[stomachmonkey]

Not going to get into the differences between DSL and Broadband providers and how their networks are provisioned.

Point is setting it up the same way obviously does not work so you need to forget about that and start from scratch following some basic rules.

Cable modem has one ethernet jack so very likely it's only capable of providing 1 ip address. We'd save some time and trouble knowing the make and model which is why I asked but now we'll just have to make that assumption.

You should be connecting, cable modem->router->switch.

Ethernet out of cable modem to WAN port on the router. May also be labeled uplink or be the first/#1 port on the back of the router, it may also be slightly separated from the other ports.

The router will almost certainly have DHCP enabled, depending on the brand it will default to assigning addresses as 192.168.0.x or 192.168.1.x or even 192.168.10.x.

You can hook your switch up to it and any other devices you want to the switch and that should all work.

For the second router run and ethernet cable from one of the remaining LAN ports on router 1 to the WAN port on the 2nd router. Connect a switch or other devices behind that.

Power up the cable modem 1st, wait till it is in a ready state. Power up router 1 next, wait till it is in a ready state. Then whatever switch is behind it and the devices behind that. Then power up router 2 etc.....