[Barry Lee]

Joe, Maybe I should have known it, but if you read the string of comments to me, no one told me to reset the modem each time I switched the Ethernet cable to a new device when checking to first see if the cable was the culprit. Knowing that now, and checking out everything in every possible scenario, including the advice you just gave me to restore the defaults on the router, I have arrived at the conclusion that the fault definitely lies with the router. I appreciate your assistance. Your post to me confirmed that it was in fact the router and I will be going down to Apple to see if they’ll make good on a replacement. Have a good day. Barry

[Barry Lee]

A tech guy I’m not. That explanation is way over my head and I wouldn’t know where to start.

[Barry Lee]

I was very clear about this from the first line of my very first post. However, I do thank you very much for your time and will do what you suggest. I’m thinking that with everything that has been going on, that the router might be the problem and merely operating as a conduit rather than functioning as a router, if that makes any sense. Again, thanks for your time.

[Barry Lee]

I’ve been online all this time on the iMac through the router. However, I disconnected the Ethernet cable from the wireless router and went directly from the cable company modem to the iMac computer to test the cable. It didn’t work.

Just to confirm that the cable was at fault, I rebooted the modem. Then the connection to the internet was successful.

I then unplugged the Ethernet cable from my iMac and plugged it into each of the PCs and tried to get online. I couldn’t.

Does this still indicate that the Ethernet cable is at fault?

I’m typing you this message online, on my iMac, with the Ethernet cable hooked up directly from the modem.

With this in mind, It’s hard for me to understand how the Ethernet cable or the modem could be at fault, but I will go out and purchase an Ethernet cable if you still feel that it’s the culprit.

I appreciate your patience in this and will do whatever is necessary to get this problem solved.

[Barry Lee]

That was a very good question. I connected the cable directly to one of the PCs and received the same error message that it was unable to locate the IP address. What does that tell you?

[Barry Lee]

Only the iMac connects to the internet via the modem and wireless router. The two PCs are supposed to connect but show only a strong signal but no connectivity. It shows that they are not picking up the IP address.

[Barry Lee]

Only the iMac connects to the internet via the modem and wireless router. The two PCs are supposed to connect through the router. Both PCs show a strong signal but no connectivity; they do not acquire the IP address that will make them connect.