[geeks] Stoopid question re: cable ISP, modem, router bonding

[Lionel Peterson]

Hello all,

I've got a Comcast cable modem, and I finally decided to dump my Sveasoft firmware'ed WRT54GS in exchange for a DD-WRT'ed WRT54G (I used different hardware so I could swap back the original config if I had problems). So, I throw the DD-WRT firmware on the box, set all the settings to mirror my outgoing box, then swap them.

It didn't work.

It wouldn't get an IP address (via DHCP) from the comcast network. After a bit of hair-pulling I power-cycled the cable modem, and the link lit right-up.

Here's the question - am I correct in assuming that the cable modem bonded to the MAC address on the previous router and wouldn't release another IP address to another MAC? My thinking is that by power-cycling the "router" I wiped the old DHCP lease from the tables and the router could hand out a new IP.

Everything is working fine now, but I had a bit of a "flailing around like a crazed monkey" with settings, and I want to make sure i have the right idea of what is going on w/r/t the ISP, cable modem, and router.

Thanks in advance,

Lionel