# ATT U-Verse, Any good for gaming?



## Asylum (Sep 11, 2011)

Thinking about ordering ATT U-Verse and would like all the feed back from members here i can get.

I want to know if there internet is any good for gaming.

I have cable but it drops connections and packet loss all the time.

Had them out to the house many times and still the same crap.


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## erocker (Sep 11, 2011)

U-Verse works fine for gaming. I had the same issue as you with packet loss with a cable modem. I fixed it by disabling the modem's firewall.


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## STCNE (Sep 11, 2011)

ATT is not very gamer friendly, they attempt to block gaming on our connection, their reason being that we need to get a higher end service if we want to game, or use a router for that matter. I would try a different company if at all possible. What are you using right now?


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## Asylum (Sep 11, 2011)

erocker said:


> U-Verse works fine for gaming. I had the same issue as you with packet loss with a cable modem. I fixed it by disabling the modem's firewall.



How do you do that?


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## PVTCaboose1337 (Sep 11, 2011)

Did they give you the modem router combo?  Are you using your own?  Depends on what setup you have.


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## Asylum (Sep 11, 2011)

I bought my own...Its a motorola surfboard #SB5120

I have no router...Just straight modem to computer.


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## TheMailMan78 (Sep 11, 2011)

I had U-verse for years. Its fine for gaming......when it runs. I will never have ANYTHING AT&T again.


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## erocker (Sep 11, 2011)

Asylum said:


> I bought my own...Its a motorola surfboard #SB5120
> 
> I have no router...Just straight modem to computer.



Yeah, it's has no router features so that is not the problem, unless the modem is just somehow defective. It is an older modem.


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## bpgt64 (Sep 12, 2011)

I have used ATT Uverse for 2+ years now, had no problems with sustained connections to games like WoW, Battle.net, EA Servers and the like.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 12, 2011)

It all depends on your area and how AT&T is there.  I've got the 24Mb/s serve at my office and it is great, extremely stable and works wonders for gaming.  The TPU Minecraft server is hosted on that connection as well as a few other 24/7 gaming and web servers that I run.

As for them blocking features on the lower connection speeds, that isn't true at all.  They tend to frown on hosting 24/7 servers of any kind on their lower end connection, and do block some of the common incoming ports, but that has no effect on traditional gaming.  And they never care about using a router, even on their lowest connection.  They just won't support a user installed router, and they won't give you one of their routers unless you get a higher end service.  However, if you have the know how you can install a router yourself and they don't care, but if your connection has issues, they will come in remove the router and connect the service to a single PC and get it working, you then have to reconnect the router yourself.  They will not support user equipment, they won't touch it, except to unhook it when there is an issue.


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## Asylum (Sep 12, 2011)

Yea the modem is not my problem.

My internet slows down and the modem drops out and resets itself over and over at peak hours.

It works pretty good except at the times i want to game.

How can i get the cable company to fix it?

I had them over here twice in 2 weeks and all they do is check the line and modem even after i tell them what the problem is.


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## STCNE (Sep 13, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> It all depends on your area and how AT&T is there.  I've got the 24Mb/s serve at my office and it is great, extremely stable and works wonders for gaming.  The TPU Minecraft server is hosted on that connection as well as a few other 24/7 gaming and web servers that I run.
> 
> As for them blocking features on the lower connection speeds, that isn't true at all.  They tend to frown on hosting 24/7 servers of any kind on their lower end connection, and do block some of the common incoming ports, but that has no effect on traditional gaming.  And they never care about using a router, even on their lowest connection.  They just won't support a user installed router, and they won't give you one of their routers unless you get a higher end service.  However, if you have the know how you can install a router yourself and they don't care, but if your connection has issues, they will come in remove the router and connect the service to a single PC and get it working, you then have to reconnect the router yourself.  They will not support user equipment, they won't touch it, except to unhook it when there is an issue.



I've had the support people tell me that gaming is not supported on our service, and we've had our connection shut off a few times for different reasons. Once when I tried OpenDNS, and when I was using my own modem and router. They called and asked why they could not access their modem and then told us not that they would provide no customer service at all until we switched back. In the area I live they are known for using tactics that probably are not legal to make people upgrade.

One very common thing that I have heard many friends/neighbors complain about is that their favorite TV channels are removed from their service and they are told they would have to upgrade to Uverse to watch them, but yet everyone else still gets the station on the standard service.


