Why do I have to reboot my new Comcast cable modem everytime I switch laptops connected via ethernet?

Question

I have 3 laptops. 1 older Dell and 2 Thinkpads. At installation of Comcast cable internet, 1 Thinkpad was the first to be tried and it would not get on internet, "Limited or No Connectivety." The Dell connected fine. Now, if I want to switch between the 3 different laptops, I have to reboot modem and laptop.

I also own a wireless router that I used with a previous ISP that will not connect any my laptops to the internet. These are two different problems so I will settle for knowing why I can't unplug the ethernet cable from one laptop and plug into another without going through this reboot step.

Answer 1

This happens because your modem is stuck with one computer. When you disconnect the network cable you have to release your ip adress first by typing this in the command prompt: ipconfig /release

When you have done that you should probably be able to connect your other computer without restarting anything.

Answer 2

because your modem only accepts 1 ip address at a time if you get you a router hooked up to it you wont have to keep rebooting the modem.  as for the wireless router you have right now. you should be able to hook it up. you should have to hook up the router then plug your modem in to it and turn on both the modem and the router at the same time then you should be able to set up all the computers on it