypted.
If open, then any device that comes within range can quietly and unknowingly latch on to your network and consume data. Cell phones and "anything Apple" will grab on to a Wi-Fi signal in a heartbeat and get their updated. Your neighbor could come over to visit and have his/her cell phone in their pocket and it can latch on to your routers wireless signal and update.
Tablets and Ereaders are big offenders ... unless they are "hard off" they can and will awaken and perform update and "sync" function. The ability to truly control this activity is somewhere between limited and poor.
With your routers wireless channels encrypted using as an example one of these common methods:
WPA-PSK [TKIP]
WPA2-PSK [AES]
WPA-PSK [TKIP] + WPA2-PSK [AES]
this will limit connection to authorized devices only but they can still be very difficult to control.
Effective troubleshooting requires a single computer directly connected to the Modem. Having a router connected to the network during troubleshooting periods simply leaves to many "backdoor" avenues.
