Replace my Motorola NVG510 modem on ATT Uverse?

May 10, 2012 12:51 PM

Can I replace my ATT Uverse supplied Motorola NVG510 DSL modem with another modem?

I just moved and started ATT Uverse DSL. At my old place I could use a Speedstream 5100 DSL modem in bridge mode to connect to my own wireless router on ATT's network. The Speedstream doesn't work connected to ATT DSL at my new home. I am currently using the Motorola NVG510 modem and wireless router supplied by ATT which has a whole host of issues (I won't get into them here). I would like the option of connecting my own equipment, that is, my own DSL modem and wireless router without using any ATT supplied equipment. From what I can tell reading online, it is not possible to use anything other than the NVG510. Does another compatible modem exist I can purchase and install myself? I am in Oakland, CA.

posted by 314159 to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

For UVerse, I don't believe you can change the modem at all as it is engineered to work with the "IP DSL" service.

I had this particular modem for about a month until they started disconnecting my Uverse at the central office daily and requiring 3 service calls to get it fixed again. Obviously, the issues with Uverse went much deeper than the modem (and yes, this was recently-- 2 months ago).

I was able to find a forum post where it provides instructions on setting it up so that another router can use it as the WAN device. Basically it said to set up the WAN interface of the router to use the static IP that the modem provides when it obtains a public IP from AT&T. I think there's also changes in the NGV510 such as turn off Wireless & DHCP and enter the new router's MAC address in the passthrough mode configuration (and turn it on).

This at least fixed the horrific LAN & WiFi handling, but the service beyond the modem turned out to be the real issue for me.
posted by ijoyner at 1:18 PM on May 10, 2012

Uverse uses (according to Wikipedia, at any rate) ADSL2+ or VDSL depending on what service level you have. your Speedstream modem supports ADSL2+, and your existing NGV510 modem is ADSL2+ (according to AT&T), so at first blush it might work. can't say whether or not there'd be any issues getting the modem to talk to the network, though, as I don't know whether or not it just brings a link up or if there's some authentication that has to take place as well. can't find anything online saying that it'd work, either (other than that AT&T has provided that Speedstream modem but not for Uverse installations).
posted by mrg at 1:34 PM on May 10, 2012

I have ATT Uverse as well and I wondered the same thing. I think users are stuck with the modem, but can use their own own wireless router by using the method that ijoyner states above.

Here are the blog posts that I found detailing how-to:

Working with Uverse and DNS. Part 2 – Ditching the NVG510

Motorola NVG510 help page for AT&T U-Verse users
posted by photovox at 1:37 PM on May 10, 2012

Yeah, I use my own router behind the modem using a setup similar to the first link photovox posted.

One note: if you also have the U-Verse TV service, make sure your router (if you're passing your wired connections through it like I do) has incoming multicast enabled. Many disable this by default, but the IPTV service uses multicast (after the first few seconds of changing channels / starting recordings, which is unicast) and will break otherwise.
posted by wildcrdj at 1:41 PM on May 10, 2012