We had waited for about two years to get u-Verse from AT&T from the time I first saw it until we received the flyer saying that we were now eligible. I had gone online no less than 10 times on the AT&T website asking for it in our neighborhood.
After all the drama of installation (read below), the one thing which wreaked the most havoc? Our 2Wire router was b/g and we used to have n. That means it was slow. Netflix was pixelating something fierce.
So here is my service to anyone in a similar situation. I know a little about technology but there are just some areas I know most writers take for granted that everyone understands…and most probably do not.
My linksys router would not work by plugging it into the 2Wire router’s ethernet port because they both had the same IP address. They both used the default of 192.168.1.1.
In order to fix this, I simply grabbed a separate laptop, turned off wireless and hooked up the ethernet cord on my linksys from the laptop to the router. For this step only: The ethernet cord has to be hooked into a ‘port’, probably labeled 1,2,3 or 4. Not the one labeled ‘ethernet’.
You want to get into the administrative login of your router. If you haven’t reset, it will be whatever you set it as before getting u-Verse installed. You can also press the reset button for five seconds and start over.
Then, just head to the wireless settings and change the domain from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.2.1. Make sure you have a password set and WEP security and then …
Unhook it from the laptop. Then take the ethernet cable out of the linksys and hook it back to the ‘ethernet’ port. Take the other end and hook it into one of the 1-4 ports on the 2wire router. Voila!
If your set up is exactly like mine, hopefully it works for you too. The point is, if you had wireless ‘n’ working before and you want the faster speeds still, this seems to work for me so far.
Here’s a great write up on a lot of different variables straight from Cisco, the makers of LinkSys routers.
http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?pid=80&vw=1&articleid=3733
Now about AT&T….
This is my editorial.
1. I absolutely loved how well the online sign up for the entire u-Verse package worked. It was VERY well done and easy to work through.
2. The confirmation emails and calls were very professional and appreciated.
3. No one showing up in the 9:00AM – 11:00AM time window was just rude.
4. I tried the online ‘chat’ to find out why no one showed up and was told I had to call in for help.
5. I called in for help and was told that someone had been dispatched at 8:45AM. He then said that my order was totally messed up. He said he would ‘own’ my issue and would call me back as soon as he resolved it.
6. Five minutes after hanging up, the installer called and apologized for not calling but my order was all messed up and he’d been trying to resolve it. I asked if he thought he could get it fixed and he said he didn’t know. He showed up and hour later and double checked what he saw at our house. He said someone else had used our ‘node’. (I think that was the term). I went to work when he said he still wasn’t sure if he could get it to work.
7. My wife called me at work later and said he was there again with someone else and they were working hard to get everything resolved. He stayed until about 7:30 and thought that he had everything working.
8. Over the next two or three days and four or five calls to AT&T, we replaced our main HD DVR after determining it was bad.
9. Since then, knock on wood, it has been pretty outstanding.
10. Moral of the story…online products=outstanding, installers=pretty happy, delivery of product on an ongoing basis=outstanding, online and on the phone help=poor, very poor.
I REALLY doubt that too many AT&T execs have had to call into their own service numbers. You can’t believe the run around that is required in their phone menus and the lack of help most of them provide. Did I mention the product is pretty outstanding? Not perfect but certainly an improvement to have HD on all tv’s and watch the DVR from any of them.
If you choose u-Verse, good luck!

We’re sitting in front of our HDTV watching “Despicable Me” by a WIFI connection through our LG Blu-Ray player on VUDU (I’m still amazed by technology). Love the show – not just because the three girls remind me of ours but because it has a great lesson and is pretty funny! Gru tries to live his life without relationships until the three little girls show up. In this age of spending time on Facebook and watching other people on YouTube, here’s the big lesson. Relationships matter!

I’m a director of IT in a branch of a wholesaler of beverage products. I’m not a programmer, we don’t control our ERP (main invoicing, product and warehouse system) nor our network. However, I have some familiarity with using computers and cell phones to make our sales force and management as efficient as possible. I’ve help create an intranet portal using Lotus Notes, I’ve designed and maintained websites, I’ve assisted with project management tasks. So can someone please explain to me why it’s so hard to decide for myself what to do right now when it comes to buying a ‘computer’? I’m supposed to be the “techie”!
