AT&T Modem Router + Apple Airport Extreme = ?

David,

your instructions were very helpful and eveything worked as described. Unfortunately by turning off the AT&T router (3801 HGV) the signal is now weak on one end of the house but strong on the other end where the AE sits.

Thus I have now realized that what I really need is to use the Airport Extreme (early 801.11g versionM8799LL/A) as repeater of the AT&T wifi. How can that be accomplished?

I have been struggling with my ATT 2wire 3800HGV UVerse router for two days. When it was installed a year ago the tech told me he had it set up in "Bridge" mode and had disabled the ATT firewall as I had requested. That was not true. With research on the internet I was able to approximate what I wanted.Everything was fine until 2 days ago when I found a message from ATT that they had detected router behind router mode. My access to the internet was disabled. (Thanks ATT) I found the material I used to set up ATT's 2 wire the last time and implemented the solution again. I've been searching for a more robust resolution to the router behind router conundrum. There is no clear step by step recipe for disabling the ATT firewall and turning the 2 wire modem/router into a modem only. This "Community Accepted" solution is superior to most. My concern is that step 3 says to restart your router (in my case an Airport Extreme. But the ATT 2 wire is also my router so the situation gets cloudy) Nothing further is done to the state of activity of my router (2 wire, AE?) until step 8 when I am instructed to, once again, restart my router. Sounds like nitpicking doesn't it? I'm really not up for getting myself into a network problem I cannot solve, especially if I lose internet access in the process. I worked with Technical Writing all of my life and I'm disappointed in the quality of instruction I see when the going gets complex. That is all just an observation. I'd like to know if something between step 3 and step 8 turns off my Mac AE router. It would be nice to see this post edited to say do this step and your (CIsco, Apple, etc ) router will power off. You will restart it in a following step. Oh, as an aside, I've discovered that a power loss to the router, ATT or Apple or both can reset your previous preference setting on the ATT router and precipitate the router behind router crisis. My routers are powereed from a battery backup which malfunctioned during a power outage. My system was not in use but the routers lost power and that was enough to dig the hole I long to escape. Too bad ATT can't afford flash memory in the router that they burden us with. 

In those instructions above, the 2Wire router is always referred to as "2Wire router", and your own personal router (in your case, Airport Extreme) is always referred to as "your router".

There is a very good reason for restarting your personal router in step 8 even though nothing has been done to it.  It is because it will get a different WAN IP address via DHCP in that step.

Those instructions are originally posted here:

http://forums.att.com/t5/Residential-Gateway/U-verse-for-BUSINESS-2Wire-3600HGV-bridge-mode-or-another-AT-amp/m-p/2707755#M182

and have been used by many people successfully.

In addition, the 2Wire router does indeed save all configuration information to NVRAM, which is preserved on power cycle.  You will not lose the configuration solely because of a power interruption to the 2Wire.

this was very helpful but now i don't seem to be able to use the airport tower to connect devices like sonos, apple tv etc. which were previously connected to the 2wire router.  any suggestions? also the IP address doesn't seem to be sticking. i have to go and renew lease each time i restart comp. any solutions to that? 

This is the same thing that's been driving me insane. I think it's because you're left with two network subnets when you do a DMZ passthrough. I really want to be able to use my airport extreme because it's a better router with a better firewall. 

Thanks for asking this, Uverse was installed 36 hours ago and we're having the same up and down issues trying to stream Netflix even thought the Uverse service is supposed to be 5X the speed of the AT&T DSL it replaces (and when I speed test we are hitting the 18mbps). We have the Motorola NVG589 router and I'm going to try the directions below and use our Airport Extreme as the only wireless network. I'm hoping the problem is that the the Motorola wireless network is interferring with my current Airport wireless network. I'll post an update afterward.

Cheers,

J

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@SomeJoe7777 wrote:

In those instructions above, the 2Wire router is always referred to as "2Wire router", and your own personal router (in your case, Airport Extreme) is always referred to as "your router".

There is a very good reason for restarting your personal router in step 8 even though nothing has been done to it.  It is because it will get a different WAN IP address via DHCP in that step.

Those instructions are originally posted here:

http://forums.att.com/t5/Residential-Gateway/U-verse-for-BUSINESS-2Wire-3600HGV-bridge-mode-or-another-AT-amp/m-p/2707755#M182

 

and have been used by many people successfully.

 

In addition, the 2Wire router does indeed save all configuration information to NVRAM, which is preserved on power cycle.  You will not lose the configuration solely because of a power interruption to the 2Wire.

 

 

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Hi SomeJoe:

Your instructions were excellent as far as they went. I can configure my Airport as a standalone router outside the RG. I've logged it in as a DHCP client, given my router it's own range of non-conflicting addresses, and set up the ATT RG's port DMZ as per your instructions. 

In my case, from what you said, the ATT wireless receiver needs to be on the ATT WAP (WAP, Pace RG, DVR, separate receiver, UPS), it's one of all separate ATT pieces. So my question is, how to configure the Airport Extreme (router+WAP) so it fits in the IP address plan and doesn't get interfered with. The Airport reports conflicts with the IP's. Do I need to then restart the RG? 

In my perfect set up, I would like to set all my equipment (wired/wireless) use my wireless router and all ATT equipment (wired or woreless) use the router IP's, which I think is the same thing you said. I think that two separate ranges of IP (172.16.1.1-x, and 192.168.1.1-x) due to the two separate routers, Is this right? 

You didn't address the issue of conflicting IP's. Since each router is giving out its own series, there would be a conflict. Another ATT fellow on this thread insicated that the ATT WAP could be turned off. I don't see how this would be possible with this equipment scenario that I've got. Do you agree? 

I'm at a dillema on how to proceed further. 

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@DavidCS wrote:

Hi cadjak,

 

I actually use a router behind my router to boost wireless performance, so the Airport Extreme Router may help out. It should be a simple configuration with the Airport utility. You can configure it multiple ways, but I would suggest using the Airport Extreme as a router, which can easily be done by going through the Aiport utility and choosing to create a new network.

 

Also, a few changes you want to make on our router after you get your Airport up and running is disabling the wireless so you do not run into wireless conflicts and letting your Airport handle the main routing processes (this may not be necessary).

 

To disable the wireless:

1. With a computer connected directly to the AT&T Router go to http://192.168.1.254
2. Select Settings at the top
3. Select the sub-tab LAN
4. Select the sub-tab Wireless (it may ask for a password, this will be labeled as the system password or device access code on the side of the AT&T router).
5. On Wireless Interface, click the drop down and select Disabled.
6. Save

To let your Airport handle the routing:

1. With a computer connected directly to the AT&T Router go to http://192.168.1.254
2. Select Settings at the top
3. Select the sub-tab Firewall
4. Select the sub-tabl Applications, Pinholes and DMZ
5. Where it says Select a computer, choose your Airport Extreme
6. Scroll down to the bottom and choose Allow all applications (DMZplus mode)
7. Save

Hope this helps.

-David T

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I have a question about the settings. If I disable the wireless portion of the ATT system (I have 4 ATT supplied components the Pace RG, the Cisco WAP, the DVR, the Wireless Receiver), the WAP won't I lose connectivity to the receiver?

Hi @henry-in-florida,

It will not. When you disable the wireless, it just disables the wireless broadcast on the router. The WAP will still be connected via Ethernet cable to the RG and will still broadcast the wireless signal to the receiver.

Hope this helps.

-David T