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Should an Arris NVG599 Work With a Coax Connection?
Ever since I signed up for U-verse 8 years ago I've used a 2-Wire 3800HGV-B gateway. It's worked flawlessly all these years. I had no reason to update and in my opinion "if it ain't broke don't fix it"! Now, in the past few weeks the gateway started to randomly disconnect and immediately reboot, and oddly, always in the evenings.
I called TS (tech support) and TS being TS always looking for the easy way out said I have an old gateway so that's probably the problem and we'll send you a replacement. So they send me a ARRIS NVG599. I get it, hook it up, and all I see are the two broadband lights blinking red (power is green, ethernet slowly blinks green). And yes, I did wait enough days to ensure the box should be recognized by the system.
To make a long story short it turns out that the line drops were due to outside line problems and there was nothing wrong with my 2-Wire. Of course one of my (many) calls to TS thought that my problem with the NVG599 was due to the faulty lines. I told them that the line problem might have caused the 2-Wire reboots but had nothing to do with the NVG599 boot failures at a time the 2-Wire had no booting problems.
I finally got a TS that agreed with me. I told him I would return the NVG599 instead of the 2-Wire and he made sure it was added to the notes for my account (always make sure they record important info for your account) that this was being done just in case AT&T tries to charge me for not returning the 2-Wire in exchange for the NVG599 and the NVG599 was being returned instead.
Before I return the NVG599 I decided, for my own education, to ask here whether a NVG599 can indeed accept a coax connection (maybe with some kind of outside wiring change), whether it requires cat5, or do you think the box is just bad. Just like the 2-Wire the NVG599 has a coax connection in the back. That's what I tried to use. At least 4 TS's said coax is ok, and one said it required cat5. I don't have cat5 connected to the outside and I don't want to install it. But I am curious about those red lights in case some day I really do need a replacment gateway. What' your opinions(s)?
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JefferMC
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35.1K Messages
7 years ago
No, the NVG599 does not accept VDSL2 via the coax connector. Nor do the NVG 589 or the 5268ac. You would need to go back to the older 2WIRE such as the 3600 [no TV], 3800, or 3801.
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_xyzzy_
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7 years ago
Thanks for the info.
As I said above I'm keeping the 2-Wire and sending back the NVG599.
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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35.1K Messages
7 years ago
I will say that AT&T no longer does new installs using coax for input. They want a clean Cat5e cable run directly from the NID to the Gateway location. If you get a tech visit to look at your problem, unless he sees a clear problem at the NID, he's likely going to want to move you to Cat5e. The newer Gateways also deal better with weak signals and have more profiles. My 3800 had a power issue this month and had to be replaced. I got an NVG 589, and my max signal rate has gone up from under 60 Mbps to over 70 Mbps due to the change out.
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_xyzzy_
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7 years ago
I would have preferred to keep the newer NVG599 but I really didn't want (to risk) a tech wanting to drill more holes in the house to get it from my office to the NID. He could use the same path as the coax but that would mean removing the coax. The coax was installed in the early 90's when I moved into my house and had Comcrap. I remember that install where the tech broke part of the sheetrock using a 3-foot drill bit (one of which he dulled and overheated tring to drill through a nail, I think, in a stud).
Removing the coax would mean (a) I would probably need to get it reinstalled if I ever decided to go back to Comcrap (unless Comcrap also only uses cat5 these days) and, (b) possibly breaking the sheetrock around the coax wallplate again which the Comcrap tech repaired at the time but IMO not very solidly. Pulling the old coax out and stringing the new cat5 might break the wall again.
All things considered I figured it is far easier and potentially less aggravating to just return the NVG599 and stick with the 2-Wire. I don't really have any complaints about speed on my 24M connection. I have no complaints with browsing speed. And most of my downloads are throttled down anyhow (from the source not by U-verse) so potentially adding more speed at my end doesn't change that. Speed tests generally imply I'm overprovisioned anyhow beyond the 24 (yes, I know to take speed tests with a grain of salt).
By the way, in order to keep my initial post that started this thread short and to the point I didn't want to include my experiences with the multiple TS's I interacted with although I did mention there I went through at least 5 TS's. Two of them did actually schedule a techs to come out. First was a no show so another was scheduled which was also a no show. I really wanted one here to discuss this cat5 problem with him. If one had come I would never have had to ask the cat5 vs. coax vs. NVG599 question in the first place and I would know what their plan would be to pull the cat5 from the NID. I could then accept or reject the installation at that point.
The reason for the no-shows; turns out line problems were discovered in the area and "outside" techs were dispatched to handle that, not "inside" techs. Yes, there are apparently two "flavors" of tech; outside and inside. The outside tech apparently has no responsibilty to call reporting customers that no one is coming in the scheduled time slot. So you are left waiting in the "scheduled" 4-hour block of time for a tech that never arrives. Why schedule a 4-hour slot if they aren't coming to you in the first place?
So for future reference, I've learned to be explicit when requesting a tech from a TS. Specify an inside tech if you want them to come to your home. I wonder how many posts in these forums about people complaining about no-shows from a tech are due to this confusion.
-- Edit/Update --
After posting this I decided to give TS one more try. I discussed basically the same as I wrote above. And he agreed with me to allow me to discuss with a tech in person, i.e., an "inside" tech, what would be his plan for pulling cat5 and my concerns. I would then accept or reject as originally planned. He'll be here Sunday (I guess they work weekends too) so I'll know better then. Of course this assumes this one will actually show up this time! 🙂
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This post is getting a little too long, but if you got this far I have to ask a meta-question; did something change in these forums with respect to remembering login status? It seems I have to log in way more often than I remember.
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_xyzzy_
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7 years ago
One last post to finish this thread. An (inside) tech came today. I discussed my concerns as I described above. But I added one other option I previously had forgotten about which allowed me to successfully use NVG599 without pulling any additional cat5.
It turns out that the previous original owner of my house was a "stereo nut" and strung multi-strand cables (I assume for speakers) along with additional phone lines all over the place while the house was being built. The lines are exposed in the various rooms behind cover plates in the walls. What I had forgotten was that back in the 90's I hooked up one of the additional phone lines for ISDN (which as considered "fast" compared to dial up acoustic modems back in those days) and assigned to a second phone number. The phone line and its plug remained all these years in my office complete with its phone cord and of course the connection was still to the NID albeit long since dead when I got rid of the ISDN and associated phone number.
So all the tech needed to do was reconnect that line at the NID to the U-verse system and then plug in the NVG599 in my office. Problem solved. At least I hope. I'll see how it goes for a few days.
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