In the second May 27th update on this post, Sam may have single handedly redeemed Linksys in my view. He was patient, professional, and knew what he was talking about.
Not to mention that they are replacing my unit to see if that solves my problem. Update: I actually received the replacement unit on May 28th (fantastic). I just haven't had a chance to try it out yet.
This is the kind of customer service I recall from Linksys in the early days.