Need help with my own router gigabit fiber

Hello nofroyo,

I am sorry to hear about the issues that you're having and would like to help and look into this for you. Please send us a Private Message here: http://soc.att.com/2uEE6Ki with your account and contact info.

David, AT&T Community Specialist

why does ATT enforce their router on customers if a customer wants to use their router??  Why have the ATT router go to bridge mode to connect my own, or put in my router in the DMZ of the ATT router?  ethernet connection from the ONT is IP based.  any device that is IP protocol compliant can communicate with other IP devices.  ATT router/gateway is not needed if a customer has their own router/gateway and would like to use that instead of the one provided by ATT.  why this enforcement?  

@infallibleman the AT&T provided modem is the last link in the signal flow from the central office to the house. It's used for testing and troubleshooting. If it wasn't there how would AT&T provide any kind of support to customers when every single house has a different 3rd party modem?

You're free to plug in what ever devices you want into the modem, make use of bridge mode, turn off the wifi radios etc.

Sorry, @192kHz, I respectfully disagree.

Call me old school, but if I'm being provided a layer 3 service like internet, I would prefer the "last link in the signal flow from the central office to the house" be the ONT: give me an L2 connection from 'my router to yours', I'll configure the L3 IP details, test it and then I can manage my own NAT, firewall rules, QoS, etc. 

I understand that your average consumer may not be terribly sophisticated but, it's not 2002 and there's a whole lot of people out there that are perfectly capable of connecting their own CPE at the end of the last mile and configuring a static IP (or managing a range of them.)

If you read all the various forums and message groups, the biggest hurdle most people have here is understanding how the 'gateway' is not really a bridge when put in to 'bridge mode' because AT&T still wants to remotely manage this thing. If AT&T would just terminate the fiber at the ONT and let people plug in whatever they want, there would likely be far fewer problems.

AT&T can check continuity and run a loopback to the ONT to ensure last mile functionality.

This is the same thing that has been done with enterprise customers since forever — new tech eventually becomes old tech and works its way down to the lowest levels.

I myself am dealing with a 'a tech will come out to check the gateway and replace if necessary' situation because the whole solution has been overcomplicated with these 'gateways'. If support staff can run a simple test to confirm line quality down to the ONT (aka demarc), anything beyond that is the customer problem. Less sophisticated customers can pay for the more expensive hands-on managed service if they like. More sophisticated customers can shift the support burden from AT&T to themselves with a corresponding offset in cost.

Thing is, unless I want to pay for a 'business class' (read: insert arm & leg here) gig fiber connection, I can't get rid of this nanny-managed service CPE.

Unfortunately, regardless of your provider, if you are a smart, educated customer, you suffer at a system designed for the unwashed masses from about 5 years ago and you end up spending 5 times more time and energy (and 10 times the frustration) as someone who has no clue. In fact, my best chance at getting a service problem fixed is to put my mother on the issue since the whole experience seems to be designed for someone who has no knowledge of the technology at all.

I am having the same issue. They will not allow me to connect my own products without their gateway. Their equipment is awful. I had better service with Cox 54mbps N-router than I get with this junk gateway and they won't allow me to bypass their dumb gateway nor tell me what I am even paying for. I am ready to call it quits and switch to spectrum whom allows you to use whatever you want for equipment, and the cable hookups seem to have numerous options and flexibility and support. Nobody with AT&T can give me an honest, straightforward answer.

I bypass their gateway using a VLAN switch.  

Google launched fiber for the same cost a month in Orange County.  Same as what I pay here for 1000/1000 fiber ATT.  $70.  I’m going to switch the second it’s available.  

Google has has their own Network Box but if you want to use your own router, you can opt out of using theirs.  ATT should learn from Google ASAP.  

In in the meantime, you can simply connect your Ethernet from your ONT to a switch on an 802.1q VLAN.  Make sure you clone your RG’s MAC address into your own router and have it set for DHCP.  On the same VLAN, connect the RG.  Now the RG and ONT should be on VLAN 1.  

Once it lights up with broadband and service, you can have your own router on VLAN 2 and just change it to 1 and the RG to 2 - now you’re online with no ATT nanny RG. 

Another option is is instead of using the VLAN software to do the switch, just unplug the Ethernet from your RG and plug it into your router after the RG has broadband and service lit up.  The ONT won’t drop the connection because it’s plugged into your powered switch.  

I use use this method and Munoz ATT RG is currently unplugged and stored away.  Downside is you have to redo this every time there is a power outage.

Greetings,

I have attempted to try this with an unmanaged 5-port switch, manually swapping the cable from the RG to my router. I attached the ATT RG, and waited for it to authenticate. On my r7000 nighthawk, I set it to use the MAC of the RG, and DHCP enabled. Once I switched to the nighthawk router, I had internet! I was super excited, and began switching everything out. However, it seemed my downloads were not as fast. So, I ran a speed test. I was only getting <1% of my total DL speeds (around 7-10 Mbps) while my UL was about 80% of its normal speed. I decided to switch back to the RG, and was seeing the same. At that point I thought ATT was to blame. However after a reboot to the ONT and the ATT RG, I was getting normal speeds again (~940 Mbps DL/UL). I thought that I had fixed it. So, I repeated the process, with the same outcome. Am I missing something? Why can I get internet working on my nighthawk, but speeds are drastically affected? Is there a setting I am missing, or something I am not seeing?

Thank you!

I recently got 1GB fiber. I too like to use my own routers however, the RG ATT provided seems to

do the job except for wifi signal. I like Mikrotik products and get much better signal with my 

RB951 AP than with the RG.

Re imac throughput. I get about 650 upload and 900 d/l with it. I think the problem is the imac (mine

is old though..2009). I have a Xeon running Debian 9 and get about 930mb/s both ways on it.

My Windows 10 box is less powerful and I get mostly good results but best if I use the Edge 

browser.

fwiw

Exactly.  I've been spending 2 days trying to figure out a way to use my own nighthawk x8 router to do everything that the provided Arris garbage router has trouble with.  Ever since installation my LAN has suffered greatly.  Several computers are no longer able to recognize each other on the network.  Media Servers, correctly configured on both the server and the router are unreachable outside of my LAN, which is the whole point of setting up the Server.  My FTP server drops out ALL THE TIME during transfers.  And this all started when I switched to ATT fiber, which forces me to use their Arris garbage router.

I'm with you.  ONT as the termination point should be an option.   If the average Joe wants to use a ISP supplied router, then charge them $10/mo like everyone else, and let us go nuts on our own.

What was the final resolution? I am in the same boat trying to use my own router with the ATT gateway and I find that speeds drop considerably to about 100mbps instead of the 1Gbps speed that I have subscribed to. I tried ip passthru and associated settings on packet filter etc. everything works except the speed...What am i missing?