[quote=CardiffBaseball]
From researching ATT, I assume I wouldn’t need my wireless router any more? One comes with the Residential Gateway. Of course you can use the router as a switch.
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Yes, that is correct, provided (and pardon me for not using all the correct lingo since I’m more of a software engineer than a IT networking guy)
(1)you aren’t a firewall power user that demands a highly configurable firewall.
(2)you are ok using 802.11G or lower and not planning to run 802.11N or something like that.
(2) needs no explaining. What I mean by (1) is that if you need to do things like NAT translations, , port routing,etc, the default router/firewall capability in the gateway is very very limited. It does support configuration DHCP on your lan (you can pick your ip address range) and it MAC authentication so that if a computer has a MAC address not registered in the router, it won’t let you connect. But that’s about it. In addition to wireless, there are 4 ethernet ports in back so you could run your own router if needed.
[quote]
Since this is a rental I am not sure how much fishing of wires these guys will do. If they’ll run you a connection to bedrooms is that for the set top box only? Or could you run a PC in that room with a wired connection? I like to stream movies and it would be nice to get all of that on a wired connection.
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Let me clarify something. ATT uverse uses two types of boxes. There is a set-top box for each TV and there is one box for internet (called the residential gateway). I do not believe you will get more than 1 residential gateway. The set-top box for each TV *does not* include additional networking ports you can connect a computer to. As i mentioned above, the residential gateway has 4 ethernet ports in back to allow a direct line connection to your computer. Generally, the ATT technician won’t run additional hardwired lines to other rooms from the residential gateway.
There ethernet port behind the settop box is used to bring the tv service in. It can be used instead of the coax connection. Let me explain..During installation, you settop boxes and residential gateway either connect to the home’s built in coax cabling (usually used by your TV cable company) OR if your house is prewired with ethernet, it uses the eternet cabling. Faster speed is possible with homes prewired with ethernet…However, for homes that are older and aren’t prewired with ethernet, coax is the only way.
Att installs a modem outside that converts the signal from the digital phone line to either the home’s coax cable or the home’s ethernet. In some cases the coax versus/ethernet doesn’t matter because your bandwidth will be limited by ATT’s digital line into your home. The total bandwidth available to your home is subdivided among your tv, internet, and phone service (if you get uverse phone service). Getting HD tv will chew up more bandwidth than getting non-HD tv…It isn’t a problem unless you are planning to get HD for something like 10 tvs and also plan to get the fastest internet speed…The residential gateway (a separate box) also connects to your home’s coax cabling or home’s ethernet cabling to provide internet service. ALSO please note…Once you pick your rooms for where the settop box and residential gateway is placed, you cannot move it to another room (unless you know how to muck around with the coax cable junction box or home ethernet junction box where the digital line distributes it’s signal)
ATT service generally includes 1 gateway and 1 settop box. Additional settop boxes are $7/month (and there is no option to buy them). For TVs that don’t run HD, I found a plausible solution is use to run a wireless tv sender, something like this: http://www.x10.com/promotions/wireless_video_sender_vk82a.html (make sure it operates at a frequency range that doesn’t conflict with the 802.11 router or your cordless phones…I already had one for another purpose)
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Also my kids use Xbox Live, is that working out pretty well (for anyone who has ATT+XboxLive). It’s been fine on Cox but I have it connected to directly to my router. [/quote]
Sorry, can’t answer that one. My xbox days are over.
Lastly, one additional thing that I will comment on. If you are purchase a brand new construction home in the future, you definitely should pay extra to have them run a few extra lines of coax and 10B-T to each room. In this modern day you should be running at least two independent coax cables and two independent ethernet cables to each room.
