Suggest a Router to Work With Comcast

I would suggest you get something from apple, I use comcast with a time machine, $299 & 400, very easy to set up and have not had a problem. You could also use the airport extreme for $99. or the airport extreme base station at $179.
there are others that may be cheaper but I have found using the Apple to Apple is very easy and quick

Mike

A Comcast cable “modem" will not work with a network switch, only with a router that can be configured to provide DHCP and spoof a MAC address.

You do not need to spoof a MAC address with Comcast. The cable modem remembers the first MAC address that connects after the cable modem is powered on. To switch to a different MAC address it is necessary to turn the cable modem off for 30 seconds. This is the way that Comcast prevents you from using more than the one IP address that you are paying for. Any router can be used with Comcast. Find one that has the features that you want. I have previously used SMC routers and am using an IOGear GWA504 as I type this on my MBP.

Al Hatch wrote:
A Comcast cable “modem" will not work with a network switch, only with a router that can be configured to provide DHCP and spoof a MAC address.

Not to spoof the MAC, just to provide a single MAC to the modem. Comcast sells you one and only one IP per internet account. If you attach a switch directly to the modem, you will be requesting an IP for each machine attached to the switch. Comcast will gladly bill you for the extra IPs, but that will be one additional internet account per IP. There are those (mostly gamers) who do go to the trouble of having more than one internet account.

Comcast does offer optional "Home Network" equipment. It would like to charge extra for the "privilege" of networking more than one computer at your location.

Yep. They'll give you a modem/router combination device such as a Linksys WCG200. As many such devices (including the WCG200) have crippled wireless security (the WCG200 supports only WEP, which means you might as well not bother) this may not be a good idea.

So, I need to purchase a configurable router with 8 ports

Good luck finding a router with 8 ports. Most have 3 to 5, usually 4. Get a router and a switch, and hang the switch off the router. Home 'routers' are really routers with a built-in switch attached, anyway.

or more that will act as a DHCP server and, ideally, handle Gigabit Ethernet.

Pretty much any current home router will handle Gigabit. Every single home router I've ever seen does DHCP. There might be one which doesn't, but it'd be a pretty strange router.

The only thing I've found is the Linksys RV082 10/100 8-Port with VPN. But its reviews are terrible just about everywhere, for buggy firmware.
Can anyone suggest a router that meets these criteria?

There are swarms of 3-to-5 port routers available from Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, and Apple. I currently have an Apple Airport Extreme, three switched gigabit ports, plus a no-name Taiwanese 5-port switch, giving effectively 6 ports (one port on the AirPort and one on the switch are connected to each other.) I used to have a Linksys router instead. I just swapped the AirPort for the Linksys, no muss, no fuss.

no prob.

Charles Dyer wrote:
Not to spoof the MAC, just to provide a single MAC to the modem. Comcast sells you one and only one IP per internet account.

Is this a business account or one that requires a hard IP address rather than one provided by DHCP?

I have a normal Comcast home account and they will provide up to five IP addresses at no extra charge.

That having been said, I have my cable modem connected to my AirPort Extreme base station, and an eight port gigabit switch hanging off that with the AEBS providing DHCP service to my internal network, both wired and wireless with no issues.

William Kucharski wrote:

Charles Dyer wrote:
Not to spoof the MAC, just to provide a single MAC to the modem. Comcast sells you one and only one IP per internet account.

Is this a business account or one that requires a hard IP address rather than one provided by DHCP?

A home account, so far as I know.

I have a normal Comcast home account and they will provide up to five IP addresses at no extra charge.

Interesting. I used to have a Comcast account. They told me one IP and only one IP per account. Possibly it was because I was a legacy, acquired when Comcast got the Adelphia accounts in my area.

That having been said, I have my cable modem connected to my AirPort Extreme base station, and an eight port gigabit switch hanging off that with the AEBS providing DHCP service to my internal network, both wired and wireless with no issues.

That works for me, too.

Al Hatch wrote:
Something is not working.

Here is my setup:
Motorola SURFboard cable modem

Which model? SB4000 series modems are obsolete DOCSIS 1 devices. SB5000 series are DOCSIS 2 devices and should work with any cable service in the US. SB6000 series are DOCIS 3 and may be too new for your service, depending on your physical location.

BritePort 8120 router with DHCP

Don't know that device, but a router should be a router.

Linksys 8-Port gigabit switch

should work, no problem.

Mac Pro

Here is my procedure:
Perform a hard reset of the router and modem.

Not really necessary. Just turning the router and modem off will do. Both must be off at the same time. It doesn't matter which one is turned off first and which one is turned back on last, so long as both are off at the same time for at least 30 seconds.

Disconnect and turn off everything.

Again, not really necessary.

Connect cable to modem.

Coax or ethernet?

Turn on modem.
Wait 3 minutes. Connect modem to router.

You don't have to wait 3 minutes, and you shouldn't have to disconnect the router.

Turn on router.
Wait 3 minutes. Connect router to switch.

You definitely don't have to wait three minutes here.

Turn on switch
Wait 3 minutes. Connect switch to Mac Pro.

