It's been a maddening three weeks with a new client. I was hired to participate in an AT&T to Comcast internet transition for a small marketing/advertising company to make sure that the site had internet access when Comcast was done.
The need of the customer was simple, business class Internet access, including wireless access when clients visited their office. What I wasn't told as I was walking out the door was that they needed remote access for freelance workers. I didn't have time to enable that feature when I was there, so I had to return to do it.
The SMC 8014 is your run-of-the-mill modem with four ports. It also provides DHCP and NAT. We wanted to use the new Airport for those services not the modem, so it was on to Comcast tech support to figure out how to shut all services down so the modem would operate in bridge mode.
Long story short, the SMC 8014 doesn't operate in true bridge mode, so it won't work with what we're trying to accomplish. However, Comcast does have the SMC 8013 modem which does operate in bridge mode and will allow us to utilize the static IP the client is paying for as well as use the Airport for DHCP and NAT services.
Moral of the story is make sure that Comcast, or whatever provider you use, knows exactly how their equipment will be used so they can get you the right hardware for the job.
Erik