Advice to bypass Uverse for Wireless

[DarkTXKnight]

My Uverse router has been flaky for weeks now to the point Im always losing wireless and having to reboot it. I was thinking to get it replaced but Im also wanting to add additional units to improve wireless coverage in the house. We have some ipads, androids, MS surface and B\G\N laptops.

I have a WRT54G-TM and a WRT54GL in a box here and was wondering if I should dust those off and load DD-WRT or Tomato on them, or if I need to go buy something newer. If I do the latter what is the least expensive couple of routers should I buy?

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

I always recommend throwing away and replacing all your network equipment every six months, so your wifis don't get moldy.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Funny well I was always fond of my WRTs, so they must be extra fresh
What I really want to know is do I bother hook those back up and make them into WAPs and disable the UVerse wireless, or do I buy something newer and disable the UVerse wireless?

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

Plug them in, try them out, and if they're not good enough, replace them. Was it really necessary to ask a forum to figure this out? ;p

 

[Druidx]

You can add a wireless router, just set it up as an access point so the uverse gateway handles DHCP, then turn off the wireless on the u-verse gateway to prevent interference. If you leave DHCP enable on the routers, they will need to be setup on a seperate subnet.

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

You can add a wireless router, just set it up as an access point so the uverse gateway handles DHCP, then turn off the wireless on the u-verse gateway to prevent interference. If you leave DHCP enable on the routers, they will need to be setup on a seperate subnet.

No. If you do this, you'll end up with either a double NAT or an IP address conflict or possibly both.

The correct way to add a second router to a network as a wireless access point (and NOT as an Internet gateway) is to disable NAT on the second router, change the second router's IP address to be distinct from the first router, disable DHCP on the second router*, and then connect the two routers with an ethernet cable attached to the LAN ports on each device.

*There are a couple other ways to get DHCP working, but this is the easiest.

 

[JackMDS]

Disable the Uverse Wireless.

Connect a Wireless Router (or few of them) configured as an Access Point.

Like this - Using Access Points or Wireless Cable/DSL Routers as a Switch with an Access Point - http://www.ezlan.net/router_AP.html

If 802.11g Wireless is good enough for your devices use the WRT54GL flashed with DD-WRT

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Linksys_WRT54G/GL/GS/GX

Otherwise get a new Dual Band Wireless Router.

Excellent but expensive - Asus RT-N66U -RT-N66U

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

Very good Device much less expensive.BUFFALO WZR-600DHP HighPower N600 Gigabit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833162070

Both above are Dual band, have Gigs switch, and can be Flased with DD-WRT if more options are needed.

 

[Druidx]

No. If you do this, you'll end up with either a double NAT or an IP address conflict or possibly both.

The correct way to add a second router to a network as a wireless access point (and NOT as an Internet gateway) is to disable NAT on the second router, change the second router's IP address to be distinct from the first router, disable DHCP on the second router*, and then connect the two routers with an ethernet cable attached to the LAN ports on each device.

*There are a couple other ways to get DHCP working, but this is the easiest.

I thought that was pretty much what I said. Turn off the DHCP on the router an use it as an assess point.
I offered an answer while you offered less than useful comments, while claiming I was wrong when I said the same they you did.

 

[Druidx]

Otherwise get a new Dual Band Wireless Router.

Excellent but expensive - Asus RT-N66U -RT-N66U

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833320091

Very good Device much less expensive.BUFFALO WZR-600DHP HighPower N600 Gigabit.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16833162070

The Asus RT-N66U is fantastic, I get roughly 25% increase in U/L D/L speed from the N66U compared to my old E3000.

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

I thought that was pretty much what I said. Turn off the DHCP on the router an use it as an assess point.

Again, no. You said to turn off DHCP. I said to turn off NAT and DHCP, then change the IP address. You left out two very important steps, and while the method you proposed might work in practice (kinda sorta just barely), it will also result in a network with a lot of malfunctions and quirks.

I offered an answer while you offered less than useful comments, while claiming I was wrong when I said the same they you did.

DarkTXKnight wasn't asking for help setting up a second wireless access point. He was asking if he should replace his old wireless routers.

