Hi!

but he knew how to take the modem down from the PC end. I would
have never known how to do that, but there is, technically, a way it can
be done.

Try typing http://192.168.100.1/ into your web browser's address bar. Most
cable modems have an internal web page that lists statistics and may even
allow you to reboot/reset them:

http://greyghost.dyndns.org/cablemodem-page.jpg (840x559, 76KB)

There are some that also have TELNET or FTP servers running, but those are
far less common.

William