Thank you for the suggestions. It looks like it was just a coincidence that my friend and I were both having problems. One of the filters on his phone was bad and that was causing his problems. After trying some of your suggestions, it still didn't fix the problem. I ended up calling AT&T and they had me delete the modem from my computer and then re-add it. I wrote down everything she told me to do in case it happens again, but I got the impression she did something on her end to make my connection stronger. Laurie

Interesting reads and emotions here. I'm not an AT&T subscriber, user or stock holder. We use Verizon for our cell and hard wire phone provider. Anyway, a router works by taking the internet signal and splitting it into different addresses within your home network. In order to be able to do this the router must be receiving the signal to begin with. Regular routers receive their signals from modems (cable or satellite). If you are going to be grabbing a wireless signal similar to the way a cell phone receives you need a mobile modem:router. So, to answer your first question, AT&T is being honest with you. You need an AT&T mobile modem:router to receive the AT&T wireless signal, just like you need an AT&T compatible cell phone to receive an AT&T cell phone signal. The answer to your second question is no. Your D-link wireless router can't receive the wireless AT&T signal so it will not work. AT&T is not the only game in town, so to speak, when it comes to wireless phone and internet service. If you don't like them and/or don't trust them what are you doing using them?

Hey Ann, We have U-Verse. This is quite long, tried to relay everything. We just past the 15 month mark. I'm not really all that fired up about it. When they finished laying the fiber optic cables they scoured the 'hoods looking for customers. Offering more (we have U200) at what amounted to a huge savings over what we had. DH bit. Our rates did go up some after 12 months, but in comparison shopping, we are about equal or a little better off in price for all 3 services (TV, PC, phone). We are seriously considering a switch and have no doubt they'll offer an enticement to stay, but I'm not sure we'd take it. I'm comparing U-Verse to cable, which is what we had for TV/Internet for years. Landline phone was a separate provider. Pros: Internet has never had an outage (went out a little too frequently with cable, especially storms). Phone service has never been down. TV has had no adverse outages. There have been two that lasted several hours. But that was AT&T upgrades or changes, done in the middle of the night with announcements (on screen) in advance. Has a lot of cool little perks. -Call history can be viewed on TV. -If TV is on and call comes in, TV screen displays caller ID info. -You can view photos on your TV (have never bothered loading that, tho. ) -Can record multiple programming at the same time. Record via primary DVR only. Any DVR box/tv can playback. (See also Cons for more on this.) -If watching something 'live' on primary DVR/TV, and you missed something or left the room, just rewind and watch again. If the same channel is left on without disruption, it stores about 2 hours prior program memory. (Switch channels and memory is lost.) Say you're snuggled in with a great movie and something pulls you away. No need to press Record (which is a handy single red button). Just leave it on that channel, come back to TV later, press rewind, pick up where you left off (and then fast forward through commercials. ;) -Can check/play phone messages from any computer, change Voicemail Greeting, control VM inboxes, etc. (See Cons also) -We have no premium movie channels. But have gotten 3 months of HBO free during winter. And a couple weeks of others free here and there. -I'm trying to think of more Pros. Will have to get back to you on that. Cons: -We've had two DVR boxes (the Primary one) go bad within first year. Programs hesitating, freezing, and finally locking up altogether. Called C.S. Instructed us to reset by holding power button on DVR for 7 seconds and waiting about 5 minutes for it to reboot. That fixed it. Till the next time. (Which at its worst could be a couple minutes later.) There were nights DH was watching big playoff games and rebooted that box over a dozen times in a couple hours. Each time I called, they ran through the 'have you reset' script, then had me troubleshoot on our end by unplugging gateway box and powering up, then going online to a site where our DVR history/errors are logged, and read info to them. Apparently that info showed them how many resets we were doing in a single evening so they sent a tech out. Quickly, about two days later. He replaced DVR box. That was month 3. Tech said hookup job by first guy was not so good. Not buying it. Most common complaint talking with other subscribers in our area is failure + replacement of multiple DVR boxes. Now at 11 month mark for the new (replacement) Primary DVR box, it needs to be replaced. Same symptoms again. -Secondary DVR box on living room TV stopped playing back anything recorded. That happened about 4th month. Recorded programs would hesitate then completely freeze up within first 3 minutes. Don't use that TV much, but it was becoming yet another irritation. On a hunch last weekend DH replaced splitter AT&T had installed where cables come into house. Voila, problem solved. -If you must use a Fax machine in your home it will not receive faxes with Uverse Voicemail feature. I searched, I called, no viable solution. There are complaints online. AT&T C.S. said it's something they don't offer at this time. I have a SOHO and need my fax. So I had to turn off voicemail altogether shortly after we signed up. :/ Had to revert back to answering machine in order to be able to receive faxes. -Internet connection: I'm getting sporadic but noticeable slow down in connection just in the past couple months. It's not my PC, I religiously keep it clean of anything (e.g. spyware) that would bog it down. During those slow spurts when I click on links I get "site not responding" errors. (I hesitate to place full blame for that on AT&T, too many variables. Network connection status reflects a healthy speed. Could be my browser having fits.) -We have multiple AT&T email accounts between us (work, personal, and 'junk' one for web use). I don't want to log into and out of each one so consolidate, use software like Outlook Express, and now Windows Live Mail Desktop. This happened in both software programs: for unknown reasons, not all our AT&T emails come in. But if I go to AT&T site, they are there. Of the six accounts, it seems my personal and business are the ones impacted. (Only occurs with AT&T emails pushed to OE or WLM, it does not happen with gmail or hotmail, I set up accounts and tested it.) Receipt of some emails are delayed, sometimes by as much as a day. There are other annoyances (minor) so I didn't go into them. I know how I feel - despite outages cable for TV/Internet was more reliable overall. Just asked DH if he had to do it over again, would he get Uverse. He said "no way, I want to ditch it". Maybe it's our hookup. He was just talking to a co-worker who lives in a different state, the guy is thrilled, said it works like a dream. But there's a difference in hookup. Coworker's Uverse hookup is all done with phone line wiring inside his house. Our wiring to PC & TVs is all co-axial cable. (Original lines to phones were left intact, as they were.) So maybe they've changed install methods. (I'd definitely ask about that.) That's about it, tried to relay it all, good and bad. Feel free to ask if you have more questions!

Cynic, this is for you. Consumer Reports released its annual assessment of US wireless carriers and placed AT&T in last place for the third year in a row. In its latest report, the consumer product review company ranked AT&T at the bottom of the heap among the top seven wireless carriers in the US. The only bright spot for AT&T was its 4G network, which got decent ratings. Ironically, the top wireless carrier in the US was Consumer Cellular, an MVNO that runs on AT&T�s network. This placement suggests that much AT&T�s low ratings stem from poor customer service and a generally low perception of its service. It�s not due to the network�s poor performance. Verizon was the top national carrier and in the middle among all carriers. Sprint landed right in the middle with average scores across the board, while T-Mobile was ranked just above AT&T. Below is the ranking of the carriers from highest to lowest, according to the report in CNET: Consumer Cellular U.S. Cellular Credo Mobile Verizon Wireless Sprint T-Mobile USA AT&T The full details are available in Consumer Reports� January 2013 issue.