... once you stop laughing, please read my questions and offer some possible solutions ...

AT&T Uverse is now my internet and video service. Their "modem" connects by plain olde telephone (tip+ring) phone line and then sources voice, video and internet inside my home. So far we are pleased with the services. My troubles appears where their network meets my well established and working SOHO LAN.

I have wire (100baseT) and wireless (802.11-b/g/n) services working well on an uncommon RFC private IP network. My own gateway is a DHCP client on one side (cable or DSL modem) and DHCP server to its LAN. It plays NAT between the LAN and the modem.

The AT&T "modem" does the same things using the ever common RFC private IP address 192.168.1.0/24 and offers only 10baseT and 802.11-b/g. (Naturally, I'd prefer my own parts versus AT&T's more limited resources.)
There is a second wireless access point for their wireless set top boxes. I can't offer any details about that. It appears that all of the AT&T parts demand a common subnet.

The Problem Space:

Phones, tablets and laptops connected to my type-N, wireless LAN, for access to my SOHO intra-net cloud services, cannot access the Uverse voice and video services. I suspect a different subnet issue. Likewise, if they connect to the AT&T type-G wireless, they cannot access my intra-net cloud services.

How can I get all of these parts to play well together?

AT&T "modem":

2-Wire, 3800HPV-G

My network:

Netgear, WNDR-3700

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan

I do not know AT&T Uverse so I didn't laugh but trying to help with the basics anyway.

Usually in this kind of product the three service are completely isolated from each other. I used to build a network for two service providers that were completely different concepts on the side of the provider, but incredibly similar on the customer side.

First of all, I don't need to explain your internet connection, you already got that running.

For voice, I imagine AT&T uses VoIP just like everyone else these days. Usually you will get a second dynamic IP in a seperate VLAN on your router for that, which is most likely not internet-routable. There might also be some kind of authentication (PPPoE or PPPoA) involved. It all depends on if you are able to catch that VLAN and replicate the authentication.

Third, the video service. You will most likely get another non-internet-routable IP for signalling and a multicast destination to receive your video stream. Modem, Router and Receiver are all playing closely together and it's pretty hard getting into it with your own hardware, depending on how the provided network operates. You could possibly catch the multicast stream off your network, but switching channels (which literally is switching the multicast stream) may become a problem, because you have to somehow tell the switches on the provider side that you want a different stream - and no one will tell you how to do that because those are internal informations. The whole thing might also be encrypted anyway. At least here in germany some TV stations force providers to encrypt their streams, even though they're otherwise free to watch. So even if you would be able to catch the stream, there is a high chance that you will be unable to decrypt it, because the mechanisms are secure and unavailable to the public.

1 members found this post helpful.

There is nothing odd about this.

Many ways to do this and all it takes is a plan. If you want your private ip then that is ok.

I'd log into the modem (set a laptop to dhcp and access it's web page to change settings) then set the dhcp range to your private lan. Set only 1 lease and don't use that lease in your range. Then set your dns address to the modems IP and secondary to the ISP's dns ip.

Like I said, there are maybe 10 ways to do this.

Most new nic's in computers and devices can select for correct cable. Only one side is needed but in some cases you need to power the device up to let it correct. Or be sure to use correct cable on power up.

1 members found this post helpful.

Some details:

• Whatever AT&T pulls to my home "demarc" is copper. Sadly, I can see the "big box" where AT&T technician says the fiber optic connection stops.
• Even with CAT-6 from the demarc into the house, they only use one pair -- good old tip&ring -- to carry whatever into the house.
• tip&ring connect to their gateway box -- a 2wire® device -- that makes everything happen inside the home
  • their gateway box plays DHCP server to all of the other AT&T boxes. The web-console permits selection of either a Class-C or a Class-B private IP address pool. Class-C is the default.
  • the gateway plays NAT between its LAN side and the Uverse® provided internet using dot-254 as the gateway address.
  • four ports of XXX-baseT wire ethernet for LAN
  • two ports of plain old telephone services (POTS) voice
  • a WAN port that appears to be not used
  • a B/G wireless access point
  • video recording storage
  • access to Uverse "interactive" services
• the house is wired CAT-6 and 1000-baseT throughout
• XXX-baseT connects from the gateway to each "wired" set top box
• XXX-baseT connects from the gateway to a video-specific wifi access point
• wireless set top boxes connect through the video-specific wifi access point to the gateway (again, all of AT&T appears to be B/G wireless

You can use the gateway web-console and disable the access point at the gateway without causing troubles for the wireless set top boxes.

Hyere be dragons
When you connect your own B/G/N access point to the gateway, it will play NAT between the Uverse LAN and its own LAN ports. Now you have two LANs running in your house.

1. the Uvers LAN -- aaa.aaa.aaa.0 to aaa.aaa.aaa.254
2. your home LAN -- bbb.bbb.bbb.0 to bbb.bbb.bbb.254

The home access point demands that its LAN side addresses have a different pool of IP addresses from the WAN side.

Catch-22

• For your wireless devices -- phones, tablets, laptops, game consoles, &c -- to use any of the Uverse video services, they must be on the same subnet as the Uverse gateway.
• Any devices connected to Uverse aaa.aaa.aaa.XXX LAN cannot access services available from home LAN resources.
• Any devices connected to the home bbb.bbb.bbb.XXX LAN -- eg, using the type-N wifi -- cannot access services from the Uverse LAN

I don't want to care which set of wires someone connects with, I want that LAN port to do whatever they are trying to accomplish.

I want any device wireless to run type-N if it is capable and still play with Uverse services.


Can anyone tell me how to get my LAN-divided to play nicely together?


Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-/ Dan

Follow-Up (1-MAR-2013)
{COMMENTARY}
Either there is no solution to my situation or the "solution" is so obvious that no one is willing to explain things to someone who does not or cannot figure things out.

I cannot mark this thread SOLVED because I never found a solution. I leave these brief remarks for others who find this thread so that they get some idea where things stood as of this writing.
{/COMMENTARY}


With regret and frustration,
~~~ 0;-Dan