Hi Pam,

I also have Comcast and had a similar problem. It seems that Comcast gets
registered to the MAC (hardware) address of the PC. The router has a
different MAC address. I have an Airlink router, and it has an option to
"clone PC MAC address" so its MAC address on the WAN (comcast) side is the
same as the PC.

Look for a similar operation in the setup of your router. For mine, there
were two steps, to enable the MAC address clone, and then to actually get
the MAC address of the main PC (the one I had connected to the router from
to get to the setup screen).

Hope this helps.

Russ Poffenberger
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-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pam Pedersen
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2007 8:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [PCBUILD] please help with wireless


We need help with a wireless connection.  I have Comcast high speed internet

service and a Linksys router.  At my house, everything works great.  The 
grandkids come over and their laptops (2) work fine.

At my son's house, he also had Comcast high speed internet service, and had 
a Netgear router. His computer worked fine, and the laptops worked fine for 
about a week, and then suddenly they couldn't connect to the net at all. 
Even the main desktop computer wouldn't connect to the net. Thinking it was 
a router problem, we bought another Netgear router, with the same results. 
We called both Netgear and Comcast to see if there was a conflict between 
the two pieces of equipment.  Both said no.  We had Comcast send a tech to 
see if he could figure it out.  He assured us there was nothing wrong with 
their modem, but that the only way the main desktop could connect was if it 
was plugged directly into the modem... bypassing the router.  The laptops 
just wouldn't be able to connect at all.

But since the Linksys worked great at my house on all the computers, we 
decided to try a Linksys at their house on the 3rd try.   This time we got a

wireless card for the main desktop computer to eliminate having to have the 
main destop plugged directly into the modem. The results were the same.  It 
all worked fine for about a week, and then the laptops were unable to 
conncet to the net. We uninstalled the router and re-installed it.  Still 
nothing worked.

Once again we called Comcast to send a tech.  Once again they assured us 
there is nothing wrong with their equipment.. but that the only computer we 
can use for internet is the main desktop.  They said the cards in the 
laptops were too old.  However... the laptops (2 of them) worked fine for 
about a week, and they work fine at my house using Comcast service and a 
Linksys router.  (One of them is only a year old).  The only difference at 
all is that the 2 Comcast modems look different.. I don't know what the 
difference is, but they are definitely  different. I think my service is 
faster - would that make a difference?

Obviously there is a problem somewhere that Comcast does not know how to 
address. Does anyone had any idea what is going on?  Please help!!

Pam Pedersen
[log in to unmask] 

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           web based bulletinboard for questions and answers:
              Visit our sister website at http://nospin.com