New House Network Design - UVerse ISP

[stevech]

thanks for the background - I would assume that separate SSID's is also significantly easier to set up.

no real difference in terms of setup. You'll need to tell users to manually choose the SSID that matches where they will be within the house - the handheld device won't chose the 'best' one automatically - where 'best' means fastest due to proximity.

 

[jcwillia1]

no real difference in terms of setup. You'll need to tell users to manually choose the SSID that matches where they will be within the house - the handheld device won't chose the 'best' one automatically - where 'best' means fastest due to proximity.

no i meant the setup for the router itself is easier since thats more or less the default configuration anyways.

 

[jcwillia1]

U Verse has come and gone.

I know this is going to shock you but the guys who came here acted like they hadn't heard anything about the 8 weeks of planning I had been doing over email with their manager. Shocking, I know.

So my house is now all internet wired - their is internet COURSING through her veins. and what is my first thing that I'm doing?

Saying thanks to you people!

There's more work to do but for now I'm in a real good spot.

 

[MaxGrit]

U Verse has come and gone.

I know this is going to shock you but the guys who came here acted like they hadn't heard anything about the 8 weeks of planning I had been doing over email with their manager. Shocking, I know.

So my house is now all internet wired - their is internet COURSING through her veins. and what is my first thing that I'm doing?

Saying thanks to you people!

There's more work to do but for now I'm in a real good spot.

Lol. Most of the time, that's how it is in life.

What kind of planning did you do? It was to your benefit because you have an action plan for the installers.

 

[MaxGrit]

I can remember a day where 768k would have knocked me flat on my butt with how fast it was... how time changes...

14.4k to 33.6k was a great upgrade.

Wow WTF I got the speeds right?

I couldn't remember the house address number from a couple years ago. That sucked when I went to recover an old BNET account and they asked me. Haha the guy actually let me by when I was half right on it trying from google map walking the neighborhood.

Internet Speed > *

 

[MaxGrit]

Damn, I feel old.

 

[jcwillia1]

for planning I actually drew up a network schematic which I had emailed to their manager. They acted like they had never seen it.

all is well that ends well though - I have internet and TV and the internet is surprisingly really really good.

 

[Dreamslacker]

for planning I actually drew up a network schematic which I had emailed to their manager. They acted like they had never seen it.

all is well that ends well though - I have internet and TV and the internet is surprisingly really really good.

That's normal.. His job is to keep you happy enough (basically listen to your plans even if he doesn't understand anything) till you sign on the dotted line. As long as he doesn't outright lie to you, he can do anything he wants (including screwing over the backend team).

Dubious perks of bureaucracy - he's a profit centre whereas the installers are a cost centre. Hence, he's valued more than them and can screw them over.

As for the SSID 'issue', common SSID & password works well on certain setups like pure Apple Airport (express/ extreme/ basestation) setups or Ubiquiti UniFi with zero-handoff configured.
In some scenarios, it may work well if the access points coverage do not overlap much.
e.g. In my home, there are 2 routers (configured as access points) placed right at the opposite ends (longish apartment). The signal at dead center falls to almost identically low levels that my mobile devices will automatically rollover to the nearer AP.

 

[clintb]

U-verse first line managers are completely clueless when it comes to any form of computer networking. POTS, and the "network" behind that would be a different story since the majority of first line U-verse managers I met came from the POTS side, and they knew that very well.

 

[jcwillia1]

ok so next question - I'm currently using

a Black Diamond as my main router in the Basement,
a second Black Diamond as the primary WAP in the center of the house,
a ASUS 5-port switch behind my TV

and I am now in the market for another switch in the office. but all the "deals" that I see on slickdeals are usually for routers, not switches. Can a router usually be easily converted to a switch?

BTW thumbs down on the Black Diamond for not having wall-mount screw holes.

 

[Dreamslacker]

ok so next question - I'm currently using

a Black Diamond as my main router in the Basement,
a second Black Diamond as the primary WAP in the center of the house,
a ASUS 5-port switch behind my TV

and I am now in the market for another switch in the office. but all the "deals" that I see on slickdeals are usually for routers, not switches. Can a router usually be easily converted to a switch?

BTW thumbs down on the Black Diamond for not having wall-mount screw holes.

Yes. The LAN ports on a typical router are basically part of a switch. You can use a router as a switch (albeit with 4 ports) by assigning it an unused IP address, disabling the DHCP address and wireless radio (or leave it on and use it as an access point).

 

[clintb]

ok so next question - I'm currently using

a Black Diamond as my main router in the Basement,
a second Black Diamond as the primary WAP in the center of the house,
a ASUS 5-port switch behind my TV

and I am now in the market for another switch in the office. but all the "deals" that I see on slickdeals are usually for routers, not switches. Can a router usually be easily converted to a switch?

BTW thumbs down on the Black Diamond for not having wall-mount screw holes.

How many ports do you need, and do you anticipate doing any VLAN, link aggregation, etc...? If you only need 5-8 ports, I've used the ones below and they work well so far.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005GGE72U/?tag=snbforums-20

 

[CaptainSTX]

You can use a wired router as a switch by just changing a couple of settings. Read the instructions on repurposing an old wireless router and apply all the same setup settings ignoring those steps that apply to the radios.

Basically all you need to do is turn off the DHCP server on the router and connect a cable from a lan port on your primary router to a lan port on your secondary router/switch.

 

[rtfm]

Steve thanks for sharing your experiences.

Unfortunately there are no other choices so even if I hate it, my alternative is to get nothing.

I know that cable is better but if its not there...

Friends in 92082 have Mediacom running down the road, but they won't serve the house as it's >300ft back from the road. We're trying U-verse for IP only.

In general, the best place for data and help on cable and U-verse is dslreports.com -- at the worst you'll find fellow victims. ATT is now pair-bonding 2 drops for more throughput. But you end up renting the modem....