ATT U-Verse, Any good for gaming?

[Asylum]

Thinking about ordering ATT U-Verse and would like all the feed back from members here i can get.

I want to know if there internet is any good for gaming.

I have cable but it drops connections and packet loss all the time.

Had them out to the house many times and still the same crap.

 

[erocker]

U-Verse works fine for gaming. I had the same issue as you with packet loss with a cable modem. I fixed it by disabling the modem's firewall.

 

[STCNE]

ATT is not very gamer friendly, they attempt to block gaming on our connection, their reason being that we need to get a higher end service if we want to game, or use a router for that matter. I would try a different company if at all possible. What are you using right now?

 

[Asylum]

U-Verse works fine for gaming. I had the same issue as you with packet loss with a cable modem. I fixed it by disabling the modem's firewall.

How do you do that?

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

Did they give you the modem router combo? Are you using your own? Depends on what setup you have.

 

[Asylum]

I bought my own...Its a motorola surfboard #SB5120

I have no router...Just straight modem to computer.

 

[TheMailMan78]

I had U-verse for years. Its fine for gaming......when it runs. I will never have ANYTHING AT&T again.

 

[erocker]

I bought my own...Its a motorola surfboard #SB5120

I have no router...Just straight modem to computer.

Yeah, it's has no router features so that is not the problem, unless the modem is just somehow defective. It is an older modem.

 

[bpgt64]

I have used ATT Uverse for 2+ years now, had no problems with sustained connections to games like WoW, Battle.net, EA Servers and the like.

 

[newtekie1]

It all depends on your area and how AT&T is there. I've got the 24Mb/s serve at my office and it is great, extremely stable and works wonders for gaming. The TPU Minecraft server is hosted on that connection as well as a few other 24/7 gaming and web servers that I run.

As for them blocking features on the lower connection speeds, that isn't true at all. They tend to frown on hosting 24/7 servers of any kind on their lower end connection, and do block some of the common incoming ports, but that has no effect on traditional gaming. And they never care about using a router, even on their lowest connection. They just won't support a user installed router, and they won't give you one of their routers unless you get a higher end service. However, if you have the know how you can install a router yourself and they don't care, but if your connection has issues, they will come in remove the router and connect the service to a single PC and get it working, you then have to reconnect the router yourself. They will not support user equipment, they won't touch it, except to unhook it when there is an issue.

 

[Asylum]

Yea the modem is not my problem.

My internet slows down and the modem drops out and resets itself over and over at peak hours.

It works pretty good except at the times i want to game.

How can i get the cable company to fix it?

I had them over here twice in 2 weeks and all they do is check the line and modem even after i tell them what the problem is.

 

[STCNE]

It all depends on your area and how AT&T is there. I've got the 24Mb/s serve at my office and it is great, extremely stable and works wonders for gaming. The TPU Minecraft server is hosted on that connection as well as a few other 24/7 gaming and web servers that I run.

As for them blocking features on the lower connection speeds, that isn't true at all. They tend to frown on hosting 24/7 servers of any kind on their lower end connection, and do block some of the common incoming ports, but that has no effect on traditional gaming. And they never care about using a router, even on their lowest connection. They just won't support a user installed router, and they won't give you one of their routers unless you get a higher end service. However, if you have the know how you can install a router yourself and they don't care, but if your connection has issues, they will come in remove the router and connect the service to a single PC and get it working, you then have to reconnect the router yourself. They will not support user equipment, they won't touch it, except to unhook it when there is an issue.

I've had the support people tell me that gaming is not supported on our service, and we've had our connection shut off a few times for different reasons. Once when I tried OpenDNS, and when I was using my own modem and router. They called and asked why they could not access their modem and then told us not that they would provide no customer service at all until we switched back. In the area I live they are known for using tactics that probably are not legal to make people upgrade.

One very common thing that I have heard many friends/neighbors complain about is that their favorite TV channels are removed from their service and they are told they would have to upgrade to Uverse to watch them, but yet everyone else still gets the station on the standard service.

 

[newtekie1]

I've had the support people tell me that gaming is not supported on our service, and we've had our connection shut off a few times for different reasons. Once when I tried OpenDNS, and when I was using my own modem and router. They called and asked why they could not access their modem and then told us not that they would provide no customer service at all until we switched back. In the area I live they are known for using tactics that probably are not legal to make people upgrade.

One very common thing that I have heard many friends/neighbors complain about is that their favorite TV channels are removed from their service and they are told they would have to upgrade to Uverse to watch them, but yet everyone else still gets the station on the standard service.

Correct, if you use your own equipment they won't give you any support, I believe I said that.

