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49 Messages
UPDATE: Digital phone line is back (was Router reset by AT&T, wiping WiFi settings, and phone line is still down)
Tonight at just before 1:30 a.m. ET the router cut out. I was irritated, but figured it was just AT&T pushing another update of some kind. Once the router reset, my main computer, connected via WiFi, was unable to access the internet or the router (via 192.168.1.254). The top two lights (power and broadband) are solid green. The phone light is off, not even red. Thank God I still have an old computer connected to the router via Ethernet... After trying the old unplug and replug trick multiple times and getting the same two-light response, I tried calling support. Guess what? You can't get 24-hour tech support anymore. If you try to get it to connect you to a human via the old number 800-288-2020, you get an automated response that will "check" things but won't connect you to an agent, even if it's an urgent outage like mine. The best I could get it to do was put me on a callback list. I have had many, many outages in the middle of the night when I am most active on the computer, but never have I been unable to connect to tech support via the support number like this.
First I tried to say my router was down. The AR said it was up, and did I want a callback? I hung up and tried again. Same (Edited per community guidelines) response. Then I tried saying my phone was down (still true). It checked very quickly and immediately went to --I needed an agent, did I want a callback?-- and finally I told it yes.
Then I tried accessing the router via the Ethernet connection to the old computer. Thank God I did. AT&T's latest change - at 1:30 in the bloody morning - wiped my custom settings for WiFi, which is why my computer, tablet, and prepaid cell couldn't connect to it at ALL. Even the "Smart Home Manager" app, which I burned cell data to access, said things were up and my settings were what I meant them to be.
I reset the network name and password for the 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz radio channels, and I am now accessing the internet via my primary computer again. The phone line is still down, and I don't know if the same AT&T blunder that wiped my WiFi also wiped my landline VOIP from the router. Is there a way to tell the router my phone number so it can reconnect? Or does an AT&T rep have to do that?
satscout
Tutor
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49 Messages
11 months ago
UPDATE: I still don't know why the AT&T update wiped out my router, but I was finally able to get the AT&T support page for "digital phone" to "reset" aka register the line. So the phone is back, at least. I'm still going to talk to the callback rep to try to figure out what happened and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. If I had not had an old computer connected physically by Ethernet to the router, I would never have been able to figure out what happened much less fix it.
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satscout
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49 Messages
10 months ago
Hey AT&T:
In the aftermath of the problem referenced above, AT&T sent me a "new" router. It is having the same old trouble the one before it did with the 5GHz radio constantly dropping. It has not yet progressed to the flashpoint above where everything got nuked.
Either ditch the 5GHz radio altogether - which makes everything in the house go automatically to the 2.4GHz radio, which is actually stable even if it's crowded - or FIX THE (Edited per community guidelines) THING so it won't go down every 15 to 20 minutes. But stop sending equipment that won't stay up.
If it is a software issue, then FIX THE SOFTWARE. Because the end result of having the internet cut out repeatedly and unpredictably makes it hard to function.
But first and foremost, FIX THE SUPPORT SYSTEM. I can't be up all day babysitting a phone conversation with a rep. It is your responsibility to allow email support.
(edited)
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satscout
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49 Messages
9 months ago
awwww. I didn't even use any profanity. I said "fix the b-l-o-o-d-y thing". I guess that violates Community Guidelines... Though, I can think of more than a few swear words I am tempted to use to describe equipment that does not work as promised.
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