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Justin_General's profile

Teacher

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6 Messages

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 7:57 PM

Can I plug a wireless router into my UVERSE DVR to use as an access point?

I tried plugging in my Wireless Router (Cisco/Linksys WRT610N) into UVERSE DVR to use as an access point but it is not working properly. Sometimes it works great and I get a wireless connection with no loss in speed, but 90% of the time I can't even connect. It will show as an available network with full bars, but when I try to connect to that network it says no internet connection. It also negatively affects my original wireless connection from the UVERSE modem.

 

My Setup:

My UVERSE modem is located upstairs in my office and my office desktop has a wired connection to it. This is required because I work from home. Most of the house gets a good wireless connection from the UVERSE modem in my office but our family room downstairs does not and that is where our DVR is. This is why I want to connect my Linksys Router to the DVR. The plan was to have one wireless access point upstairs (using the UVERSE modem) and one wireless access point downstairs (using the Linksys router).

 

Is this even possible? If not, is there a better way (without moving my modem)?

 

I can provide my Linksys settings if it will help. I thought I'd find out if it's possible first.

 

Please help!

 

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

12 years ago

May I hazard a guess:

 

When it doesn't work is when you are recording or watching a live TV presentation on any of your TVs?

 

The mutlicast traffic that U-verse uses to distribute the IPTV signal wreaks havoc with wireless.  Due to the one-way nature of multicast and the lack of a retry facility, wireless devices operate in turtle mode (slow and steady wins the race) to be sure it gets through.  

 

Hooking up only wired devices back there is normally fine, but you need to segregate your IPTV traffic from your wireless traffic.

 

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

12 years ago

While you could connect an HPNA adapter to your coax and connect a PC or XBOX to it, the same problem for your WAP/WR would still exist because the entire COAX network is one non-switched LAN and the multicast traffic appears on the entire LAN, i.e. it's not because you're hooking to the back of the STB, it's because you're getting the traffic off the STB's network.

 

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Official Solution

Teacher

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6 Messages

11 years ago

I forgot to update this forum but I have solved the problem. To boost my WiFi signal downstairs, all I had to do was get another router/WAP (2Wire i38HG) and plug it into any (ANY) phone jack in the house. This is the same model that I have in my office. Nothing else was needed. That was it. that simple.

 

I had given up on the issue but luckily a service tech came out to my house to swap out a bad DVR. While he was here I mentioned my wifi situation and he figured this out in 2 minutes. He said that because I already had an "i38HG" router, all I needed was to add another.

 

The new DVR was free, the tech service was free, and the new router was free since he had extra one in his van. 

 

The only frustrating part was not getting this solution in the first 5 minutes of my first call to AT&T tech support.

Next time I report an issue I will be sure to include the model numbers of all of my equipment. You would think teh details of my setup/equipment would be on record somewhere.

 

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

 

 

Teacher

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6 Messages

12 years ago

Thanks JefferMC.

 

You are correct. Watcing live tv was the culprit. It looks like I'm going to have to separate the wireless traffic somehow.

 

Here's my follow up question then. Is the following possible?

1) Use a coax splitter from the wall.

2) Send one coax line to my DVR (as it is now) and send the second coax line to an HPNA - Coax to Ethernet Adapter.

3) Plug my wireless router into the HPNA adapter.

 

Or maybe ditch the splitter and do:

1) Coax from wall to HPNA adapter.

2) Send one Cat5 cable from Adapter to DVR and another from adapter to wireless router?

 

If this is not possible, can you provide any suggestions?

 

Thanks again.

 

Expert

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10.1K Messages

12 years ago

Justin_General - Just to introduce some other thoughts -Why is the modem (RG) upstairs - because you want to see that it is working??

If it is just to be close to the work computer, you could move it downstairs.

How is it connected? Cat5 - reuse the cat5 to feed your computer.

Is it coax? Is it loose? Can you use it to pull a cat5. Or, use the COAX to feed the computer with the HPNA adapter.

This leaves the modem to feed the DVR via cat5 & you do not need another wireless access point.

