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Uverse hell

Day one - Thursday

I got my uverse installed, install went okay, took about 5 hours to get it running. Once the tech left I switched from my Clear Wimax connection to the uverse. Looked good, then I got on the PTPP connection at work, and it started dropping me every 5-9 minutes. I called them and worked with support for 2 hours and tried lots of settings on the router. These included lowering the MTU and upping the timeout. Nothing fixed it at all, they were keeping my case open in case I wanted to call back. Then I was playing with it later on and lowered the timeout and it seemed to fix the issue. The router has a very small connection table which is a known issue, I think with the 1 day timeout there were lots of open connections which weren't being cleaned up.

Day two - Saturday

Turned on the TV to start setting up some of the DVR recordings, and the DVR wasn't working. I called ATT and the box was dead, we tried to do a factory reset and OS reload several times and the box was toast. They promptly sent out a tech a few hours later. He tried with 4 different boxes and was unable to get it working. He was there for about 3 hours, and he was out of ideas. It was 8:30PM on Saturday. He also reset my router since the TV connects to the router and uses the line that is shared.

Day Three – Sunday

I reset up the router with the same settings I had before, but I started once again to get PTPP issues and drops. I messed with it for a while and gave up again.

Day Four – Monday

I turned on the DVR, and what do you know, it started working perfectly, makes no sense to me. I called support once again on my VPN issues, I gave them my case number and they told me they don't work on VPN issues and regardless of my case and the tech I worked with I should go away. I spoke to the shift supervisor and she told me the same thing, but was nicer about it. I told them I would disconnect service if I wasn't able to use a simple VPN. They were happy to lose me as a customer, and transferred me to the disconnection line. When I got someone there, I asked them if I could have TV only, and they said I need to have internet as well. I told them I would work on it some more, and let them know if I wanted to disconnect.

We happen to have firewalls which give us SSL VPN as a free option, so one of my co-workers set it up, and it worked perfectly. No drops, and no issues. At least I have a fix for now, so I can work at home if needed.

I called customer service and got a credit for my outage time and a discounted rate for the next 6 months. All in all I've wasted about 20 hours on this mess, but glad its working now. The customer support has been good, aside from the lady who refused to help me.

Service impressions

The base 6down/512up is decent, but no better than the clear wimax service. The TV seems very good, and the DVR is better than others I have seen, but I still miss my Tivo HD XL. Nothing beats Tivo!

I wish I had my FIOS like I had back in Boston L

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