Problem with the range of the 2Wire i38HG gateway

[tnether]

We have had AT&T U-verse in our house for almost a year now, and it worked great up until a few weeks ago.  A few weeks ago, we lost our internet service, and a technician had to come out and replace our gateway.  We have a 3 story house, with the gateway being located in the center of the bottom floor, and before this replacement, we had coverage in every room of our house.  After the repair, we recieved a new router, even though we kept the same wireless networking settings, which are specific to the serial number on the router.  Ever since that repair, the wireless coverage of our network has continuously dwindled to the point where our wireless network is limited to the room where the gateway is located.  I spent 3 hours on the phone with various tech support members a couple of days ago, and after doing a couple of tests, they concluded that everything was fine, and were convinced that the dwindling network range was due to interference from furniture and other devices, even though none of that changed between the two different routers.  The strangest part is that the SSID is broadcast and recognized throughout the entire house, but when a device tries to connect to it from anywhere but the room where the gateway is located, it attempts to connect for an extended period of time and then fails to connect, but no diagnostics are able to determine what the problem is.  I have done various changes to the settings of the router, such as changing the type of security to WEP and limiting the channel to one specific channel that I know does not have any other traffic on it, but none of it has increased the broadcast range.  I was wondering if there was anyone who has had a similar problem or has another fix I could try.  I would really prefer to not buy another router to broadcast the signal throughout the house, but it seems like that might be the best fix with the almost nonexistent customer service that I have had with this issue.  Thanks in advance for any help you can give me 

[texasguy37 ACE - Expert]

If  you think that you may have wireless interference, see the thread below:

http://forums.att.com/t5/Features-and-How-To/How-to-Minimize-Wireless-Interference/m-p/2303003

Also, since you have a 3 story house, perhaps you need more than one i38HG.  See the thread below:

http://forums.att.com/t5/Setup-and-Self-Install/Purchase-Additional-2Wire-i38HG-Units/m-p/3191743

[hpmsrm]

With your browser go to:

http://192.168.1.254/xslt

Then click on "Wireless".  At bottom of the page check the power output setting.  Maximum should be 400 mW.

If necessary.......you do not have to install another wireless router behind the RG.  Several companies...including Cisco (Linksys) and NetGear make range extenders which can boost signal strength and reception in situations like yours where the home is large and there are lots of walls to absorb signal....thus reducing strength.  In my case....our RG is at the far west end of our house.  But signal was a bit weak at the east end of the house.  My laptop was handling it OK....but my wife's iPad needed help so I installed a NetGear Range Extender near the middle of the house....perhaps favoring the east end a bit.....and now we have full strength everywhere including out on our patio at the back of the house.  Remember......the frequencies you are dealing with are very high....at 2.4 gHz frequency band.  The higher the frequencies...the greater the absorption problems.

[unrtechie]

You say this was just swapped, tells me the issue could also be the power supply.  Did they swap the power supply when they swapped out the inside unit?  Also, the inid is capable of supporting up to eight of the inside units though usually you don't need to install more than 2 - 3 depending on the layout of the house.  Though it's probably not as simple as just getting one and plugging it in because usually the inside units are supposed to have a dedicated line to feed them separate from any voice service to eliminate issues from it's signal interfering with voice service. 

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