wan has port no light
A few hours ago my "At Home phone" T-mobile device stopped working completely. I went through the standard procedure of shutting everything off then powering up the cable modem, my t-mobile phone, then the airport extreme. The front light on my airport never went green.
I plugged my laptop into the cable modem (did the modem power cycle) and got connected to the internet with no problem
I did lots of experiments trying many things trying to get my Airport connected to the internet. And I know when I change the device connected to my cable modem that I have to power cycle it.
Eventually I noticed that the light on the wan port on the back of the Airport never comes on.
I am able to use the Airport Utility to look at my airport.
It tells me "Nothing is connected to the Ethernet Wan port"
I tried turning off my wireless on my MacBook, and connecting my MacBook to my airport through a ethernet cable to the Airports lan connections.
That worked (my Airport utility could find my Airport) and the green light came on for the connection.
As an experiment, I connected my MacBook to the Wan port on the Airport. No green light, and no connection could be found by the Airport utility.
I could never get the Wan port's green indicator light to come on.
Are my fears true? Is my WAN port dead?
And why did it die?
If I get a new Airport should I be following a different procedure when power cycling it?
The thing was working right before I power-cycled it.
What are my service options, is this one of those things where a new device is cheaper than a tech messing with it?
I don't have any warranties or service agreements.
This is an Airport Extreme 3rd Generation
Thanks
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)