Who has AT&T Uverse Internet?

[jimmyle]

Is it faster than regular DSL high speed internet? And is it consistent? I am thinking about switching to the 18 Mpbs max plan.

Currently I am streaming netflix at home and when I do it, internet is very slow for other users. I have the 6 Mbps plan right now.

[Coronita]

I do…

I’m ok with it. I don’t think it’s as reliable as cable modem though. At least not for me. I’ve got the lowest speed because my area sucks.

[spdrun]

First:

You need a better router with QoS to prevent one service from eating your entire bandwidth allocation. Today it’s Netflix. Tomorrow, with an 18 Mbps connection, it will be a download that’s running full-throttle and keeping everyone else from having a usable connection.

[no_such_reality]

Used to have it two years ago, can’t get it in the new house.

It worked great. And UVerse OnDemand with the TV for free programming was like having most everything on the DVR without bothering to put it on the DVR.

We had one consistent problem, AT&T LA based DNS servers were garbage. Had to reset things to point to Google or I regularly got DNS problems.

[sdsubie]

We had UVerse at our last place (can’t get it at current place) and were really impressed. We previously had Time Warner before we switched to uverse, and real world bandwidth was significantly slower than what we payed for. With uverse we were often getting faster speeds that our payed mbps speed..

[mike92104]

I have it and it has been rock solid. We have a 12mbps plan and it’s plenty to run our Netflix account.. It is DSL, so no difference there.

The nice thing about DSL is that nobody else is sharing your bandwidth. With cable, even thought the max speed possible is more, you’re lucky to get close to that during peak times. We had COX internet and it sucked ass. The cable modem kept crashing, and forget about getting on the internet during a football game. I think it was a signal gain issue. COX kept telling me it was my splitter, and eventually I had the line dropped from the pole plugged directly into the modem and it would still crash. Switched to DSL, and have never had a problem, and I’m paying half as much. One issue, however, is that the speed on DSL is dependent on how far from the hub you are. We’re lucky and live just a few blocks from the big AT&T bunker on College Ave. I use a DLink DIR-655 router btw.

[henrysd]

If your house has category 5 wiring (normally very new homes), it worth a try of U-Verse; Otherwise avoid it as the fiber optic cables only go to hub near your neighborhood and it is copper connection from your house to the hub.

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=henrysd]If your house has category 5 wiring (normally very new homes), it worth a try of U-Verse; Otherwise avoid it as the fiber optic cables only go to hub near your neighborhood and it is copper connection from your house to the hub.[/quote]

Henry… You are way off. I live in a house built in the sixities…

They are bringing it in twisted pair into the house. The gateway is a wireless router that feeds the main hub. But also you can get wireless converter boxes that require only a power source. They work like a champ.

U-Verse is the best service I have ever had hands down.

Full disclosure. I work for the company but I love this product.

CE

[zk]

[quote=CDMA ENG]
U-Verse is the best service I have ever had hands down.

Full disclosure. I work for the company but I love this product.

CE[/quote]

Interesting, CDMA. I checked out uverse, but here was the deal breaker for me: Because of the way their DVRs are set up, you can’t effectively scan the program guide or list while watching a show or a recording. You can either look at one or two channels down at the bottom of the screen, or you are looking at whatever you’re trying to watch through a translucent program guide (at which point you can’t really see what you’re trying to watch well enough for it to be useful). My time is pretty compacted, so on the rare occasions that I have time to watch a show, I’m usually trying to find something to record so that I can watch it while I work out. Or I’m seeing if there’s anything better on. Or I’m checking my list to see if there’s anything I want to watch there. You can’t really do any of that on uverse, and that’s a deal breaker for me. I don’t know if it’s quite to the level of deal breaker for a lot of people, but I’m sure a lot of people would prefer to be able to scan the program guide or list while watching something. TVs are more than big enough now so that you can watch something in a quadrant while the guide or list takes up the rest of the screen (like Time Warner does). I don’t like Time Warner for the most part. Their customer service is the worst of any company I’ve ever dealt with. So I’d like to get rid of them.

Questions: Are you aware of any good way to scan the list or guide while watching tv (or a recorded program) on uverse?

Do you work in a part of the company where you can suggest changing your dvrs so that it can be done?

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=zk][quote=CDMA ENG]
U-Verse is the best service I have ever had hands down.

Full disclosure. I work for the company but I love this product.

CE[/quote]

Interesting, CDMA. I checked out uverse, but here was the deal breaker for me: Because of the way their DVRs are set up, you can’t effectively scan the program guide or list while watching a show or a recording. You can either look at one or two channels down at the bottom of the screen, or you are looking at whatever you’re trying to watch through a translucent program guide (at which point you can’t really see what you’re trying to watch well enough for it to be useful). My time is pretty compacted, so on the rare occasions that I have time to watch a show, I’m usually trying to find something to record so that I can watch it while I work out. Or I’m seeing if there’s anything better on. Or I’m checking my list to see if there’s anything I want to watch there. You can’t really do any of that on uverse, and that’s a deal breaker for me. I don’t know if it’s quite to the level of deal breaker for a lot of people, but I’m sure a lot of people would prefer to be able to scan the program guide or list while watching something. TVs are more than big enough now so that you can watch something in a quadrant while the guide or list takes up the rest of the screen (like Time Warner does). I don’t like Time Warner for the most part. Their customer service is the worst of any company I’ve ever dealt with. So I’d like to get rid of them.

