Connecting Laptop to Cable Modem

[Adora]

So I finally got the laptop back with XP on it, and now I'm trying to connect it to the cable modem with a straight cable, but it won't get an IP address/gateway address/etc etc to work properly.

Any halp?

[JoeP]

Straight cable: does it perhaps need a (usually yellow) crossover cable? (I know some newish cable modems accept either.)

I presume the laptop should get at IP address from the cable provider automatically, via dhcp. You do have 'obtain an ip address automatically' enabled on the laptop?

Before I go any further, is all this obvious and you've tried it, or what?

[Adora]

Yes.

And I know not of any yellow cables. All mine are grey.

[livius drusus]

Have you tried a release/renew (http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/windowsnetworkin1/ht/renewipaddrwxp.htm)?

[seebs]

Does it claim to be running at a given speed (likely 100Mbps) but have no address, or is it not finding a valid network?

(Explanation perhaps in order: Ethernet ports can tell whether or not they are connected to another functioning port.)

[Loren Pechtel]

Many cable modems will only speak to one MAC address. Once they see an MAC that's it, they won't have anything to do with another. Thus if you do something that changes your address (normally a hardware swap of some kind) you need to power cycle the modem in order to get it to see the new device.

Could this be your problem?

[Adora]

You could be speaking Chinese for all the sense that made to me.

[Furby]

Every network adapter/LAN card comes with a unique MAC address that looks something like 00-20-40-70-F4-E5. This is the hardware that you plug one end of the cable to.

Some cable ISPs require that you register the MAC address with them before you can use their services. If you have changed your network adapter then you have a new MAC address, then you need to re-register the new MAC address with them.

...but it won't get an IP address/gateway address/etc etc to work properly.
I think maybe you could try going to the XP command prompt, do a "ipconfig /all" and paste the results here.

[TomJoe]

You could be speaking Chinese for all the sense that made to me.I believe the translation is:

Unplug everything from the modem and then turn off the cable modem for a few minutes, then plug everything back in and turn it back on.

[JoeP]

Make that "for at least 30 minutes". Based on some things I've read, some cable providers take that long to release the old address.

Isn't it working yet, anyway?