No, your cable internet company only need the mac address of your cable modem. If you are able to connect to the internet through your usb connection to the modem, then the problem is not between you and you provider. It is your settings on you network card. Your network card is either disabled (altogether) or your DHCP is not enabled. My guess is that your DHCP for the "network card" is not enabled. Double check your TCP/IP settings for your "network card". They are under "Network connections". The settings for the USB & the Network card are 2 totally different settings in the same window. OOOH one more thing. I hope you are not hooking both usb & network cable up at the same time. I don't believe the modem can handle that.