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## newtekie1 (Sep 13, 2011)

STCNE said:


> I've had the support people tell me that gaming is not supported on our service, and we've had our connection shut off a few times for different reasons. Once when I tried OpenDNS, and when I was using my own modem and router. *They called and asked why they could not access their modem and then told us not that they would provide no customer service at all until we switched back.* In the area I live they are known for using tactics that probably are not legal to make people upgrade.
> 
> One very common thing that I have heard many friends/neighbors complain about is that their favorite TV channels are removed from their service and they are told they would have to upgrade to Uverse to watch them, but yet everyone else still gets the station on the standard service.



Correct, if you use your own equipment they won't give you any support, I believe I said that.

Although that is just related to the router only in my area, the modem you buy yourself anyway, so it is yours.  You might buy it from them, but you are buying it, so it is yours to do what you want with.  And you don't have to buy it from them, I've used modems bought of ebay plenty of times with AT&T.

As for turning the connection off, the only time that happens around here is when they recieve a DMCA letter because you've been pirating.


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## lilhasselhoffer (Sep 13, 2011)

AT&T can, being entirely fair in my assessment, go give a berreta an blow job.


You may have picked up on some anger there.  It's not for nothing.

AT&T offered excellent phone and data services in one area I have lived.  The customer support was no worse than competitors, and they were generally fairly priced.  The catch is that I only lived there for a handfull of years.  I spent most of my life elsewhere, where AT&T service generally sucks hard.

I have been the victim of price gouging, misbilling, poor service, inept and hateful customer support, and contractual obligations that are insane on the best of days.

In short, ask your neighbors.  If the local AT&T service is good, chances are they will have it.  If not, avoid that turd like the plague.  They have areas of good service and support, but far more that are a heinous mistake.


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## ERazer (Sep 13, 2011)

used to have them and no issues, played WAR and TF2 back in the day i only switch cuz need a faster dowload

tho my bro the lives next city over me had really lousy line and they couldnt figure whats wrong, lilhasselhoffer might be right on the area thing


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## Asylum (Sep 14, 2011)

Thanks for the comments guys.

Anyone else have 2 cents?


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 14, 2011)

STCNE said:


> ATT is not very gamer friendly, they attempt to block gaming on our connection, their reason being that we need to get a higher end service if we want to game, or use a router for that matter. I would try a different company if at all possible. What are you using right now?



the Uverse receiver is the router, you have to configure it properly for DX7,8,9 games


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## mastrdrver (Sep 14, 2011)

I've been using ATT DSL (not U-verse) for 4+ years. Never once had problems with dropped games etc. I have lower pings then the guys I play with even though they are hundreds of miles closer to the servers.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 14, 2011)

mastrdrver said:


> I've been using ATT DSL (not U-verse) for 4+ years. Never once had problems with dropped games etc. I have lower pings then the guys I play with even though they are hundreds of miles closer to the servers.



Uverse is the same as reg DSL, just a different Router is used to control TV and Internet


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## Mussels (Sep 14, 2011)

i do find that a lot of the time when people complain about their ISP, its their networking equipment  or setup at fault.

perhaps look at a new modem/router before swapping ISP's?


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 14, 2011)

Uverse is working here fine, altho i noticed that the receiver downstairs is a lil slower at transmitting than the one upstairs


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## newtekie1 (Sep 14, 2011)

eidairaman1 said:


> Uverse is the same as reg DSL, just a different Router is used to control TV and Internet



That depends on your area as well.  U-Verse is _supposed_ to be Fiber-to-the-Cabinet while regular DSL is Fiber-to-the-Node.

What this means is that in normal DSL, fiber is run to the main node(typcially refered to as the "Cental Office") and then copper is run from there to the boxes in each neighborhood, and copper is run from the boxes in each neighborhood to the home.  With FTTC, fiber is run from the main node to the boxes in each neighborhood, then copper is run from the box in the neighborhood to the home.

FTTC gives more stable connections as well as faster available speeds.  That is why with traditional DSL, the distance from the "Central Office" or main node affects what speeds you can receive.  Because the farther a DSL signal travels over copper the weaker it gets and the lower speed it can handle.  With FTTC, the fiber brings the signal right up to the box withing a yards of the home, so there is no issue with the signal degrading and not being able to handle higher speeds.