Although that is just related to the router only in my area, the modem you buy yourself anyway, so it is yours. You might buy it from them, but you are buying it, so it is yours to do what you want with. And you don't have to buy it from them, I've used modems bought of ebay plenty of times with AT&T.

As for turning the connection off, the only time that happens around here is when they recieve a DMCA letter because you've been pirating.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

AT&T can, being entirely fair in my assessment, go give a berreta an blow job.


You may have picked up on some anger there. It's not for nothing.

AT&T offered excellent phone and data services in one area I have lived. The customer support was no worse than competitors, and they were generally fairly priced. The catch is that I only lived there for a handfull of years. I spent most of my life elsewhere, where AT&T service generally sucks hard.

I have been the victim of price gouging, misbilling, poor service, inept and hateful customer support, and contractual obligations that are insane on the best of days.

In short, ask your neighbors. If the local AT&T service is good, chances are they will have it. If not, avoid that turd like the plague. They have areas of good service and support, but far more that are a heinous mistake.

 

[ERazer]

used to have them and no issues, played WAR and TF2 back in the day i only switch cuz need a faster dowload

tho my bro the lives next city over me had really lousy line and they couldnt figure whats wrong, lilhasselhoffer might be right on the area thing

 

[Asylum]

Thanks for the comments guys.

Anyone else have 2 cents?

 

[eidairaman1]

ATT is not very gamer friendly, they attempt to block gaming on our connection, their reason being that we need to get a higher end service if we want to game, or use a router for that matter. I would try a different company if at all possible. What are you using right now?

the Uverse receiver is the router, you have to configure it properly for DX7,8,9 games

 

[mastrdrver]

I've been using ATT DSL (not U-verse) for 4+ years. Never once had problems with dropped games etc. I have lower pings then the guys I play with even though they are hundreds of miles closer to the servers.

 

[eidairaman1]

I've been using ATT DSL (not U-verse) for 4+ years. Never once had problems with dropped games etc. I have lower pings then the guys I play with even though they are hundreds of miles closer to the servers.

Uverse is the same as reg DSL, just a different Router is used to control TV and Internet

 

[Mussels]

i do find that a lot of the time when people complain about their ISP, its their networking equipment or setup at fault.

perhaps look at a new modem/router before swapping ISP's?

 

[eidairaman1]

Uverse is working here fine, altho i noticed that the receiver downstairs is a lil slower at transmitting than the one upstairs

 

[newtekie1]

Uverse is the same as reg DSL, just a different Router is used to control TV and Internet

That depends on your area as well. U-Verse is supposed to be Fiber-to-the-Cabinet while regular DSL is Fiber-to-the-Node.

What this means is that in normal DSL, fiber is run to the main node(typcially refered to as the "Cental Office") and then copper is run from there to the boxes in each neighborhood, and copper is run from the boxes in each neighborhood to the home. With FTTC, fiber is run from the main node to the boxes in each neighborhood, then copper is run from the box in the neighborhood to the home.

FTTC gives more stable connections as well as faster available speeds. That is why with traditional DSL, the distance from the "Central Office" or main node affects what speeds you can receive. Because the farther a DSL signal travels over copper the weaker it gets and the lower speed it can handle. With FTTC, the fiber brings the signal right up to the box withing a yards of the home, so there is no issue with the signal degrading and not being able to handle higher speeds.

Now, after saying all that, I did say that it depends on your area as well. AT&T hasn't run fiber everywhere they sell U-Verse, so in a lot of cases they are using the traditional FTTN DSL and calling it U-Verse.:shadedshu

 

[mastrdrver]

No one can get fiber to the home because of the FCC. Sprint and ATT tried this back 10 years (or so) ago but the cable companies (at the time) whine to the FCC about competition. So no one is getting fiber to the home. Not even Google (if you read the details, you'll see this even though all the articles about Google leave it out).

I have to check, but U-Verse (if I remember right) is all FTTC which is why it is not available in some locations. It probably is also why some of the higher bandwidth DSL from ATT is not available to some.

 

[Mussels]

No one can get fiber to the home because of the FCC. Sprint and ATT tried this back 10 years (or so) ago but the cable companies (at the time) whine to the FCC about competition. So no one is getting fiber to the home. Not even Google (if you read the details, you'll see this even though all the articles about Google leave it out).

I have to check, but U-Verse (if I remember right) is all FTTC which is why it is not available in some locations. It probably is also why some of the higher bandwidth DSL from ATT is not available to some.

interesting. they're actually rolling out FTTH (called the NBN) here in AU.

 

[mrw1986]

I've had U-Verse for over 2 years and my brother has had it for over 3 years. Neither of us have had a single issue with it. I've never had an outage (except when the powerlines got knocked down by a tree) and my ping is always among the lowest compared to other people. I had cable prior and it was a nightmare...