How to get a 2Wire 3801 residential gateway?

mowster · ‎11-26-2012

My connection has been intermittently going up and down. AT&T sent out a technician who isolated it to the inside wiring. (Why this should start only 2 weeks ago, after years of no problem, I don't understand, but anyway...)

I have coax that runs from the NID to the same jack I use for DSL, so the technician suggested I get a 3801 gateway, and use the coax for inside wiring, instead of the unshielded, non-twisted, quad copper wire that I use today.

Except that AT&T won't sell me a 3801. I spent over 40 minutes on the phone, trying to buy one, going through 3 people, only to have someone say that because I have a 3600 on record, he can't process an order to sell me a 3801. I'm not even asking for a free replacement, I'm happy to pay for a new device if it will solve the problem.

Suggestions?

I'm ready to switch to the local cable company, who has a 6 month deal for more Mbps at lower $

aviewer · ‎03-11-2010

mowster - I believe the 3801is for when bundled with TV. You could get a TV package, but install is not included in U-basic. Not sure about family.

You could install U200 & cancel later. Maybe you would only return the STBs & keep the 3801.

unrtechie · ‎12-07-2011

mowster wrote:
My connection has been intermittently going up and down. AT&T sent out a technician who isolated it to the inside wiring. (Why this should start only 2 weeks ago, after years of no problem, I don't understand, but anyway...)

I have coax that runs from the NID to the same jack I use for DSL, so the technician suggested I get a 3801 gateway, and use the coax for inside wiring, instead of the unshielded, non-twisted, quad copper wire that I use today.

Except that AT&T won't sell me a 3801. I spent over 40 minutes on the phone, trying to buy one, going through 3 people, only to have someone say that because I have a 3600 on record, he can't process an order to sell me a 3801. I'm not even asking for a free replacement, I'm happy to pay for a new device if it will solve the problem.

Suggestions?

I'm ready to switch to the local cable company, who has a 6 month deal for more Mbps at lower $

First thing, the 3801 is never sold, it is only leased to customers. Second, it is usually for TV service packages, not normally used wuthout TV (unless you have fiber to your house). Third, in lieu of the tech taking the easy way out and suggesting the 3801, he/she could have run a new cat5 to the location unless it wasn't feasible.

As for why the wiring could go bad all of a sudden, the list is nearly endless. It could include rodents, wear and tear, poor installation, age, manufacturing defect, ect. Many times, wiring that works perfectly fine for telephone service may not work as well for higher speed services since old flat quad wiring doesn't have the twisting and therefore the noise protection as a twisted cat5 wire. Hopefully this help narrow down ideas. What you may need is another tech visit to install a new line or convert you over. If you do end up leasing, the bill will increase by $6 for the lease, but unless you are running a longer line, the 3801 wouldn't fix issues that can't be correcting by running a new wire.

I am an AT&T employee and the postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent AT&T’s positions, strategies or opinions.

mowster · ‎11-26-2012

Thanks, but I'm not fully buying it re: the quad wire suddenly degrading to cause CV errors and link retrains all of a sudden. I upgraded to my current service over a year ago. I haven't suddenly had rodents chewing on the line in the past 2 weeks.

As for pulling new cable, that's not really viable - the suggestion to switch to coax to use that existing inside wiring makes sense to me, at least to try it.

Guess I'll switch to ComCast and take advantage of their 20Mbps download for $30 for six months plan.

mowster · ‎11-26-2012

Update on this...

Starting this morning, my connection was going up and down every five minutes. A call to support with the ultimatum to send out a 3801 or cancel my service produced a very competent prem tech at my house, who installed the 3801 and switched my inside wiring to coax, as I was trying to do as of Monday. It seems to have resolved the problem.

However, I'm having a problem with the routing of my Static IP. Has anyone seen any particular issues or gotchas with static IPs on the 3801? Does everything work the same as with the 3600?

mowster · ‎11-26-2012

Update: ComCast installer here now, switching me over to Business Class at 16Mbps/3mbps, and making my static IP address work, whereas AT&T could not get my static IP working after installing the 3801 RG, and could not eliminate the ongoing intermittent link retrains on my u-verse line.