AT&T U-verse → I bought a 3600 to replace a 3801, now what?

Subject pretty much sums it up. I have a 3801 for which I am using it for Internet only. The $2 rental fee (or whatever) pissed me off, so I bought a new 3600 on eBay for $29 shipped. So rather than drive myself crazy dealing with at&t, I wanted to check here first to see if anyone has some advice on how to proceed. Thanks.

Plug it in. that should be it on these units.

Note that there are no coax connections. Everything is RJ11/RJ45. Better than way IMO.

It will either work or it will not. I believe it mostly depends on the firmware version that the 3600 has. If it has 6.3.7.50-plus.tm, then you should be good.

Buy a 2nd 3600 as a backup when that one fails. Engage tech support to place an order to change the modems in ATT's system. Drop the 3801 off at a UPS store and keep the receipt.

Yup. About 15-20 minutes on the phone with AT&T was all it took before I swapped it out. All AT&T asked for was the serial number of the 3801 I was returning. I didn't have to give them any information on my new 3600. Everything is up and running fine.

Nicely done, I'd like to do the same thing. I see 3801's on sale on ebay - will ATT allow me to do this? Not sure if the ones on ebay are legit, but I'm willing to give it try.

id question whether a 3801 on ebay is legit since they arent customer owned..

There was recently another thread with posts from one or more customers who said they owned their 3801s. I believe this was possible in ancient times. But how anybody would know or could verify that for any specific modem, I have no idea.

Glad to see this thread as I have a 3600 with acceptable firmware (as of today, anyway!) gathering dust in my basement, waiting to see if I'll ever switch back to UVerse.

Since you have 3801, I assume you have either phone or u-verse TV service?

Does it work for both? Since uVerse is IPTV and 3600 has phone port, I thought it would work. But this is the first time I know people can do that (sorry, not keeping track of the forum lately)!

He had internet only, but could have had tv service in the past. The 3600 will do internet & voip only.

Although in theory I would think if you had all cat5 fed to all your tvs that the 3600 would work for tv service as well but that is when we usually change the modem to a 3800 or 3801 when we are there to install tv service to existing internet/voip only

As Tech007 mentioned, I am internet only. The 3600 will do VOIP as well. Not sure about TV, I have a Motorola 2301 coming today that I also picked up cheap to use as a backup in case the 3600 dies.

I would like to buy a 3600 to get rid of the $6 bill for the 3801 every month. Are there units with FW that won't work? I'd hate to buy one on ebay and find out the FW is old.

A 2Wire/Pace 3600 needs to have current firmware version 6.3.7.50-plus.tm to work, at present, with U-Verse FTTN single pair VDSL2 service. If you have FTTP xPON, you must keep the 3800/3801 with the rental fee

And the service must not include IPTV. Service(s) must be VoIP only, Internet only, or Internet + VoIP only.

Modems/devices acquired from non-AT&T/3rd party sources have no warranty from AT&T. Modems acquired from AT&T sources have a 1 year warranty

Let's say a used (or unused) 3600 acquired from a 3rd party did not have current firmware version 6.3.7.50-plus.tm, would it update itself once connected to the line?

I doubt it, although it might but back in august all of them had to have the update put on them manually before being deployed in the field or they just wouldnt work period.

No. If you get one with old firmware it's DOA.

Thanks Tech007 & Forosnai. That is interesting info and something all should be aware of, if buying a 3600 from a 3rd party. I hope at&t doesn't do that again, luckily my spare 3600 currently has 6.3.7.50-plus.tm on it. If there is no way for an end user to manually update after a firmware release, that is not backwards compatible?, I guess one would be stuck buying a replacement from at&t for $100+.

People who are renting a 3801/3800... Have any of you ever asked a tech to swap you for a 3600?

If they have it on the truck they will swap it and not care and thus no longer a fee.

I don't have U-verse anymore but a few years back I did... I started out with a 3800, it had issues the guy came and went to swap it for an 3801 as they had just came out. I asked if he had a 3600 and he did, and poof, rental went away ... He didn't understand why I wanted the 3600 but had a few on his truck and didn't care. This why I never purchased it and got to keep it when I canceled in the end.

Is this normal practice? who knows. End of the day it's up to the tech if they do or not... If any local centers do swaps too you could prob try/ask the same, walk in and just try to swap for the 3600...

yep that would be the case, so really buy one off ebay spend 20 or 30 plus shipping to find out its a dud and then get charged by ATT for another $100 for a new one and you could have saved yourself 30 right up front

Get written confirmation from the seller that the unit has 6.3.7.50-plus.tm BEFORE bidding. Or, if the price is low enough, have a door in mind that needs to be propped open.

Definitely verify FW ver. Before buying a 3600 in my opinion the 3801 is a much better RG though way way too many problems with the 3600's most guys don't even keep 3600's on their truck.

What do I need to connect my 3600? the 3801 is using a Ethernet connection as input. the 3600 doesn't have a Ethernet connection as input. it has a phone line connection instead. Is the Ethernet connection using both twisted pair?

If your 3800/3801 is getting its feed via the Red Ethernet port, congratulations, you are on Fiber To The Premise/FTTP-xPON U-Verse

That being said, you must use the rented 3800/3801 if on FTTP, as is noted here, the 3600 has no Ethernet In port for the link from the ONT to the Modem

At this time, there are no customer owned Modem options for FTTP customers