Again, you don't have to wait 3 minutes.

Turn on Mac Pro.

When I follow this procedure, I am able log on to the router’s HTML interface and conduct maintenance. In this way, I can assign IP addresses, reset the router, etc. But I cannot see the Internet through the router.

What's the WAN IP on the router? It should be the IP given you by Comcast. Also, do you have anything set up for DNS, either on the router or on the Mac? I usually use OpenDNS's DNS servers:

208.67.220.220, 208.67.222.222

I stick those IPs into the DNS slots on my router, and then every machine attached to that router uses them for DNS. OpenDNS is free. Check out this page: <https://www.opendns.com/homenetwork/start/router/> for more info re OpenDNS and routers.

If I connect the ROUTER directly to the MAC PRO, I can see the internet. In other words, the cable modem will allow a computer on the other side of the router, but not on the other side of the switch.

There's a problem with the connection to your switch. How are you connecting the router to the switch? Some switches (mine, for example) use a specific port for connections to other switches or to routers. Port 1 in my case. There's a button that has to be in for port one to function as a daisy-chain port. If that button is not pushed, then that port behaves as if it were a standard port and the switch may not properly relay data. Alternatively I could leave the button alone and use a cross-over cable to connect the router to the switch instead. What's the manual say for your device?

Also, have you checked the Ethernet cable? It could be a bad cable. Have you checked the port? what happens if you move the router-to-switch cable from one port to another, on the router or the switch or both? What happens if you move the switch-to-Mac cable from one port to another?

Are you sure this works without spoofing a MAC address?

Quite.

Here's the problem:

Motorola SURFboard cable modem
*BritePort 8120 router with DHCP*

The BritePort 8120 is a *DSL modem*, not a general purpose router. In fact it's trying to route between its ethernet jacks and what it believes will be an Internet connection via its DSL jack.

So, the first question is how many devices do you need to talk to the Internet?

With most home Comcast installations your cable modem will directly provide up to five IP addresses via DHCP (you may want to verify this with your local Comcast office), so you may want to try connecting your Motorola cable modem directly to your Linksys switch and see if your devices can all communicate that way. Note that on some older network switches, you may either need to use a crossover cable between the cable modem and the switch, or you will need to use a regular cable to connect the cable modem to the switch's "uplink" port.

William Kucharski wrote:
Here's the problem:

Motorola SURFboard cable modem
*BritePort 8120 router with DHCP*

The BritePort 8120 is a *DSL modem*, not a general purpose router.

Well, that explains a whole lot... It's a miracle that he got anything to work.

In fact it's trying to route between its ethernet jacks and what it believes will be an Internet connection via its DSL jack.

That's what DSL modems do, alright.

So, the first question is how many devices do you need to talk to the Internet?

With most home Comcast installations your cable modem will directly provide up to five IP addresses via DHCP (you may want to verify this with your local Comcast office), so you may want to try connecting your Motorola cable modem directly to your Linksys switch and see if your devices can all communicate that way. Note that on some older network switches, you may either need to use a crossover cable between the cable modem and the switch, or you will need to use a regular cable to connect the cable modem to the switch's "uplink" port.

If Comcast will give him 5 IPs, that'll work. If not he'll need a router. A real router.

Al Hatch wrote:
My mistake might be that I assumed a DSL router with nothing connected to its DSL port will behave simply like a router. So, that might not be true.

A router connects two networks. A cable modem or a DSL modem sometimes include routers built into their systems, and the two networks in question are the ISP's network and your network. On a cable modem, the two networks would be connected to the coax port and the Ethernet port. On a DSL modem, they're connected to the telephone port and the Ethernet port. Some modems, either cable or DSL, have more than one Ethernet port. That means that in addition to the modem section and the router section, they have a switch built into the system. Those guys can have multiple machines connected at the same time, as the network on your end has many ports. (Well, typically 3 to 5.) Everything attached to an Ethernet port on one of those devices is on the same network.

By the way, I have connected the Comcast Motorola modem directly to the Linksys switch via normal cable and via crossover cable. They both work - but still only provide an IP to a single computer through the switch.

Sounds as though Comcast is providing exactly one IP to your system.

I will purchase a "real" router today and report what happens (for your entertainment, I'm sure!).

A real router will have an Ethernet port labeled 'Internet' or 'WAN' or something like that. Plug the Ethernet cable into that port. It should have 3 to 5 other Ethernet ports, labeled with numbers. Plug the computers and the switch into those ports. The router hardware sits between the WAN port and the numbered ports, so that the WAN port is on a different network from the numbered ports. DHCP is applied to the numbered ports. The router takes whatever IP it gets from the modem (cable, DSL, it doesn't matter) and the modem sees one and only one device on its network. Comcast hands your modem a single IP; the modem hands that single IP to the router; the router takes it, and hands out multiple IPs to its LAN ports. Your computers see the router; it has, so far as they are concerned, a special IP called the 'gateway address'. Traffic addressed to the gateway goes out to the internet. Traffic from the Internet comes in via the gateway. Traffic addressed to one of the other machines on the local net does not go out the gateway.