SMC Barricade rebooting issues

[banksider]

Hi. Hope someone can understand this issue. I connect my win98SE PC to ntl broadband Set-top box via a SMC Barricade wireless router. There are another two PCs (XP) connected also. When the STB locks up and needs rebooting the router doesn't pickup the connection immediately - or somewhere something isn't quite working automatically. What I have to do to restore the connection after a STB reboot is to:-
1) With router and PC off, switch the STB to router cable directly to the PC.
2) Switch on PC.
3) Release and renew IP. This changes IP from private 192. etc. to the current ntl 81 . . .
4) Switch off PC.
5) Swop cables back so STB to router cable is back in router.
6) Switch on router.
7) Switch on PC. This automatically swops IP back to private 192... and restores the connection and can surf the web again.

Can anyone tell me what's happening here and what might be an easier method than unplugging and replugging cables?

[Paul]

You appear to have posted this twice, I have removed the duplicate.

[Neil]

Does the I.P. loss occur when it's only one PC connected straight to the STB?

[banksider]

Not quite sure what you mean here. Does this help:
I can regain a connection by connecting my win98se desktop directly to the stb. I cannot connect my XP laptops directly because their MAC addresses are different - the router uses the cloned IP of the win98se desktop. (Wonder if there's an issue here??)

But with the router connected to the stb a connection can't be made without the strange cable swopping procedure noted above. I feel there must be a way to do this without unplugging and replugging cables.

This has had me baffled for two or three years now! It's just a drag to have to do this each time the stb locks or crashes. (Which with ntl is not unusual.)

[JohnHorb]

I had this problem (frequently) with the old (black) Pace STB, but NEVER (touch wood!) since I got a (silver) Samsung as part of the speed upgrade. I found that rebooting the router (i.e. power off/on) as well as the STB did the trick. (Belkin router, though, not SMC).