Of course. wiring is complicated & we may not know the whole story Or you may not want to do wiring changes.

Teacher

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6 Messages

12 years ago

Here is the whole story:

-Why is the modem (RG) upstairs?

The short simple answer is, "because that is where the AT&T Tech put it".

 

I told the tech that I needed:

1) A wired connection in my office upstairs. (check)

2) A wired connection in the family/tv room downstairs. (Check)

3) Wireless connectivity throughout the house. (Upstairs signal is fine. Downstairs signal is weak in Family/TV Room)

 

My original thought was to put the DVR and RG/Modem downstairs in the family/TV room, then use the existing coax in the house to feed the internet to any room I wanted via an HPNA adapter. Simple Right?

Wrong. The AT&T tech said they can't do that. I don't know if that meant it's not possibe, or that they just can't officially install it that way?

 

So this is what they did:

The outside internet line runs up the side of my house and into my attic through a vent. From the attic, they dropped that line and a COAX line down into my office closet. They then fed both lines through the closet wall into the office via side-by-side CAT5 and Coax wall jacks. The COAX line goes to a TV receiver, and the Cat5 line goes directly to the RG/Modem. The Cat5 jack has to go directly to the modem to get a connection. I can't use it as a live jack if the modem is elsewhere. (as far as I know)

 

The DVR is downstairs in the family room and connected via COAX. An an XBOX is also wired to the DVR. All other rooms are set up for future tv receivers via COAX. There is no clean way to run Cat5 from the downstairs family room to my upstairs office.

 

I don't know why the AT&T Techs didn't or couldn't use HPNA but I wanted to know if it's possible. After reading these forums it appears others are using it and is why i posted my followup question.

 

Now that the wiring is done, I'm just looking for a clean simple way to get a stronger wireless signal downstairs.

I hope that helps.  

 

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

12 years ago

It appears that you are running HPNA to all your recievers from the RG.

 

The Cat5 jack in your office appears to be your VDSL2 in signal for your RG.  Your RG decodes the VDSL2 signal to IP traffic inside your house.


You can (although it is officially unsupported) connect Ethernet devices to the RJ45 jack on the back of your STB/DVR devices, using the STB as effectively an HPNA/Ethernet repeater.  However, you do not want to put a wireless access point (WAP) or wireless router (WR) there. 

 

The problem is that WAP/WR can not deal with the multicast IPTV traffic and will cause issues.  PC's and other devices would likely ignore it without any real issue.

 

You could try powerline adapters.

 

 

 

Teacher

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6 Messages

12 years ago

It appears that you are running HPNA to all your recievers from the RG. - Agreed, so does this mean an HPNA adapter "should" work? (Either via splitter or between the wall and DVR?)

 

The Cat5 jack in your office appears to be your VDSL2 in signal for your RG.  Your RG decodes the VDSL2 signal to IP traffic inside your house. - Agreed

 

You can (although it is officially unsupported) connect Ethernet devices to the RJ45 jack on the back of your STB/DVR devices, using the STB as effectively an HPNA/Ethernet repeater.  However, you do not want to put a wireless access point (WAP) or wireless router (WR) there. - I do this now with XBOX. This works fine as long as you unplug the ethernet from the DVR/Receiver any time you need to reboot them. Wireless is the issue I'm trying to solve though.

 

The problem is that WAP/WR can not deal with the multicast IPTV traffic and will cause issues.  PC's and other devices would likely ignore it without any real issue. - Agreed

 

You could try powerline adapters. -They originally tried a PlugLink Ethernet adapter in my office for the wired connection but the signal was not consistent enough. I still have it. I guess I could try the PlugLink downstairs and if I get a signal, try to plug a WAP/WR into it. It is not ideal though.

 

I would prefer the HPNA adapter method. I was really hoping to get solid confirmation here before going out and purchasing one however.

 

Teacher

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6 Messages

12 years ago

Thanks. That is what I was looking for. It's not the answer I wanted to hear, but it is the answer. Smiley Wink

 

Back to the drawing board.

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