Sadly, there are people at my school 18 years old that still do that kinda thing, its really immature and annoying! unfortunately your going to have to get used to it, itll continue to happen no matter what.
As for your modem terry, the same thing happened to my neighbor, his house got struck by lightning, so he had to go through the same deal for everything! TV, computer, internet service, phone service, you name it!