UVerse Wifi loses IP addresses!!

[gehogan3]

Just the other day my Uverse router started screwing up my wifi connections.  The connections will suddenly stop working, when you try to renew your IP address the router does not respond.

The only solution is to power cycle the router!!!!

THis has happened 5 times in the past two days.

Did ATT just push a new release out to the Sacramento/Rocklin area?  If so...PLEASE ROLL IT BACK!!!!

[stl1955]

I am having the same problem in St. Louis. This happened with a firmware update about 2 weeks ago and found a thread that said to change some setting to disabled.  Did that and it worked on one of the wireless laptop connections. However, I have to renew my IP address (take over 1/2 hour) every time I log on. Now this morning it keeps losing connection and every time I have to reboot I have to renew the IP address AGAIN!  There must have been ANOTHER update because I lost all my DVR recordings AGAIN yesterday.  As bad as Charter Communications was, I am about to go back -- paying almost $200 a month for this trouble is beginning to be NOT WORTH IT!

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Never had that problem here in going on 4 years.

Did you enable MAC filtering from the UV RG for your Wireless?

http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_2_1a

And try changing your NAT/IP Allocations to Private/Fixed (based on device IPs).

http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_2_4

Could y'all elaborate further on your setups?

[stl1955]

Changing to the fixed IP Address seems to have worked. I never had any problems until the firmware update 2-3 weeks ago. I have had U-Verse for a little over a year.  I just wish that when they are going to do a firmware update that may change settings that they give us a warning and tell us where to look to fix possible problems.

Thanks for your help!  Hope this "sticks" and the next firmware update doesn't change anything again! :-)

[sar_1]

In Kansas City and the same thing is happening to me. Try to get on phone with ATT and that is a joke. I am very frustrated as I can't use laptops. My whole family is hooked to laptops...3 going...iphone drops it too. This just started. I have had Uverse for well over a year and NOTHING has been changed on the computers but something is up with the wifi. ATT people kept saying it is my computers. It seems like to me that the router is not working right. They finally heard me and "restarted it from their end". It worked for a day and I am back to again. HELP. ready to go back to Time Warner. Oh and doing speed tests I am way off what I should be for the price of the package I pay. 

[stl1955]

This suggestion above helped me --- I'm in the same boat as you, no problem until 2-3 weeks ago when there was apparently some kind of firmware update (I read it on one of the forums here -- was not notified by AT&T). I finally got my daughter's laptop working, but my work laptop kept making me repair and searched FOREVER (about 1/2 hour) for an IP address and them kept dropping connection.  I set to a specific IP address, ran repair and then did a restart and it seems to be working now.  We'll see for how long though. 

Try this suggestion from above poster:

And try changing your NAT/IP Allocations to Private/Fixed (based on device IPs).

http://192.168.1.254/xslt?PAGE=C_2_4

Good Luck!

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

YW...hope it fixes things up for you.  I was in Wireless Purgatory for quite a while, so I learned quickly.

Your settings should stay through any upgrades, unless you do a complete reset/press the tiny button on the back.

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stl1955 wrote:

Changing to the fixed IP Address seems to have worked. I never had any problems until the firmware update 2-3 weeks ago. I have had U-Verse for a little over a year.  I just wish that when they are going to do a firmware update that may change settings that they give us a warning and tell us where to look to fix possible problems.

Thanks for your help!  Hope this "sticks" and the next firmware update doesn't change anything again! :-)

---

[STLMom]

I'm in St. Louis and can't get my Wi-fi to work consistently either.  Uverse tech came out but just switched out my router.  Still not working.  I tried the link above but it asked me for a password which I don't know where to find.  The Uverse Tech didn't leave a box behind and it sounds like the password was on something in the box.  How do I get my password?

[randyl]

[stl1955]

I do still have to do the repair to find the IP address I set for my laptop. It only takes about 10-15 minutes now instead of 30 or more but it appears that's the best I can do.  Very frustrating.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Look for a sticker on the bottom side of your UV RG...password is there (see photo below). 

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STLMom wrote:

I'm in St. Louis and can't get my Wi-fi to work consistently either.  Uverse tech came out but just switched out my router.  Still not working.  I tried the link above but it asked me for a password which I don't know where to find.  The Uverse Tech didn't leave a box behind and it sounds like the password was on something in the box.  How do I get my password?

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[titleist76]

I am having the same problem and have been for the last few months. It's very irritating having to go to the router and shut it down and lose the television, phone and internet for a few minutes.  

On the link above, can I choose a few devices (the ones that always drop) to a fixed IP and leave the rest to automatic?  Or do they all have to be fixed?  

TIA!  

[marcindublin]

Titleist, I had this problem as well. I called Tech Support, they switched out the RG and the problem has not reoccured.

Sometimes, the obvious solution is the right one.

[titleist76]

They switched out the entire router?  How long of a tech support call did that take to get approved?  HA!

[AteeNteeTechSup…]

Okay so if you actually want to fix your problem, sure you can set one device to use a static IP, but it's silly that you should have to do that.  Look on your 2wire box that Att Uverse gave you, and type that IP address into a browser.  Near the bottom of the page, you'll see a hyperlink for Wireless.  Click that, and change your Authentication Type to WPA-2 PSK (AES) and boom, your done.  You won't drop anymore.  Also, be sure that wifi protected setup is disabled. 

