LINKSYS and ATTBI: a marriage made in ^&*@$!

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 7:50 pm

Is anybody else a refugee from @home, having to work with ATTBI and foolishly having purchased a LINKSYS cable modem?

I spent 2.5 hours of prime time cell usage last week with ATTBI, only to be told by the 2nd or 3rd level tech I finally reached that they will not talk to me because I have W2KAS installed instead of W2K Pro.

A few days later I was told the cable modem should show a solid sync light when connected to the cable ( the 'cable' light should be solid ). It was flashing every 25 seconds instead of being solid. I then started calling and emailing Linksys: 5 days later I just received a call back from someone who had trouble reading his script much less helping: he stated the 'cable' light should not be solid... however he also states the unit I bought does not have a web interface when the Linksys web site clearly shows instructions on setting IP information using a web browser and the private address to browse to.

I'd take it back, but the wait at Best Buy in the return aisle is at least 45 minutes whether there is someone in line ahead of you or not ( no, this is true, at least the 4 or 5 times I've had to return things for work )

Has anybody been down this path? If so, can you confirm the info about the status of the 'cable' indicator when connected tho not tuned to ATTBI ?

Many thanks

:+

succubiss · Post by **succubiss** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 7:57 pm

sorry to hear about your troubles... i too am an ATTBI customer, and was looking to pick up the linksys cable modem. i'm thinking twice about it now. i might go with toshiba.

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Tue Feb 12, 2002 8:02 pm

Thanks. It felt GOOD to rant a bit.
I've thought about the other brands ATTBI approves ( I really doubt they will talk to us unless we buy the models they specify ), but 3COM's support went downhill years ago.. and none of the other brands seemed much better.
I think Linksys didn't plan their roll out well: if it doesn't kill them they will probably end up ok again. But in the mean time.... sigh.

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Wed Feb 13, 2002 11:04 am

I thought that whenever you bought your own modem or got a new one you had to call AT&T and have them provision the MAC address of the modem on their network so it would work?

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Wed Feb 13, 2002 11:53 am

I did: that was part of the 2.5 hours last week

however different levels of tech support had different opinions about it. One of the entry level techs at ATTBI took the MAC address, however the last tech indicated I had to browse to a particular site after setting proxy server info in IE... I could browse there however could not get in: got an error message which I gave to them but failed to write down. Then they stopped talking. ( he claimed I would enter my MAC info myself at that site )

On the plus side, the ooooold Motorola still works just fine so I'm able to listen to my favorite 70's songs day and night<g> I suppose I was taken back by Linksys tech support. Live & learn. At least I can still hit 450KB at times from Microsoft: a dozen years ago we would go through problems like this to get 2400b connectivity

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Wed Feb 13, 2002 3:33 pm

Old motorola? I'm using the Surfboard 3100 and it works just fine

Also, I've never had to enter any proxy settings to use attbi(or @home b4 that)... was that just to get into that special site?

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Wed Feb 13, 2002 4:50 pm

The @HOME unit which still works is a CyberSurfr.. however I'm paying $10 a month to rent it. As I've had cable modem for about 5 years it seemed time to buy one for $99

I am in the middle of a 'chat' with ATTBI right now: this tech has yet a third ( or fourth ) way to activate the Linksys, so down the golden path I trod once again. It turns out that ATTBI also charges $10 to return their modem to them. Sad...
Oh: the proxy settings were from one of the techs I spoke to: allegedly had to be in there to access the on line site to activate the new units MAC address.... today's tech states a Proxy entry is not recommended.

Paul