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Forum Discussion
Problems with Xe104
I have been fighting for this thing off and on for the past week and finally just went out and bought a wireless usb. The unit has worked fine since I purchased it over the summer and is now retired ...
I have three XE104's in my house.
I arranged to have AT&T Uverse installed (TV,Internet,Phone) but also encountered problems.
In my particular situation, I was using DirecTV for my television, Time-Warner RoadRunner for my Internet, and AT&T for my land line phone. I was using the XE104's successfully to run Ethernet throughout the house to my "man cave" where my computers and networked laser printers are, as well as to my media room, where one of the XE104's was providing connectivity for my Blu-Ray player and my DirecTV satellite HD DVR. I was getting good results, and my bandwidth to my Blu-Ray player was sufficient to use NetFlix streaming of HD content with good results.
When AT&T came in, they really did not have a good solution for a home with many wired Ethernet devices. They want to place the Residential Gateway (RG) box in a central location, but that box is more than just a wireless router...it is also providing the signal for the VOIP phone and the IPTV signals. Since most of my wireless computing is taking place on the ground floor, I agreed to install the RG near the HD TV in my living room. The installer could run the cable under the house in the stand-up crawl spece without too much problem.
But the remaining networked devices in my house are on the second floor, and there was no good way to connect them directly to the RG without running a lot of Rube Goldberg CAT5 cable all over the place and drilling holes in too many external surfaces. So I attempted to use my XE104's to get the required connectivity. BIG PROBLEM (at first). We lost wireless signal and there was much pixelization of the TV pictures. We unplugged the XE104's and the problem went away, but it appears the problem was not the XE104's but rather the way in which the set top boxes (STB's) were connected.
AT&T installed only one DVR box connected directly to the RG via Ethernet CAT5 cable. I connected one XE104 directly to the RG with CAT5 and plugged it into the nearest socket. The STB for the HD TV in the kitchen was connected with existing coax cable from our prior TW Cable usage. The STB for the HD TV in the media room was connected with existing coax cable AND using an Ethernet cable to the XE104 in that room. And THAT was the problem. When I disconnected the Ethernet cable from that STB (leaving just the coax cable), things cleared up and we had wireless and good TV.
The AT&T service is okay now, but I'm not getting the bandwidth to my Blu-Ray player for streaming that I was getting before, and my Internet speeds are really no faster than before with my cable modem. I'm not sure what to attribute that to, but I think I was better when I had a standalone AT&T regular phone line, standalone DirecTV satellite television, and standalone Time-Warner RoadRunner. For that reason, I'm cancelling my Uverse account and having them put things back the way they were.
I'm not sure whether my results serve as a good example for anyone, but I thought I would throw them out there anyway. The takeaway is that you can get the Uverse to work without issue if the RG is connected to your main STB with Ethernet CAT5 and your other STB's are connected with coax. My guess would be that the IPTV signal is seriously compromised if your connect STB's other than the main one using Ethernet CAT5. I have no technical details to back that up, it's just my educated guess. The coax to my other STB's helps to mitigate any problems.
AT&T does not pre-qualify potential customers by asking how their home networks are configured. I explained to the installer how I was using my equipment, and he really did not have a good solution and did not warn me of potential conflicts or configuration issues. Hope this helps some others who may be using Powerline Ethernet devices...not just NetGear's equipment.
I arranged to have AT&T Uverse installed (TV,Internet,Phone) but also encountered problems.
In my particular situation, I was using DirecTV for my television, Time-Warner RoadRunner for my Internet, and AT&T for my land line phone. I was using the XE104's successfully to run Ethernet throughout the house to my "man cave" where my computers and networked laser printers are, as well as to my media room, where one of the XE104's was providing connectivity for my Blu-Ray player and my DirecTV satellite HD DVR. I was getting good results, and my bandwidth to my Blu-Ray player was sufficient to use NetFlix streaming of HD content with good results.
When AT&T came in, they really did not have a good solution for a home with many wired Ethernet devices. They want to place the Residential Gateway (RG) box in a central location, but that box is more than just a wireless router...it is also providing the signal for the VOIP phone and the IPTV signals. Since most of my wireless computing is taking place on the ground floor, I agreed to install the RG near the HD TV in my living room. The installer could run the cable under the house in the stand-up crawl spece without too much problem.
But the remaining networked devices in my house are on the second floor, and there was no good way to connect them directly to the RG without running a lot of Rube Goldberg CAT5 cable all over the place and drilling holes in too many external surfaces. So I attempted to use my XE104's to get the required connectivity. BIG PROBLEM (at first). We lost wireless signal and there was much pixelization of the TV pictures. We unplugged the XE104's and the problem went away, but it appears the problem was not the XE104's but rather the way in which the set top boxes (STB's) were connected.
AT&T installed only one DVR box connected directly to the RG via Ethernet CAT5 cable. I connected one XE104 directly to the RG with CAT5 and plugged it into the nearest socket. The STB for the HD TV in the kitchen was connected with existing coax cable from our prior TW Cable usage. The STB for the HD TV in the media room was connected with existing coax cable AND using an Ethernet cable to the XE104 in that room. And THAT was the problem. When I disconnected the Ethernet cable from that STB (leaving just the coax cable), things cleared up and we had wireless and good TV.
The AT&T service is okay now, but I'm not getting the bandwidth to my Blu-Ray player for streaming that I was getting before, and my Internet speeds are really no faster than before with my cable modem. I'm not sure what to attribute that to, but I think I was better when I had a standalone AT&T regular phone line, standalone DirecTV satellite television, and standalone Time-Warner RoadRunner. For that reason, I'm cancelling my Uverse account and having them put things back the way they were.
I'm not sure whether my results serve as a good example for anyone, but I thought I would throw them out there anyway. The takeaway is that you can get the Uverse to work without issue if the RG is connected to your main STB with Ethernet CAT5 and your other STB's are connected with coax. My guess would be that the IPTV signal is seriously compromised if your connect STB's other than the main one using Ethernet CAT5. I have no technical details to back that up, it's just my educated guess. The coax to my other STB's helps to mitigate any problems.
AT&T does not pre-qualify potential customers by asking how their home networks are configured. I explained to the installer how I was using my equipment, and he really did not have a good solution and did not warn me of potential conflicts or configuration issues. Hope this helps some others who may be using Powerline Ethernet devices...not just NetGear's equipment.