ATT UVerse and Airport Extreme confusion...HELP!!!

The "DMZ" feature is not relevant to a Base Station in bridge mode - it only operates when the Base Station is functioning as a router.

You basically answered your own question. Your Base Station is in bridge mode (its router is disabled). your network devices get their IP addresses from your "residential gateway". The "residential gateway" is in fact a combo modem/router. So indeed your network is secure, because everything is behind the router built into your "residential gateway".

I suggest you leave things as they are. It is just as secure, and just as fast, as if the Base Station was providing the routing for your network. The router built into the residential gateway can function at a speed far in excess of its broadband connection to the internet.

When you upgrade to 802.11n, just configure that base station exactly the same way (ie base station in bridge mode). As long as everything in your network is connected to the base station (wired or wireless) then communication between devices on your own LAN will function at the maximum speed of the base station's own gigabit switch and wireless network.

Kurt,

Would you mind explaining how you set up your Airport Extreme behind the U-Verse Residential Gateway?

The reason I ask is that I'm having problems maintaining a constant wireless U-verse internet connection using both my MacBook and iMac computers to the RG. However, my PC notebook maintains a steady wireless internet connection to the RG. I have the Max internet connection from U-verse.

The Airport icon in the top right hand side of the MacBook screen disappears for 30-60 seconds before restoring the U-verse connection. This problems occurs on both the MacBook and iMac. It occurs every 30 minutes or so.

I did try installing my Airport Express behind the U-verse RG but I had the same problem with the internet dropping out. When I connected the Airport Express behind the RG I did not change any settings on the RG screen at IP 192.168.1.254 and I think this is where I have made a mistake.

I currently resolve the problem either by waiting 30-60 seconds or I click the Airport icon in the top right hand side of the screen, choose the U-verse wireless connection from the drop-down list (the U-verse wireless service appears each time in the list) and then the internet connection is restored.

Very strange given that the PC notebook does not encounter any problems. I even installed a small wireless signal strength application on the PC to check that the wireless is not dropping out. I have not noticed it drop out yet.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben...did you figure that out?

I have the same problem with my MacBook only. My MacBook Pro and iMac never lose signal...only the MacBook.

Can't figure if it's an RG issue or the Air Port card...anyone have a POV?

Solution

I “may” have found the solution. The issue for me was that the wireless AT&T Uverse connection for my Macbook running Leopard 10.5.2 was dropping the connection. Very unstable.

This is all I did.

First go to this link and install this widget:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/networking_security/airportradar.html

Next, quickly read this article:

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/qa/qa20041209.shtml

The key information found in the article is that channels 1, 6 and 11 are the best channels.

I made sure that no networks were working in my area on channel 1, using the widget installed from the link above.

I went into my Uverse Router and I changed the channel setting from “automatic” to channel 1.

I saved it.

At BEST I would occasionally get 45 straight minutes of internet connectivity. After 3 days of testing my issue is solved.

Now, while some might say that the solution should have been obvious that I needed to make sure I didn’t have interference, using just the Widget as my guide, I can tell you based solely on this information that I didn’t have any strong signals coming from any neighbors that conflicted with the channel I had. I believe that the significant change came from changing the router from auto connection to a fixed channel selection, in my case channel 1.

I have the same problem. Wireless was working absolutely fine on the previous Linksys router but since having the U-verse installation I've been getting the random (well semi-random, it's seems to be every 10 minutes or so) dropouts.

I have changed the SSID of the router to something other than 10 and will report back what happens.

My solution was to connect my existing Airport Express (AE) router to the U-verse Residential Gateway (RG). I went into the RG settings and put the AE into the DMZ zone (which I believe stands for de-militarized zone or similar). This makes the RG think the AE is in front of the RG and therefore the RG does not put any firewall settings on to the AE.

It seems to work ok now. Never had any problems with my laptop PC and the RG, only my MacBook and the RG.