ATT Uverse Internet and TV

Factual Questions
1

Hi-

So I have AT&T Uverse at my house, for both internet and TV.

I initially set up the internet modem in a spare bedroom, set up as a home office.

I also have the main DVR for TV in my living room.

I want to move the modem to my living room.

I called tech support, they want to charge $149 to do this simple job, and claim it’s impossible without a technician housecall.

Wrong. I can do anything an ATT contractor can do, I just need a little guidance.

Surely I just need a proper splitter, right?

Would they really have separate wired coax to one single jack in my house for only internet and no TV? Would have wired every other jack to coax for only TV and no internet?

I’m of the opinion all jacks in the house are the same, and I just need a special high frequency splitter, available for cheap from Radio Shack or Ebay.

Thanks

2

what is the reason that you want to move the modem?

3

For greater bandwidth internet streaming to my television.

Wireless router is 10 years old 802.11b (g?)

Anyway, it constantly buffers movie rips over approximately 1gig/hour

4

p.s.

I really just want wired streaming from my NAS to my television.

My 802.11b/g access point, my first gen xbox, nor my Wii can really stream video at current bitrates.

If you got a better idea, I’m all ears.

My budget is almost zero.

5

I had a similar situation–my wireless router is in my bedroom, and when I streamed wireless to the Roku connected to my TV in the living room, it was usually too slow to stream in HD.

Rather than move the router, I got a few long ethernet cables (50’ and 75’) and ran them from the router through my walls and attic. I ran two of them to my living room TV (one for the Roku, another for the Xbox) and a third into my office for my desktop PC. I just had to buy the cables and some wall plates for the holes.

6

I had this same problem, I think the AT&T modem is just really crappy at wi-fi. The coverage is really bad in my house and the Wii could not stream video. I got a new router (about $30) and ran an ethernet cable into a downstairs closet for it. Now I have great coverage in the whole house and the Wii has no problems.

7

Have you tried just hooking up the modem to the coax that’s currently going into the DVR and seeing if you get internet connectivity that way?

If yes, then do your splitter thing.

If no, then you’ll have to run the original modem line to the living room.

8

I have ATT/Uverse for TV and internet as well. The outside wiring (I believe this is a four wire line) connects to the ATT gateway (modem). This then outputs the phone signal into a phone jack, has four Ethernet ports on the back, and also has a wireless router. I don’t have any coax involved.

To move the gateway, you would have to reroute the outside wiring to the new location, reroute any Ethernet cables to the new location, and have a phone jack available to plug it into. Assuming you have a phone jack available, that will be as simple as unplugging from the jack in the spare bedroom, and plugging it in to one in the living room. You can then connect the gateway and TV unit using an Ethernet cable. If the TV and phone jack are not near each other, you’ll have to have either a phone line or an Ethernet cable running from the TV location to the phone jack location, depending on where you put the modem.

Your main issue will be moving the wiring from the outside so that it comes into the house near your TV. In my case, they ran it along outside the house, and came in the room where we wanted the gateway. If they did that for you, you’d have some wire to work with, but if there’s not enough length to get to the new location, you’d need to splice in more line. It could be important to do that splice well, I’m not sure. In any case, it’s not just a matter of a splitter. On the other hand, if there’s enough line, it should just be a matter of rerouting it to the Living room. You need to find that line, and decide if you have enough length to just move it.

Another approach which might be easier for you would be to connect a router to the Ethernet line at the TV, and plug the TV into that. I have a new non-wifi router at the TV, and the TV (and a PS3) hooked into that, and that works well.

That might not work with an older Wifi router, though. I initially tried it with our older Wifi router, and it couldn’t handle the traffic the TV needed. I instead connected the older Wifi router to that, to have WiFi in that room, although I don’t need the second Wifi router any more.

9

I instead connected the older Wifi router to the new, non-wife router, […]

10

Powerline adapter. Buy a coupla boxes, hook one up to the modem and plug it into a wall socket. Sync it with the 2nd box, and place that anywhere in your house you want internet.

For a few extra bucks, the 2nd box can supply wifi as well, and you can move it around at will. No stringing wires, no need to contact AT&T.

11

i think moving the gateway would a bad idea. a poor quality move would give you bad service on all functions and a costly service call.

you could extend the wire from the bedroom to a new location in the living room.

12

It depends on whether there is enough wire to reach the living room. If there’s enough wire all the OP has to do is undo the four wires, reroute the wire, and reconnect the wires in the same place.

extend which wire? The line that comes into the house? The Ethernet cable?
Eleusis, what you could try for no cost other than a little time is to hook your existing Wireless router to the Ethernet cable that currently goes to your main TV box, then connect the box to the wireless router with another Ethernet cable. I can’t help you with the settings, though. There are lots of threads here on connecting a second router, but I can’t find the one that I used that had some good instructions. As I said above, I tried this, and my old router couldn’t handle the bandwidth the TV box needed.

13

The outside wiring comes to your modem, which then outputs TV signal to your boxes, either over the Uverse wireless boxes, or ethernet-over-coax (for lack or whatever the official term is). It also serves up your standard wifi and serves as a switch with few ethernet ports in the back.

All three of my Uverse TV tuner boxes have an ethernet port in the back. You can use this to have a wired connection to your router, though your tuner box. I have my streaming bluray player plugged into the ethernet jack on the back of the DVR, and it works great. You could try this with your TV.

14

Try changing the WiFi channel. The default channel might be interfering with a neighbor’s WiFi and thus slowing down. Otherwise best, inexpensive choice is to use direct cable connection. Next best choice is power-line adapter. I’m using power-line adapters myself and they work great.