Teacher
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6 Messages
I think I can do this,,,,, would like confirmation
Pretty long term U-verse customer, in general things are pretty good BUT. Samsung TV in living room, about 30 feet away as the crow fly's, it's got 3 walls between office and living room. Equipment is: BGW210 gateway, short ethernet from gateway to VAP2500 WAP, WAP communicates with U-verse receiver in living room, in general this all works pretty well although it drops on occasion. The at&t U-verse DVR is in the office with the gateway. I think this all is a pretty standard set up.
The problem I'm having is with my cameras that are on the wi-fi network, I have 6 of them. I have 2 at&t Airtie extenders, and I could add one more of them according to at&t. What seems to happen with great regularity is that the cameras are fine all day long and then in the evening we turn on the TV and shortly after that the cameras go down. This is driving me nutz.
I started looking at things, backs of equipment, walls, the extenders, and I noticed that on the back panel of the U-verse receiver there is an ethernet connection. And I notice the WAP connects to the gateway with a short ethernet cable. And that's where I got a sudden and perhaps stupid idea, or maybe it's brilliant.
I could, fairly easily, run a 30 foot ethernet cable from the gateway, into the wall, up into the attic, and drop it down in the wall by the U-verse receiver to connect to the back, using that ethernet port. AND by disconnecting the WAP I would have a free ethernet port on the back of the BGW210 gateway, over to the U-verse receiver and plug in there. This would bypass the WAP which I could then put in a box for posterity. And I THINK this would stop the interference with the cameras every night.
My questions then are: will the U-verse receiver work via an ethernet connection instead of the WAP? And,,,, am I totally crazy to think about bypassing the WAP with ethernet?
Hopefully someone has tested plugging in an ethernet cable to the U-verse receiver,,,,, I figure it's got to have some purpose......???
Thanks for reading
cheers
baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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8.1K Messages
3 years ago
So you want to put your wireless receiver to the gateway via Ethernet?
I'm not entirely sure that's possible.
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gr8sho
ACE - Professor
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1.5K Messages
3 years ago
@cactusjack99
Yes, of course you can. A factory reset may be needed for the receiver to forget network settings.
About your WiFi devices. I’m not optimistic this alone will solve your problems. The WiFi section on these gateways is poor at best. If you need something reliable, I’d get a good personal router with mesh.
(edited)
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cactusjack99
Teacher
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6 Messages
3 years ago
Thank you for your response. I certainly agree with you in regards to the WiFi. I've read some stuff about getting a router, and I get bogged down with all the "nomenclature" and items like "passthrough" and settings in the BG210. Is it as simple as plugging in another router? Somehow I think that's not the case. Can you expand on the router part?
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gr8sho
ACE - Professor
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1.5K Messages
3 years ago
@cactusjack99
Right, well in this case I'm using the term personal router as generic. You would use it in access point mode and let the BGW210 continue to work as the router. Using a personal router in access point mode simply allows it to replace the Wi-Fi section of the BGW210. It requires you only to configure the personal router as an access point and these products all have this function. It is otherwise plug and play, no passthrough mode or other fussing involved.
On the BGW210, you can leave it in default factory reset mode and then simply turn off the radios, allowing your device to handle Wi-Fi traffic. At this point I believe you should be looking at the newer Wi-Fi 6 technology for better support.
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cactusjack99
Teacher
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6 Messages
3 years ago
Thank YOU. Your post makes perfect sense, I think I'll make that a plan, following the ethernet deal.
On the ethernet subject, all I can say is WOW! That was super easy. Here's what I did to test the idea.
1 - purchased a 50' run of ethernet cable via Amazon, supposedly cat7, but the neat thing is, got it in 1 day and it was less than $20.
2 - opened the package and rolled out the ethernet on the floor from office to the U-verse receiver.
3 - unplugged the U-verse receiver from power and then plugged the ethernet into it's port on the back. In the office I unplugged the power to the WAP, and unplugged it's short ethernet cable from the back of the BG210.
4 - plugged the new ethernet cable into the back of the BG210, now the WAP is totally out of the system, and there is a direct ethernet cable from the BG210 to the back of the U-verse receiver.
5 - crossed my fingers, turned on the TV, got the much to often viewed "U-verse signal is lost" message on TV. Bent down to the receiver and turned it on. After about 30 seconds up came the U-verse moniker on the TV and a few minutes later, absolutely great picture on the TV. Tested some channel changes, yep, totally working super good.
All I can say is WOW, I know it works, and maybe I'm fooling myself, but I could swear the picture at TV was even better, and no pixilation even from rapid channel changes. Sadly, I disconnected the whole test, rolled up the cable, wife would have an absolute fit if she saw what I was doing, haahaha. It did take several retries on the WAP / receiver to get that back to previous, I was just about to reboot the DGW210, but after 3 tries it settled back in, as decent as it ever has been.
Now I have to do my attic work, drop the ethernet cable down in the walls, and then I'll be ready to again bypass the WAP for good. And I will not be sorry to see it go!
Thanks again for all your help. After I get the ethernet installed and up, I'll then decide if I need the router.
Cheers
cactus
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cactusjack99
Teacher
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6 Messages
3 years ago
Epilog: Just in case anyone wants to do this:
I finished the attic ethernet run a bit over a week ago, hint, take a leaf rake up in the attic with you, makes moving insulation out of the way easy. Always remember to walk ONLY on the wood structure, never on anything that looks like wallboard.
The hardest part was dropping the cable straight down, put a light in the place you want your cable to exit, it helps find it from above.
Ok, after I got the cable runs finished, I unplugged the WAP from power and removed it's cable that was plugged into the router, my BGW210. Plugged the new ethernet cable in the BGW210, and also into the back of the U-verse receiver. Turned on the U-verse receiver, gave it 5 minutes to think about stuff, turned on the TV, and again, instant lovely picture! What I noticed first, after the TV picture, was that in the evening, the cameras, all 6 of them, stayed on!! They have been on and happy for a solid week now. I'm calling this a major success. Just thought you may like to know how it all went.
cheers!!
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