 

[ScottMac]

If you connect RG LAN port to your router LAN port, disable DHCP, and disable (or not, depending on the location of both units), you've essentially turned your route into an access point.
Since you'd be going LAN-to-LAN, NAT setting doesn't matter.

You must use the U-verse DNS if you have U-verse video or voice, because they have the private map pings to the internal services.

 

[DarkTXKnight]

Actually everyone here has provided me with useful information:

- I am tired of my UVerse router's wireless getting to a point where nothing gets IP's or signal issues unless it's rebooted. I am going to try to get ATT to replace the router but I'm thinking I'll be happier if i just set up some extra access points and just not use the router for wireless at all. This would allow me to set up a device on each side of the house for coverage and eliminate some dead spots i currently have .

- For the devices, I was wanting to know if I should buy newer routers ( to use as tomato or WRT loaded WAPs) or if I should try using the two WRT54's I had in a box. No one has insisted yet that I should get new equipment, so my guess is that the only difference between the new stuff and my old ones are the speed, and I'm not sure speed matters at this point -I have tablets and laptops that do streaming , but all of the heavy duty HTPC's and gaming machines are hard wired gigabit.

-I do have UVerse video and voice, so my assumption was that I would disable all of the WAN and NAT functions on the secondary routers and only set them up as access points.My only question on that was do I plug in the WAN port of my WRT54 to the LAN of the UVerse box, or plug in LAN port to LAN port.

- This may or may not be related but another issue I have is that some of my PC's can talk to one another ( Ping , RDP and drive mapping) over hostname, but most can only do this via IP. All the PC's are Windows 7,8 and 2012 and I haven't figured out what is working on some and not others, so i figured I'd tackle the wireless issues first.

 

[Druidx]

If I was you I would make a service call, more than likely the tech will switch out the gateway with a newer model. Using a program called UV-realtime, I noticed a substanial reduction in errors plus an increase in signal when they switched mine even though the gateway wasn't the problem. It turned out to an issue at their main box. The newer gateways seem to be an improvement over the old gray 2wire gateways.


If you want to use your old routers, they should be fine especially since you have the more network intense items wired.

You would plug your router into a lan port on the Uverse gateway. If you lack enough ports, then get a switch. The uverse techs recommend the netgear gs108 or gs105 models becaue they handle the IPTV signal. If you don't have any uverse boxes plugged into the switch you can get a cheaper switch like a TRENDNet TEG-S80G for about half the price of the Netgear switch.

 

[ScottMac]

Plug in the LAN port of the router into the LAN port of the RG (3800 or 3801). You do not use the WAN port of your router for anything.

You DO NOT want to connect the extra router (which is really acting as an AP) into a switch that also has the STB or DVR plugged into it. The issues is that the STB/DVR is using multicast as its regular transmission mode, and most SOHO switches (including the ones the UV techs could give you) will propagate the multicast to everything else connected to that switch.

The RG understands IGMP v3, so if you put data out one of the RG ports through a switch to your APs (no STB or DVR) you should be OK. IF you plugged in your "AP" into a switch that also had an STB or DVR attached, you'd flood your WiFi links with multicasts. Your equipment would eventually ignore it, but those frames and packets still take processor time and stack space.

I you have a switch that understands IGMPv3 (Version 2 is NOT good enough) and has it enabled, then you can use it and plug anything anywhere. I use a Cisco 2950 and recent code with no issues.

The point is to keep the UV stuff separated from your data stuff.

 

[DeathRayLoveMachine]

If you're worried about multicast, shouldn't you get a switch that supports both MLD and IGMP?

 

[DarkTXKnight]

right now my main switches connect to all the rooms including where the DVR\Receivers are, so Im guessing there is plenty of multicast floating around my network and nothing is complaining. If Im understanding correctly then I need to make the AP's connect directly to the UV gateway to avoid the multicast traffic on the Gig switches. This shouldn't be too big a deal as I can just connect replacement WAP #1 directly to the LAN 1 port on the UVerse box downstairs on one side of the house, and then make sure that LAN 2 port is connected to replacement WAP #2 upstairs via a 5 port switch in my wiring closet upstairs. LAN 3 port on the UVerse can connect to the 8 port Gig switch in the wiring closet that feeds the bedrooms and DVR\PC traffic.