Charter's network docs say they support multiple computers on a home network that are connected via a simple Ethernet switch. I have a CISCO DPC3010 cable modem, which had a Windows PC working on it. I now have to add my iMac (10.6.8) to the network -- previously we did this with such a switch.
When I tried connecting the Mac directly to the cable modem, it wouldn't work until Charter reset the modem "to get a new IP address". Then hooking the PC up directly (in place of the Mac) wouldn't work -- until Charter reset the modem again. Ditto on going back to the Mac... (Later I learned that simply cycling the power of the Charter modem might be sufficient, but I don't think that has any bearing on the problem I describe below.)
Charter tech support confirmed that an Ethernet switch would support both units, so I bought a 4-port switch. But of course, it didn't work. The closest I got was that if I turned the Mac on first, it would work until I turned the PC on. Then the Mac couldn't reach the Internet (but the PC could).
Charter support pointed to the switch, saying they couldn't support that unit but it was the likely culprit. Of course, I got a totally different kind of switch (the one that worked with the previous Charter modem) and the exact same problem occurred.
It looks to me like this modem just plain won't support 2 computers, at least a Mac and a PC, on the same switch at the same time. Can anyone confirm or deny this conclusion (or ideally, provide a solution that will work to fix it)?
Thanks, and sorry for the long post.
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