Here's a silly way around this problem. I'll bet the cable modem issue is a fixed MAC address. Find out the mac address of her ethernet card (if it's a PC use ipconfig /all). Carry a small linksys hardware firewall/router with you and then reconfigure it's mac address to match that of her ethernet card. I used this recently at a friend's place and it worked perfectly. No calls to the cable copy to reset stuff or anything. LinkSys hardware is browser configurable so you should be able to do it from your TiBook. And only about $70 now a days since WiFi hardware is all the rage.