Need WiFi advice from all you tech-sters

[Dori]

Depending on the location of the gateway and desired coverage, a DIY reflector may be a cheap solution. Ugly though.
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Keith B]

While a reflector can help concentrate the signal in one direction, the main issue with the U-verse gateway WiFi is the throughput. The router is a 2x2 wireless N modulation standard with maximum 300 Mbps physical layer with no dual band. When there are numerous wireless devices all fighting for the same bandwidth, then it gets choked down easily on the one band. In my house I have 2 wireless security cameras, 2 wireless thermostats, a wireless printer, and a wireless repeater constantly running. Add a couple of laptops or smart phones and it gets pretty congested.

A good 802.11n dual-band router will handle up to 600Mbps and has 2.4 & 5Ghz radios, so you can split use the 5Ghz on some devices and 2.4 on others and spread out the spectrum use as well as take advantage of the 600Mbps physical layer. If you go with an 802.11ac router, then the radio bandwidth is way better and handles more devices well.

[CHLLady]

Wow! I have the same issue!! We just went to Uverse and it's not as great as I thought it was going to be. I had no idea about neighbors overlapping bandwidth. That's very interesting. We have a lot of Apple products. I was going to call AT&T and ask if them if our Airport will work with the Uverse router they left us with. Do any of you know??

Great post Jumping Frog! Thank you for starting it!

[Keith B]

Wow! I have the same issue!! We just went to Uverse and it's not as great as I thought it was going to be. I had no idea about neighbors overlapping bandwidth. That's very interesting. We have a lot of Apple products. I was going to call AT&T and ask if them if our Airport will work with the Uverse router they left us with. Do any of you know??

Great post Jumping Frog! Thank you for starting it!

Yes, you can. See http://store.apple.com/us/question/answ ... U4T9YDKKP7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, the gateway wifi is not very robust, so I would suggest turning off the wifi on the gateway and just plugging in the base station to one of the Ethernet ports. Then you can add other base stations to help extend the wireless signal if you want http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4145" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ELB]

...
Great post Jumping Frog! Thank you for starting it!

Yes, this has been a very interesting thread. I have uverse as well, and while it was a big step up from the DSL when Uverse finally became available to me a couple or three years ago, it could certainly be mo' betta. Lotsa good ideas here...

[CHLLady]

THANK YOU KEITH!

Perfect! I'll give it a try. You are much appreciated!

[Jumping Frog]

We are coming up on Aug 1st, and I am putting this gear into our August budget.

Found out how I access the Uverse configuration and that I can off the wireless. So I haven't really figured out yet how to put the UVerse into the DMZ and let the new router handle the NAT'ing. Probably ask some more questions when I get the hardware.

I may also get some quotes and consider CAT 5 wiring to one of the computers, the XBOX's and the ROKU. The other computers are laptops.

I really appreciate all the discussion.

[Keith B]

We are coming up on Aug 1st, and I am putting this gear into our August budget.

Found out how I access the Uverse configuration and that I can off the wireless. So I haven't really figured out yet how to put the UVerse into the DMZ and let the new router handle the NAT'ing. Probably ask some more questions when I get the hardware.

I may also get some quotes and consider CAT 5 wiring to one of the computers, the XBOX's and the ROKU. The other computers are laptops.

I really appreciate all the discussion.

It's fairly easy; I have mine DMZ'ed. Just let us know when you get it and we can walk you through it.

[VMI77]

In addition to all the good advice I have to ask: have you tested DL speeds from the ISP? I used to be on Suddenlink and was having problems streaming. When I tested DL speeds I found that while they were normally reasonable....but not great...at times they were as slow as 0.5 MB/S, making streaming impossible.

[LAYGO]

I'm running wired gigabit in my entire house. When I had my house built, they used CAT5E for all the phone lines & they all terminated in a junction box near where my router sits. I simply put a RJ45 tip on all the cables, all but one port in my house is RJ45 as well (1 RJ11 for where the Dish Network receiver was, a service I no longer use). All the wall plate terminations, I have a 5 or 8 port switch near them. In my office I have my desktop (dual port NIC), my media server, my ESXI box (web server/etc).

All that to say . . . wired is definitely better than wireless if you can get away with it. If you invest in some Ethernet Over Power (EOP aka powerline) adapters, you can get BETTER than wireless, but less than wired speeds.

I stayed with my brother once & he was complaining he couldn't get a network connection to this Blueray player, so I bought him a set of powerline adapters for his birthday. Now he's got wired connections to most of his devices.

Also, I put my Uverse router on a different subnet (192.168.2.x) & the rest of the house is on another (192.168.1.x). I can still get to it from anything connected to my subnet to manage it. If you disable wireless on it (which you'll want to do to reduce the interference), you can only manage it if you're connected to it via wire.

[BigGuy]

I had a similar problem at my house. My house was built in 1898 and the walls are planked with 1/2 pine on both sides of the cedar studs. Coverage was stable in the living room where the router was, and in the bedroom upstairs just above the living room. The rest of the house was spotty to unusable. Also I should have been getting close to 50 MBPS with my plan. I was doing good to get 5 with my old Belkin model FD101-v1 router.
I bought a Netgear N750. The plan was the use the older Belkin as an access point in the kitchen. I'm getting 35 MBPS from the living room with the Netgear. Surprisingly I had good signal all through the rest of the house. I watched youtube video from the kitchen, where I previously had no coverage. I don't even need the old router as an access point.
I got mine online from Dell Marketing for $99. It was on sale, but regular price is still only $129.

[monicayelle]

I am using a TP-Link AC1750 from several months now, and I've been very pleased with its performance in every way. I can now easily stream 4K content without any buffering. This WiFi router has 5 Ethernet Ports so can connect other devices as well. It is easy to set up.

[Skooter]

I would try an inexpensive wifi repeater(s) before scrapping your AT&T setup. They’re easy to set up and easily relocated. I had the exact same issues with my AT&T system and this fixed all of my issues.

[DynamicDan]

Best solution is a new wifi router.

[G26ster]

Anyone noticed the question by the OP was asked almost 5 years ago?