cindyh5161's profile

Tutor

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4 Messages

Tuesday, May 14th, 2013 2:45 AM

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Wireless Receivers

Does anybody know why I can only have 2 wireless receivers? 

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Official Solution

Guru

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428 Messages

11 years ago

Here's the link: http://forums.att.com/t5/forums/forumtopicprintpage/board-id/uverse-Uverse_TV_Equipment/message-id/56133/print-single-message/true/page/1

 


@bauwls wrote:

There are some misconceptions here that I'd like to clear up. Your RG (2wire 3800/3801) operates on a wireless frequency of 2.4GHz. This cannot be boosted as is without a firmware change and is by default on the highest setting (400mW I believe).

Your RG does not see the wireless receiver as a wireless device. It's wired to the WAP which creates a wireless bridge to the Wireless Receiver. It operates on Wireless N (5GHz) which, depending on environment, is a far less congested than it's 2.4GHz option. The tradeoff here is that this higher freqency is far less capable of going through hard surfaces such as brick walls.

 

Some technical information about wireless receivers-
During the bootup, there's a flashwrite process within first 30-60s. If power goes out or receiver power is unplugged during this time (or WAP), the devices revert back to default MAC address 00:23:BE:5C:00:00. This is not an issue in-and-of itself, it's actually a good thing. However, if your have 2 wireless receivers and 2 out of your 3 devices revert back to factory MAC, your service will just not work for IPTV wirelessly. If this is the case, you need to get your wireless STB swapped. This is partially why AT&T won't allow more than 2 wireless receivers per WAP. Once they correct this issue with Cisco, we'll be allowed anywhere from 3 to 6 receivers.

 

Both WAP and wireless receivers use MIMO-2-by-2 capable of 300Mbps bandwidth. There are 3 antennas inside the WAP (firmware logically decides which 2 to use at any given point. There are 4 antennas inside the ISB7005 (top and bottom are bonded, essentially making 3 total which firmware decides which to use). The integration of MIMO-2-by-2 (and hopefully 4-by-4 eventually) means very little deadspace compared to standard in/out wireless internet.

 

The default channel the wireless access point uses is 157 which then bonds with a neighboring channel to increase bandwidth. The WAP logically looks for adjacent noise, not only from wireless technology, and switches the bonding to a different, more isolated, channel.

 

If your RSSI (receive signal strength indicator) is at max bars and green, your issue is more than likely, not with the pairing of the receiver and WAP or wireless signal quality. Meaning... if you're having recording issues or other networking issues, it's probably not because of packet loss in the wireless bridging and an issue with the DVR, RG, or line issue.

 

A few extra tips:

WAPs will not work with iNIDs at this point in time. By default, the ethernet port on the outside unit is locked. Twisted pair comes inside unit (i38hg) uses igmp snooping which prunes broadcast traffic. If you plugged a WAP into the inside unit, it would congest the processor so much that the internet quality inside the house would degrade.

 

While a WAP will work with plugging it into the ethernet port of a coax-wired stb, it's not advisable and will not work in sleep mode 'press ok to watch tv'. Other situations that will work but truly haven't been tested - plugging the WAP into a IPTV compatable network switch. Careful about this since it will flood the network with multicast traffic, just like plugging in an ethernet-wired stb.


The other place you can aquire information about default mac addresses is in the coding of the Cisco VEN401 (the WAP to ISB7005). Here's the link: http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Cisco_VEN401/nvram


I can probably acquire a source from some buddies still working at ATT, however I don't have access to those documents anymore for the proof you require. Sorry.

Professor

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1.3K Messages

11 years ago

Because AT&T says so?  There's no real way for the average consumer to test using 3 wireless receivers at once but I'm sure that picture quality and stability of the wireless signal degrades after adding more than 2 receivers.

Guru

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428 Messages

11 years ago

ATT limits the amount of wireless receivers to 2 because of a poor way of handling damaged flash. When the wireless STBs are going through POST and lose electricity, the flash has a chance of being damaged. This isn't strange in any way. However, when a default flash is applied, the MAC address will change to a 'default MAC address'.

It's not a big deal if 1 of your boxes has a default MAC address since all of the MAC addresses on the network will still be unique. When you have 2 STBs that have damaged flash and the same MAC address is where you have the issues, or a damaged WAP and STB.

I believe Cisco gate 1 WAP to 6 wireless STB and it will work in a home, however the rarely seen MAC address issue is the culprit limiting you. Anyway, that's the backstory and in no shape is it useful to you... heh.

Professor

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1.3K Messages

11 years ago

Wait what? That doesn't make any sense. MAC addresses are typically stored on read only memory and will hold information long after power is lost to the unit.

 

Unless you've got something to cite your claim, I'm calling bullocks on what you said.

Contributor

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1 Message

11 years ago

Before you get att to install service tell them you want the WIRED receivers. The wireless ones are complete junk!!! I've only had service for about a month and had to call them more then 5 or 6 times due to them. If its not a lost signal then its the guide, to no info, to dropping singal when it starts a recording. About two weeks into service i lost all my services, phone, tv, internet for a week. Something they didnt fix before they installed my service. If they tell you their going to have someone out in 24 hours, dont believe it. Its just not going to happen. The funniest thing was when I told they I had no service to anything and they told me to check their website for a solution for the problem. How the [word filter avoidance] would I do that. I not joking as I just was writing the last sentence. My services, tv and internet just went out. Had to go reset the wireless receivers. This is crap!!!! Oh, when I told them I want wired receivers they told me their were going to charge me $100 to switch over. PLEASE DONT GET THEM! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

10 years ago

1) You can use the wireless receivers as wired receivers using a Cat5 cable.  No charge for that if you do it yourself.

 

2) Not everyone has good experience with wireless receivers.  This varies based on location of the WAP, the distance and relative location of the receivers, the presence of interference on the 5 GHz band that they use to communicate, the contents of your walls/floors ceilings, the connection of the WAP to the RG, the list goes on.

 

Some people have them and are quite happy, though quite a few have had experience something like yours.  Caveat Emptor.

 

Tutor

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6 Messages

10 years ago

I have an HTC one AT&T on android 4.1.2 I can't receive any update from AT&T, the. Camera work bad, please can we help me

Contributor

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1 Message

9 years ago

what does this mean in English????

Expert

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20.4K Messages

9 years ago


@toadhead wrote:

what does this mean in English????


Notice most of it is from 2 years ago, not so apropos today.  Just keep the WAP 3-6' away from the RG and should be no problems. 😉

 

Chris
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