Questions: Are you aware of any good way to scan the list or guide while watching tv (or a recorded program) on uverse?

Do you work in a part of the company where you can suggest changing your dvrs so that it can be done?[/quote]

Hmmm… Never tried it while watching the DVR… Never had the desire to surf while watching but I think there is a way to do Pic in Pic window that will still alow you to channel surf… Ill look at that… And I do sit across the hall from the sales team… Ill ask.

CE

[zk]

[quote=CDMA ENG]

Hmmm… Never tried it while watching the DVR… Never had the desire to surf while watching but I think there is a way to do Pic in Pic window that will still alow you to channel surf… Ill look at that… And I do sit across the hall from the sales team… Ill ask.

CE[/quote]

Cool, thanks. Just to be clear, it’s not exactly channel surfing (flipping through channels) that I’m trying to do while I watch a program. It’s looking through the guide or the list. The guide where you can see the listings for, I don’t know, 5 or 10 channels for a few hours, move that around to look at any channels or times, then click on “info” or something to get the details of a show. Or the list that shows all the programs you have recorded.

[pboiler]

I have been using ATT uverse for about 2 years and twice have had service interruptions that lasted several days at at time. Both time the cause was external line problems. The process of getting it fixed was extremely difficult. In fact it is down right now and I’m waiting to get it fixed. In case you’re wondering, I’m writing this at work. I’m stuck here on father’s day because I need internet access for work and because my home internet is still down. They were very difficult to get in touch with and required several trips by technicians to fix the problem. Both times the first person said he couldn’t fix the problem because it was the connection from the street to my house and that someone else would come the next day. Both times that other person did not come as scheduled and I had to call/chat online for a long periods of time to get it back online.

Bottom line. My experience has with ATT uverse has been very bad.

[CDMA ENG]

[quote=pboiler]I have been using ATT uverse for about 2 years and twice have had service interruptions that lasted several days at at time. Both time the cause was external line problems. The process of getting it fixed was extremely difficult. In fact it is down right now and I’m waiting to get it fixed. In case you’re wondering, I’m writing this at work. I’m stuck here on father’s day because I need internet access for work and because my home internet is still down. They were very difficult to get in touch with and required several trips by technicians to fix the problem. Both times the first person said he couldn’t fix the problem because it was the connection from the street to my house and that someone else would come the next day. Both times that other person did not come as scheduled and I had to call/chat online for a long periods of time to get it back online.

Bottom line. My experience has with ATT uverse has been very bad.[/quote]

Actaully I did have the same experience. A line techinican had to trouble shoot the line coming into the house. Once they sent “the old guy” out he trouble shot it and had if fixed in about an hour but it was a horror show until then.

CE

[Coronita]

[quote=pboiler]I have been using ATT uverse for about 2 years and twice have had service interruptions that lasted several days at at time. Both time the cause was external line problems. The process of getting it fixed was extremely difficult. In fact it is down right now and I’m waiting to get it fixed. In case you’re wondering, I’m writing this at work. I’m stuck here on father’s day because I need internet access for work and because my home internet is still down. They were very difficult to get in touch with and required several trips by technicians to fix the problem. Both times the first person said he couldn’t fix the problem because it was the connection from the street to my house and that someone else would come the next day. Both times that other person did not come as scheduled and I had to call/chat online for a long periods of time to get it back online.

Bottom line. My experience has with ATT uverse has been very bad.[/quote]

Get an 4G hot spot. Or if you have an android phone, enable wifi tethering and use your data phone as your internet access

[CA renter]

[quote=pboiler]I have been using ATT uverse for about 2 years and twice have had service interruptions that lasted several days at at time. Both time the cause was external line problems. The process of getting it fixed was extremely difficult. In fact it is down right now and I’m waiting to get it fixed. In case you’re wondering, I’m writing this at work. I’m stuck here on father’s day because I need internet access for work and because my home internet is still down. They were very difficult to get in touch with and required several trips by technicians to fix the problem. Both times the first person said he couldn’t fix the problem because it was the connection from the street to my house and that someone else would come the next day. Both times that other person did not come as scheduled and I had to call/chat online for a long periods of time to get it back online.

Bottom line. My experience has with ATT uverse has been very bad.[/quote]

We had a very similar experience with the TV going down, problems setting up phone service, techs not showing up (after we waited at home for hours! AND showing up on days/times when they didn’t have an appointment and we weren’t home…delaying things even more!), and horrible customer service through their phone tree and constant transferring to different techs/departments.

We quickly switched back to Time Warner.

[Author]

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