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snowybunting
join:2014-03-10
usa

snowybunting

Member

Use another router besides the 2wire?

I've had Uverse for phone and internet for a couple of years, fairly satisfied with both. I do have to reboot the 2wire gateway once a week or so as performance drops off markedly. It's not a huge deal, but it leads me to inquire whether I am locked into using the 2wire or can I use a different router? I'm not sure if there's something proprietary in the wiring stopping me from doing this.

bullshark
join:2003-09-17
Fort Lauderdale, FL

bullshark

Member

AFAIK it depends on your service. If you have utv, you're done. ATT equipment (2-wire) is mandatory. Normal ATU-R's (dsl routers) don't do VDSL. There may be proprietary tweaks for the DVR as well.

If you UVerse Internet only, then you may use other DSL routers.
snowybunting
join:2014-03-10
usa

snowybunting

Member

Thanks for the reply. I do not have tv with uverse, just internet and phone, although we did have TV at one point and after cancelling we did not get a different gateway. I suppose a call to AT&T is in order.

Msradell
Premium Member
join:2008-12-25
Louisville, KY

Msradell to snowybunting

Premium Member

to snowybunting
If you have telephone through U-verse you have to use the gateway provided by AT&T! You have proprietary software in it to operate the telephones portion.

NormanS
I gave her time to steal my mind away
MVM
join:2001-02-14
San Jose, CA
TP-Link TD-8616
Asus RT-AC66U B1
Netgear FR114P

NormanS to bullshark

MVM

to bullshark
said by bullshark:

AFAIK it depends on your service. If you have utv, you're done. ATT equipment (2-wire) is mandatory. Normal ATU-R's (dsl routers) don't do VDSL. There may be proprietary tweaks for the DVR as well.

CenturyLink uses VDSL routers which will also work with ADSL2+; but won't work in U-verse circuits for lack of 802.1x certs.

Two things which make U-verse unique from other services are PTM instead of ATM, and 802.1x authentication. Some U-verse CPE can be purchased used, with the caveat that it has current firmware; because I know of no place which offers AT&T U-verse firmware.
snowybunting
join:2014-03-10
usa

snowybunting

Member

What started me looking at this is I want to have my home network on a VPN, and the service I'm looking at either has me install openvpn on each device or I can get a router that will allow any device in the house that's connected to be behind the VPN. That seemed the easier of the two routes, but I was hoping to not have to jump thru hoops to replace the 2wire. It doesn't look as if that will pan out though.

Thanks for all the replies, very helpful.

brookeKrige
join:2012-11-05
San Jose, CA

brookeKrige

Member

Uverse gateway's don't have a true bridge mode, but do have pseudo bridge modes, called either DMZ+ (2wire/Pace) or IP-Passthrough (Motorola/Arris).

Since the gateway lacks various exposed features and controls, many of us run our own "main router" in this mode, and put most clients behind it.
snowybunting
join:2014-03-10
usa

snowybunting

Member

said by brookeKrige:

Since the gateway lacks various exposed features and controls, many of us run our own "main router" in this mode, and put most clients behind it.

This sounds promising. If someone could point me to some whitepapers on how to implement this, I would appreciate it.

brookeKrige
join:2012-11-05
San Jose, CA

brookeKrige

Member

Oldie but goodie on 2wire DMZ+ mode (on another forum):

»forums.att.com/t5/Reside ··· 755#M182

A limitation these pseudo bridge modes fail to escape, is the limited size of the gateway's NAT session table, which *still* is in effect despite the DMZ-ed device's WAN side getting your publicIP. 2wire's table is 1k; the recent Motorola/Arris NVG589 table is 8k.

You can monitor the in-use sessions count, or the remaining free sessions count from a page of the gateway's web GUI. You might like to check it daily, and try to catch whether its getting full around the time you feel the need to reboot.

Also check gateway's broadband/status page, esp. the noise margin value. What is it soon after reboot, does it vary much, does it drop around the time you feel need to reboot? Does error table show high loss of signal or high rate of uncorrectable blocks?

Is it a 3600 (ancient, purchased, not rental)?
Or 3800 or 3801 (somewhat newer, rentals, that ATT would likely easily swap for you)?

Suspect ATT would also like to "upgrade" you from 3600 to 380x since they prefer the rental fees, but NAT table sizes are the same!

Rental fees are the same, so all else being equal, everyone much prefers very latest NVG589. If you have a tech on site for some reason, they might have one on the truck and might even be willing to swap your gateway for one. Generally semi-reserved for 45M Power tier, or long distances requiring bonded pairs, or lines that experience chronic tech visits...
snowybunting
join:2014-03-10
usa

snowybunting

Member

I have a 3800HGV-B. I reboot when the transfer rates become unbearably slow, it appears the gateway is "bogging" down for lack of a better term. As far as uncorrectable blocks, here's a snapshot from the last 6 days:

Uncorrectable Blocks 2240 0 0 6Days3:31:50

That doesn't appear to be too many, but I don't really know how to interpret it.

At any rate, thanks for the link, hopefully I can figure out how to implement that.

brookeKrige
join:2012-11-05
San Jose, CA

brookeKrige

Member

Just above error table a line says "Collected for ..." that tells you the total range of time represented by those counts. Is it only about a week total? The time in each row is since the very last of that event (i.e. has been good/clean for the last 6 days).

What's your noise margin?: »192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_1_0

Old example of few lines from the page on NAT sessions (here showing very few NAT sessions, table nearly empty), »192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_5_5

...
Current NAT Sessions

current secs since boot: 327974
session table 943/1024 available, 2/512 used in inbound sessions:
...
tylerw1285
join:2014-03-01
Independence, MO

tylerw1285 to snowybunting

Member

to snowybunting
3800 HGVb? Was this a self install and you purchased gateway? Either way 3801 gateway should replace that gateway due to the massive issues with the 3800. it will also work with a lower snr. if its been a few years the uncorrected errors could be plant issues id say tech call best bet in case not on cat5, old vdsl splitter, flat/bad drop.

Mr Fel
INTJ - The Architect
Premium Member
join:2008-03-17
Louisville, KY

Mr Fel

Premium Member

They originally had the TV service and later cancelled it. With the internet only I would suggest the 5031 instead of the 3801, basically same improvement as the 3801 over the 3800 just minus the monthly lease fee.