SMC Barricade won't connect to Sympatico thru Alcatel

This has been going on for a few weeks now and I'm getting somewhat frustrated. Here's the skinny:

SMC Barricade7004WBR was just bought to hook up to the Alcatel SpeedTouch Home which we use to connect to Sympatico. After all the wiring was done, I tried to program the Router to link up to Sympatico HSE, but I have not seen it connect once. I'm in downtown Toronto, and connectivity has never been a problem with the Cable Modem.

There are two machines with wireless connections to the router. One of them often gets connected straight into the cable modem sometimes, because these days it is the only Internet we can get.

Basic connection settings: Username, password, nothing in the service box.

- Tried the crossover cable - for fun
- Tried writing my username as an e-mail ( @sympatico.ca )
- I've tried cloning the MAC address of the computer that connects - It didn't work but I couldn't figure out why it would. Isn't that for Dynamic IP, and not PPPoE?
- I've reset it to factoy defauls I don't know how many times
- Power cycled like a monkey, tried all different ways of turning them all on.
- Upgraded to the latest firmware version

When the Router and Modem are connected the WAN light on the Barricade comes on fine, the Modem is happy, all the connections are good, and yet it has never managed to make a connection, telling me each time: "Check Cable and Settings" . Should the lights on the Cable modem be flashing while the router is trying to connect? Because mine never do.

Thanks in advance

Bobiloco