Bridge AT&T Netgear 7550 & Upgrade Router?

[mike2874]

I have AT&T DLS and have the fastest speed for my area but it's only a measly 6mbps. We are supposed to get U-verse at some point which will allow me to have faster speeds but could be months or longer.

I'm using AT&T's Router/Modem Netgear 7550 http://www.att.com/equipment/accessory-details/?q_categoryid=cat2020062&q_sku=sku5520229&q_manufacturer=&q_model=

I don't think it's the greatest (in fact it's kind of crappy) but it is what it is. We have probably have around 12 devices connected to it half via Ethernet & half Wireless but not all used at the same time. Most of our internet use is browsing net but also streaming Netflix, Directv On-Demand, etc.

I'm not too technical with Routers so I apologize if this is a dumb question.

Do you think bridging the Netgear 7550 and adding something like a Netgear R7000 used as a router would improve performance any... or would I just be wasting my money?

 

[bill001g]

Your poor performance is likely you using up all the bandwidth. That router can easily handle 6m. If you were doing something like transferring files between devices inside your house maybe.

Still the r7000 is a high end router most the advanced feature will do nothing if your nics can not also support it.

First you would need to have 802.11ac in the first place. Then you need 3 antenna and most end device have only 2 and some only 1. On top of all this the way they get 600m on the 2.4g band is not standard and is not supported by most devices.

You would likely be best off buying a 802.11ac router that claims 1200...ie 300+900 and then you still need 802.11ac nics to be able to use the 900 part.

Since you are going to upgrade I would delay any purchase. You can then hope the uverse router they give you is better. ATT tends to not allow you to replace uverse routers and you are very limited in the ability to put them in bridge mode.

 

[mike2874]

Thanks for replying! I was hoping you would say yes it would help since I've had this on going issue I've never been able to figure out.

There is one thing I have going on though that has nothing to do with 6 Mbps speeds. I have a desktop computer connected via Ethernet setting right beside the router. This computer loads web pages fine and maybe 5 minutes later can't load them, and then a minute or so later can load them again... goes on constantly never changes It's like it looses it's connection to the modem.

Just to make things more confusing it only does it with their (AT&T's) Netgear 7550 but not with their Pace 4111N. Now you may ask why not just use the Pace well mainly because I have to constantly unplug & plug back in because it looses the connection. Supposedly the Netgear is supposed to be the better router.

Do you think it could be the modem in the Netgear 7550 that's causing this or something else?

Also there's this. I mainly use my iPad in the basement with the router upstairs. I'm not sure if the slow web page loading is from not getting a strong enough signal or something else. Sometimes web pages load slow upstairs too so it's hard for me to determine what's going on. AT&T checked my service and said I'm getting the speed I should be and verified by online speed test.

Do you think this is just the slow 6 Mbps speeds?

 

[bill001g]

These type of problems are hard to say. It could be the router, I suppose you could check for a firmware update.

What you need to do it when it is not responding on the internet see if you can ping the router or open the config page on the router. If you can get to the router but can not get the internet it would be more likely it is the modem part having the issues which would not help if you put it in bridge mode to the new router.

Wireless will not have a lot of difference, the new router mostly just has support for 802.11ac but will run almost the same on the 2.4g 802.11n. I would do the standard change the wireless channels and set the channel width to 20mhz and see if it helps.

 

[mike2874]

These type of problems are hard to say. It could be the router, I suppose you could check for a firmware update.

What you need to do it when it is not responding on the internet see if you can ping the router or open the config page on the router. If you can get to the router but can not get the internet it would be more likely it is the modem part having the issues which would not help if you put it in bridge mode to the new router.

Wireless will not have a lot of difference, the new router mostly just has support for 802.11ac but will run almost the same on the 2.4g 802.11n. I would do the standard change the wireless channels and set the channel width to 20mhz and see if it helps.

Ok the next time it does this I wil try getting to the router config page. If I can and you think it's the modem maybe one of these would work with the 7550 http://www.netgear.com/home/products/networking/dsl-modems-routers/DM111PSP.aspx

What does this mean though if I can't get to router config page either?

Already checked for newer firmware and none. Also tried changing wireless but no change and guess I don't know how to change channel width to 20mhz.

 

[bill001g]

If you can not get to the configuration page it generally means the router crashed. If that happens it generally means you have a hardware failure with the box.

Not sure if pays to buy just a DSL modem. A router/modem combo cost about the same.

 

[mike2874]

Ok I'll see what happens I've went through quite a few Of AT&T's Netgear 7550 & their Pace 4111N so don't think getting another one is worth it. They usually just quit working altogether or something else happens where they get to a crawl.

I've long suspected it's the modems in their routers that's the issue but I guess I should know shortly by following your suggestions. Thanks!

 

[mike2874]

Ok verified that when I can't load web pages I can get to my router config page... so must be modem. Also heard from an AT&T tech that they might not go ahead with changing DSL to U-verse in my town because our lines ar so old.

If I buy the Netgear modem I listed above do you think will AT&T or Netgear will help me set it up?

 

[bill001g]

Generally they will tell you any setting you need to know. Some use ppp and other use vci numbers. They many times have the directly on the web site but I suspect this is one of the things the level 1 tech actually do know how to do.

 

[mike2874]

Thanks Bill!