ahh... ok.  that was why it wasn't working then.

I seem to have a bigger problem. I told the router to reboot using the interface, and it seemed to reboot, but it was immediately apparent that something had gone south. all my devices (PC, Android, Roku, Nintendo, etc.) were no longer able to reconnect to the network once it was back up. the devices (windows included) would connect but then drop the connection. I was connected for a few second long enough to   discover that the router had stopped handing out ANY ipv4 setting at all. several power button cycles did not fix the issue. indeed, they seemed only exacerbate the problem. the router was no longer letting me log in, with windows and android there were authentication issues. I know for a fact that i was entering the right password each time. issue only seemed to get better once i disconnected the internet cable from the router and then did a power cycle. even then things did not immediately go back to normal. i had to wait 30 minutes and before the router finally let me logon to the network. after wards i plugged the internet cable back in, and the router picked up the settings passed by the modem. I am now able to get back into the network, and the admin pages. But I am most certainly NOT a happy camper at the moment. this is a brand new router, I expect it to at least function like it's supposed to for at least a little while.