New Airport Extreme connection issues

I just bought an Airport Extreme and have it connected via cat6 to my AT&T Uverse NVG589 in bridge/passthrough mode

I am just wanting to check that Airport Extreme is in bridge mode.. not the Uverse??

When I started a response and reread the sentence I was not sure which way to read it.

Please use the wireless from the NVG589 on your NON-APPLE products.. it is much easier better faster with less hassles.

I just bought an Airport Extreme and have it connected via cat6 to my AT&T Uverse NVG589 in bridge/passthrough mode.

There is no setting for Bridge Mode on the NVG589......but it is possible to set up the NVG589 in what is known as "IP Passthrough" mode. I'm not sure why you would want to do this......since it makes what should be a simple, straightforward setup needlessly complicated with a router behind another router......but you may have your own preferences.

Or, did you mean to say that the AirPort Extreme is set up in Bridge Mode.....which Apple calls "Off (Bridge Mode)"? This would be by far the simplest setup for the AirPort Extreme.......and it is the simple setups that alway seem to have the fewest problems.

The simpler setup would be to run the NVG in its normal mode as supplied by AT&T and then run the AirPort Extreme in Bridge Mode.

I can't guarantee that it would be a better setup for you.....but it was for my son who is stuck with the same model AT&T modem/router. We spent hours working with IP Passthrough on the AT&T modem/router, but never found any advantage to this. If anything, connections were more stable and speeds were higher with the AirPort in Bridge Mode.

I wanted to add a newer wireless router to hopefully improve speeds

If you are thinking about the Internet connection, speeds will never be any higher than the signal that is supplied by your provider. It's nice to know that the AirPort Extreme will do 400+ Mpbs on an Internet connection, but if your signal from AT&T is 30 Mbps, for example, the AirPort Extreme will never provide any more than 30 Mbps to your devices.

in the setup you described, the AE was just added to the NVG589 as is with no changes to settings?

The NVG589 was reset to work as supplied from AT&T. The AirPort Extreme was then reset back to factory defaults and then set up again using the AirPort Utility setup "wizard".

When you do it this way, all that you need to do is name the wireless network that the AirPort will provide, name the device, and enter the password that you want to use for the wireless and device. Bridge Mode is automatically applied to the AirPort since since the setup "wizard" will detect another router on the network.

Since we did not need the wireless on the NVG589 at all, we went back in and turned off that function.

Your original post did not mention "lags" as an issue on your network, so that may be another separate item to look at once things are up and running again.

Also cannot say whether this will solve the issue with the Roku and Fire devices. Apple uses normal wireless industry standards on their routers. Not sure why most devices connect and the Roku and Fire are having problems.

Sorry, but I don't have any of the devices that you have.....in order to test them here......so not sure that I can help much on that issue.

If it were me, I would temporarily turn off the wireless security on the AirPort Extreme and see if the devices will connect that way. If they will, then you know that it is wireless security setting issue, and you can try lowering the security setting on the AirPort to WPA/WPA2 Personal to see if the devices will connect that way.

However, if the devices will not connect to the AirPort with no wireless security......then they will never connect when security is applied.

Not sure what type of "improvement" that you were looking for with the AirPort, but it.....or any other router......is only going to be as good as the signal quality that it receives from the AT&T modem/router. In other words, if you are having "lagging" issues with the AT&T device, then you will almost certainly have them with any other router that you might connect to the AT&T device.

So, unless you have a good deal of time on your hands to experiment.....with no assurance of improvement......you might want to return the Apple router for credit or refund.

What DNS is the apple router passing to the windows machine?

Is your ISP using IPv6 because that introduces a whole new load of problems?

Is the windows computer running IPv6 if the above is true?

Did you connect the windows computer directly to the NVG589 with ethernet.. because if that does not solve it I would be surprised.. if it works by ethernet then use the NVG wireless instead of Airport.. as I already posted above.

The other solution is simply use google public DNS on your windows computer as well as media players.. ie 8.8.8.8

It may be possible to setup the DHCP to pass this address automatically by changing the airport setup. But for now just test it manually.. in the computer set IP DNS..

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/19249/how-to-assign-a-static-ip-address-in-xp-vi sta-or-windows-7/

everything still works connected to the AE- but no improvements.

Do you mean the failure of the non-apple stuff to connect or the speed problem?

Speed problems take a lot more time to investigate.

We need actual link speeds and wireless signal levels around your house.

Seems like the simplest solution ended up working.

Nice work. The simplest solutions always seem to work better than more complicated options.