Now, after saying all that, I did say that it depends on your area as well.  AT&T hasn't run fiber everywhere they sell U-Verse, so in a lot of cases they are using the traditional FTTN DSL and calling it U-Verse.:shadedshu


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## mastrdrver (Sep 15, 2011)

No one can get fiber to the home because of the FCC. Sprint and ATT tried this back 10 years (or so) ago but the cable companies (at the time) whine to the FCC about competition. So no one is getting fiber to the home. Not even Google (if you read the details, you'll see this even though all the articles about Google leave it out).

I have to check, but U-Verse (if I remember right) is all FTTC which is why it is not available in some locations. It probably is also why some of the higher bandwidth DSL from ATT is not available to some.


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## Mussels (Sep 15, 2011)

mastrdrver said:


> No one can get fiber to the home because of the FCC. Sprint and ATT tried this back 10 years (or so) ago but the cable companies (at the time) whine to the FCC about competition. So no one is getting fiber to the home. Not even Google (if you read the details, you'll see this even though all the articles about Google leave it out).
> 
> I have to check, but U-Verse (if I remember right) is all FTTC which is why it is not available in some locations. It probably is also why some of the higher bandwidth DSL from ATT is not available to some.



interesting. they're actually rolling out FTTH (called the NBN) here in AU.


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## mrw1986 (Sep 15, 2011)

I've had U-Verse for over 2 years and my brother has had it for over 3 years. Neither of us have had a single issue with it. I've never had an outage (except when the powerlines got knocked down by a tree) and my ping is always among the lowest compared to other people. I had cable prior and it was a nightmare...


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## Altered (Sep 15, 2011)

Asylum said:


> Yea the modem is not my problem.
> 
> My internet slows down and the modem drops out and resets itself over and over at peak hours.
> 
> ...



Hey Asylum I had the same issues just like you for quite a while. It started October of last year and was April when it was fixed. This is very frustrating but you have to keep on them. Treat it like anything you bought that was problematic. (like a car /truck)  You need it you want it and your paying for it. You wouldn't just lose your ass on a 1yr old vehicle purchase, you would be on the company and stay on them to get it fixed. That is what you have to do from my experience. First have their techs actually seen the issue? I had to schedule them to come out after 4 or 5 PM here because it was flawless before then. They acted like I was the issue until I got their own tech to see the issue. I copied trace rt, ping tests and speed test results for 2 months to back me up. It was easier once I got one of their own to admit there was a issue on their end. Once he logged it in their system that there was a problem all I had to do was keep on them. After that is was getting a tech that actually cared. Several came out just to make an appearance. I kept calling and amazingly I kept getting tidbits of the truth until I found out the whole story. (over sold their capabilities, no nodes left ) Then I started calling and asking for managers names and looking up any phone numbers I could till I got high enough up the ladder that someone gave a damn. One place that got me some really good support was at dslreports .com . Many of the ISP providers actually have their own people available to help over there in the forums. 

Going through the same ordeal I ended up with a new modem a new router my entire house inside and out all the way to the pole ran with the latest cable. Also I was credited for all the time since my first call reporting the issue until I said it was fixed. 

The hardest part was being professional while still being firm about getting this resolved. Cursing hanging up etc on them does nothing good for you. Although I wanted to it paid off to be adult as possible. Just keep stirring the pot with higher up management till you get high enough he/she doesn't want to hear from you. My calls didn't fix my issue it was already in the works but the system became overloaded before the new trunk line was ran and the new load balancing software was implemented. My internet is now very stable and I actually get 11 down consistently on my 10 down package and no drops. 

I used a cheap AT&T DSL package while it was being resolved.  

Good luck


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## jasper1605 (Sep 15, 2011)

TheMailMan78 said:


> I had U-verse for years. Its fine for gaming......when it runs. I will never have ANYTHING AT&T again.



THANK YOU for saying that.  ATT was by far one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.  The only way I would go back to them is if they paid me to use their service.


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## mastrdrver (Sep 15, 2011)

Mussels said:


> interesting. they're actually rolling out FTTH (called the NBN) here in AU.



Yea the give away is the cabinet sits on top of what appears to be concrete slab. The concrete slab is really a building that is about 6 stories tall, all underground. It houses all the electronics to control everything to and from that location.

Before ATT split in to 3 divisions in the mid 90s, what ended up becoming Lucent Technologies was the manufacturing arm of ATT. My dad worked at the location in Kansas City before they closed it down, but that was one of the things that location worked on (him being an Electrical Engineer) and manufactured.


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