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Omieurhomie1's profile

Tutor

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3 Messages

Tuesday, January 15th, 2019 6:43 AM

Possible to Remove AT&T Router in Fiber Connection and Just Use My Own?

Hello, everyone. New to AT&T. Got Fiber 1000 Mbps. Solid speed, but when the technician came to install it, I asked him if I could use my own router. He said "yeah, of course." Okay. Except he wired the primary OTN connection to his own AT&T router and simply connected my router to the AT&T router via ethernet. In other words, he used his garbage router anyway, and then reduced my Netgear Nighthawk X10 to basically just an ethernet switch.

My Nighthawk is a far superior router, and it has Plex installed on it, with all the right links and hook ups to make a perfect streamable media library throughout my house. It is also linked to my cloud drive which has unlimited storage and has all my media on it, about 30 Terabytes of data. It is all set up perfectly, but everything stutters now that my connected hard drives have to go through my router first, then AT&T's router. It is really irritating.

Customer support does not seem to understand the difference between Fiber and U-verse internet, and they keep telling me that I can simply use my own router instead. It does not work. The fiber cable plugs into an "OTN" port on the AT&T router and I don't know if my router can do that, or if it could, what settings I would need to change. Simply plugging into my router as primary results in no internet, even after rebooting everything. Nor is plugging my equipment into the AT&T router instead of Nighthawk an option - that router does not have the small but really nice to have features and settings that I took a long time to suit my preferences.
Is it possible to have fiber connect to my main router without the need for the AT&T router? If so, what settings would I need to change. Thank you so much.
P.S. I hope I didn't sound pretentious with the description of my router. It is highly overpriced and although it really is the best router I have used, it is not at all worth the money (I didn't buy it). Also I am aware I can set up plex not on routers. But this router is pre-cooked and ready and I would like to use it.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Scholar

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117 Messages

5 years ago

Hi there; if you are only using AT&T's internet and not their TV or home phone service there is a way to bypass their Gateway and use your own equipment.  I haven't done this myself so do it at your own risk.  You will need to visit DSL reports website and navigate to the Uverse forum and search for "bypass hardware list" and look through that.  Hope that helps.

 

As my thoughts has suggested you can use your nighthawk by configuring the AT&T gateway in DMZ plus or IP passthrough mode ( depending on which one they gave you)  but do be aware that if you are using the AT&T Pace 5268AC there has been an ongoing issue for about two months where a firmware update causes speeds to be throttled drastically when used in DMZ plus mode.  I am currently using their Arris BGW210 and to be honest it works fine for me; I am pulling 700 to 800 Mbps via wifi near the gateway and around 500 plus downstairs and several feet away.

Tutor

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3 Messages

5 years ago

There is no supported not using ATT gateway...

You may use your equipment behind the gateway as either a switch, WAP (LAN to LAN) or in a psedu bridge using either DMZ+ or IP Passthrough (LAN to WAN) depending on model of gateway.

Is there a non-supported way of not using the ATT gateway? It makes no sense that I have to use a router that delivers much slower wireless speeds than my own router did when I was with spectrum cable. The wired download is the same with both companies, but the wifi speeds have huge differences. I get about 300 mbps down/up from one floor away. I used to get 600 mbps down with spectrum using wifi, from the same spot. 

I was assured that I could use my own router before I signed up, and there is no way they thought I meant that I wanted to use two routers, the secondary one being the fastest router available.

Associated Member

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248 Messages

5 years ago

There's no way to use your own router in place of the AT&T one. Although I would recommend against using IP passthough or DMZ+ currently, instead, set up the nighthawk as a switch only, disable DHCP on it, and then disable wifi on the AT&T gateway, let the AT&T equipment handle DHCP.

At least until the issues with DMZ+ are figured out, since currently, its been causing slow HSIA speeds

Tutor

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2 Messages

4 years ago

You most certainly can bypass the AT&T RG. Lots of people have theirs sitting powered off in a closet somewhere. It just takes a bit of juryrigging. Google is your friend on this one, but you're probably looking for a "dumb switch bypass".

 

That said, bypassing the RG only takes that one piece out of the picture.

Contributor

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2 Messages

4 years ago

I'm surprised that AT&T doesn't allow you to do this.  I took a look at the suggestions above and those seem to be programmer challenges.  I'm just a regular dude to wants to connect my superior mesh network directly to the ONT.  I lived in New York and had only a verizon fios gigabyte connection (no phone or tv bundle) and they allowed me to do this and save a few bucks a month for an unnecessary piece of hardware to slow things down.

New Member

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11 Messages

I had asked questions regarding this prior to subscribing to ATT's 1Gig Fiber service and was assured I would have no limitations when using my router behind their gateway configured in DMZ+ mode. Of course, this was sales I was speaking with. After using it for several months I have learned the hard way that DMZ+ doesn't provide you with much functionality except allowing more protocols/ports to pass through the PACE's firewall so your router can handle it. It still blocks some protocols/ports, but allows you more control from a firewall perspective. However, if you try to do any special from your router like NATing or VLANs, the gateway gets in the way or you'll get a significant drop in performance. If you have advanced home network requirements, you might want to check & double check to make sure that your requirements are met.

I sure hope they change their hardware configuration sometime soon. However, I doubt they will since it costs money. I'm just waiting for my 1 year contract to expire so I can transfer over to Google.

ACE - Guru

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9.9K Messages

If you have advanced home network skills and equipment then there are ways to bypass the gateway. If you don't but are capable of following a small list of simple instructions there's still a way.

Award for Community Excellence Achiever*
*I am not an AT&T employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

New Member

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11 Messages

Will I still be able to use my Cable TV services as well as phone via this method?

ACE - Guru

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9.9K Messages

If the phone and TV are served through the AT&T gateway then you'd need to look to the more complex methods as the simple way is primarily for Internet-only accounts. The more complex procedures are outlined on numerous websites that you can find if you search for bypass at&t gateway.

Award for Community Excellence Achiever*
*I am not an AT&T employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.

New Member

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11 Messages

Thanks. I haven't seen one yet that explicitly provides on how to bypass it while including the other services. However I haven't look that hard yet.

New Member

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1 Message

3 years ago

I have had ATT GigaPower for a while however the gateway that was installed was not a fiber gateway. The question I have is the following “did I actually access the full fiber power that I was paying for?”

Scholar

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3.7K Messages

3 years ago

If you have GigaPower then you have a Gateway that provides the full speed.

What Gateway do you have?

You can check the speed to your Gateway using this web link or by using the free AT&T Smart Home Manager app on a smartphone.

https://myhomenetwork.att.com/

You will need to provide your AT&T ID and password. This speed test is only started on the web page the actual speed tests runs from the AT&T network to your AT&T Gateway and will show your current speeds.

Dave

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