As far as I have dealt with cable, that is for the MAC of the modem for provisioning, not for the router. Unless other ISP's are WAY more restrictive, the cable at my place I have upgraded the router 3 times myself without having to call the ISP. Only when I upgraded the modem did I have to call them. I'm wondering if when you changed/reverted the MAC on the Netgear it was not set to a valid value, because you did have Internet through it the first time so it should have been valid at the start.
You may need to power up the new router while it's disconnected from the ISP Modem and double-check the MAC address. Perhaps go through the factory reset procedure again from the Admin console? Ensure the admin page displays the same correct MAC address as the tiny sticker on the router. Do this while disconnected from the modem so that modem doesn't add that MAC to some sort of internal blacklist. And then next time you try the new router... power down the ISP modem for a good 2 minutes while your new router also remains powered down. Start the modem and wait at least 1 minute and ensure all the indicators are normal before powering up the new router. Some handshaking occurs during these power up cycles that could determine if you are going to get the best throughput and lowest latency.
Generally this is only the case for the cable modem itself. What you will need to do is reboot your cable modem if you swap out your router. Most ISP's give you one IP address and once that's leased (to your old router) there isn't one to "give" to the new one. Rebooting clears that reservation.
Ok, found out the culprit on not getting a new IP. The router was not using the same MAC as the sticker on the bottom. Once I corrected this it seems to have fixed itself (this was after a hard reset). Also, instead of resetting to factory settings via software, I actually hit the reset button this time to hard reset it. As of right now, my zoning is working back to normal. My QoS is turned off, UPnP is on, Parental Controls disabled.
I want to thank everyone for their suggestions, insights, and general helpfulness in getting this issue resolved.
Unless there is a specific thing you need it for, UPnP should always be OFF. EQ does NOT require UPnP, and most modern games shouldn't either, but it depends on the game. If you do have a game that needs it, you should turn it on only for as long as you're playing.