I've had ATT do this and that and troubleshoot and spent hours on the phone, and they never get it right.  Even if you replace the Residential Gateway, if you don't change that authentication type it own't matter.  My laptop would drop all the time, my Android device would work for a couple days then it would just stop...I could see it in the list of wireless networks available but it would just drop the IP address and put me in a disconnecting loop.  Got sick of Att tech support wasting my time.  Finally found a good post somewhere and i'm passing on the info. 

[marnixava]

AteeNtee said setting your the authentication type to "WPA-2 PSK (AES)" would prevent you from being dropped.   Hasn't worked for me.

Now I'm not sure what folks mean by getting dropped or by "drop the IP address", but it makes me think it's the same problem I've had for months and that is that after a 2-10 days or so, any device that reboots or is powered up fresh, is seemingly unable to connect to the wireless device (no notice of incorrect authentication or incorrect password), but the device keeps waiting to get an IP address, which it never gets.  Changing the authentication type made no difference for me.

When the trouble comes in, devices that were connected seem to continue working so long as they have remained up and awake.  On my U-verse isntallation (TV and Internet only -- no phone), devices which are connected via wires to the ports on the back of the i38HG also continue to work, so this appears to be a problem only with devices that are connected wirelessly and don't yet have an IP address.  Using a network sniffier/analyzer, it seems that the wireless devices think they have connected OK, but the i38HG wireless access point does not.  The wireless device then sends out repeated requests for an IP address and those requests are ignored.  I am not an expert on network packets, but I was a DHCP and DNS administrator in a large company for many years before I retired.  In between DHCP requests for an IP address, I see lots of EAPOL (Extensible Authentication Protocol) "key" packets which I know little about, but believe are probably related to authenticating the connection (verifying that the correct wirless password is used).  When this trouble is in, a device thinks it is already connected and authenticated OK, else it would not be asking for an IP address.  So the device, say a windows laptop, will continue broadcasting out DHCP DISCOVER or DHCP REQUEST packets to get an IP address, but never get a response and eventually give up.  You can at that point configure the device with a static IP address (one that is not being used by any other device on your local network) and your device will think it has successfully connected.  But things still don't work at that point and most devices will then drop the connection after a few minutes.

I called AT&T and talked to 3 tech support people about this yesterday until I reached their highest level of support (at least according to the last person I talked to).  I took just a little over an hour.  Not one seemed to understand what I'm talking about.  From the questions and answers, it seemd like the last tech did not know how DHCP works.  The 2nd and 3rd techs did at least know what an IP address is, though only the last tech knew that you needed one in order to connect to the internet.  They are sending someone out today.  They'll probably give me a new i38HG wireless access point, but I have doubts that it will fix things.  I have doubts because I've read of so many others having this trouble even after their wireless access point has been replaced.  I think the trouble is probably in firmware.  It seems to me that the trouble is more likely to happen the more devices and the more varied devices that you have, especially if you take some of those devices out of the house where they connect to different access points.  I have perhaps 15 devices, from Linux laptops, to Macs, iPhones, iPads, BluRay players, TVs, and more.

For the record, my i38HG wireless access point is on Hardware Version 2700-000679-004 and Software Version 6.3.7.37-wifi.tm .  The i3812V gateway outside the house is on Hardware Version 000705-004 and Software Version 6.3.37-enh.tm .

Incidentally, I don't know about anyone else, but I find the web managing software for the i38HG sorely lacking in functionality.  Most glaringly, there seems to be no way to save or restore your settings.  But I have many other issues with that software.  I can get around all this by simply using my own wireless router connected to the back of the i38HG and setting the i38HG to DMZplus for that connection.  But I'd like to see AT&T fix this and I'm kind of curious how long it will take.

[saladmike]

I have had problems connecting to the internet since I recieved a new 3800HGV-B modem when I switched to Uverse from SBC. It looks like every 13 -14 days, when my DHCP lease is up, I can connect to the modem - and have an IP address but the modem will not let me access the internet. I can power down then power up the modem and this fixes the issue. The only problem is that a also have to power cycle the Uverse tv unit for it to function properly. I connected (via wire) a wireless router to the ATT modem, connected all devices to 2nd router, now if I cycle power to the 2nd router the problem goes away. For two weeks. Things that make you go hmmmm.

[howlinwaters]

Man...THANK YOU SO MUCH for taking the time to put a REAL SOLUTION on this page.

I followed the steps you laid out exactly as you instructed and my system is working great - no more dropping internet connection.

Thanks again!

[Ellisonx]

What marnixava described is exactly the issue I've been having since my RG was checnged out two weeks ago. A tech DID come and DID change out the RG (I'm now on my 3rd one) and the problem continues. Another tech is scheduled to come out on Friday. What will happen is...the tech will give me yet another of these lousy RGs, and the problem will STILL exist. If that's the case, I'm hooking up my own wireless router to the RG, and demanding ATT reduce my internet bill since they can't reliably provide wireless in the year 2013.

[antennaman1969]

I use a separate router behind my i38hg.  I set it in DMZ plus, and do all the tweaking on my router.  One LAN port connected to the WAN port on my router,  and another LAN port for the DVR.  I have 1 or 2 cheaper wireless adapters/cards.  They are sometimes finicky on getting the DHCP assignment to play along with my computers.  Those IP's get hard-coded.  I leave it like that for a while; if I have to reboot or do some maintenance, then I'll try the automatic settings on the wireless adapter properties page.  If it cooperates, fine.  If not, back to hard-code, and leave it.  If you have different types of devices on your network (windows/mac, android, wi-fi printers, etc.),  the 2-WIRE  RG will sometimes gag on the different configurations.  I now have no problems with the RG because it is not doing any real routing anymore.