Odd Networking issue after moving to a new home/network

At my old home, I had a modem from the ISP and a personal router and I set up static IP's on pretty much all my devices. All my networking worked fine, I could see/ping any system/device I needed and could share files between PC and Mac easily.

The end of June I moved to a new home and went through about a week of non-stop problems. In total I went through 4 routers and 4 modems from the ISP and in the end got a working pair from the ISP and no longer had my personal router. As part of all these problems I had to turn off the static IP's and let the router do what it wanted (if I kept static IP's, the devices worked on their IP but the router still listed them on different IP's that didn't work).

Something I didn't notice at first (so I'm unsure when it actually started) is my laptop (Win 11 Beta) can see/ping all other systems and devices, however my iMac can SMB into the laptop but no other systems or devices can even ping my laptop so the shares obviously don't show up. If I use a network/port scanner on the network it lists every device except the laptop. If I manually ping the laptops IP (from anything other than the laptop) it says Hosts unreachable and times out.

I've set the laptop to use DHCP and disabled IPv6. I've reset all networking multiple times. I've done everything I can think of, but nothing has worked. Again, the odd thing is, my iMac can see the laptop's shared folders but nothing else can.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Have you verified that they're on the same subnet? If they already are, then try restarting the router to clear the ARP table.

hey @hdmi yeah, they are all on the same subnet and while trying to figure everything out, I've reset the modem and router multiple times already to try and get it working, it hasn't changed anything. I don't know if it helps, but it's Spectrum's Wifi, so it's a router you can't log into via IP, you have to use their dumb cell phone app to manage the network. The app shows the laptop online and has the proper IP listed for it.

You can always have Spectrum turn off the routing function of their device, thereby basically making their device only a POE. Then use your own router. Once done, everything should be right back as it was at your old house.

Archigos said:

you have to use their dumb cell phone app to manage the network.

Click to expand...

FWIW I noticed recently that they've added functionality to their website to manage the network, so I've been able to uninstall their cellphone app.

First, see if you can find out why you can't ping it.

These ISP modem/router combination devices are fine for apartments and small homes, BUT can not and do not provide the range that some routers will, nor do they provide all the settings that some customers want to control. Not only that, but I would never want my ISP to have remote access to my router...and they do. As far as I'm concerned, my ISP controls my ip up to and including it's entry into my home. From there, it's mine to control.

glasskuter said:

These ISP modem/router combination devices are fine for apartments and small homes, BUT can not and do not provide the range that some routers will, nor do they provide all the settings that some customers want to control. Not only that, but I would never want my ISP to have remote access to my router...and they do. As far as I'm concerned, my ISP controls my ip up to and including it's entry into my home. From there, it's mine to control.

Click to expand...

I completely agree. I've never used the ISPs equipment and always have separate modems and routers that I own.

In the past, I'd always use their modem but provide my own router. When I moved, my old router from the last house got damaged and with all the moving expenses I couldn't justify buying a new router at the time.

Some more details that might help. I use the Windows Firewall built-in and have not changed any settings. I have not installed any third-party firewall (unless Malwarebytes added that recently and I'm unaware of it, but I've had that on the system for years with networking working fine).

I'm reading the article that @hdmi posted trying to troubleshoot this.

I've used a couple of ISP provided modems/routers and to my disappointment they have all been garbage for my needs. Either something could not be configured, settings were completely missing, ISP pushed updates that killed all my configurations or the device itself overheated.

Once I bought my own high-end router, all my issues went away. Every single one.

SlicEnDicE said:

Once I bought my own high-end router, all my issues went away. Every single one.

Click to expand...

Yeah, sadly I want a high end router but wont be able to afford it for at least another month or two. Man moving is expensive.

Archigos said:

Man moving is expensive.

Click to expand...

It sure is...I have a lot of experience with this because my other half can't decide where they want to live.