You probably have the correct info on the router. I use bellsouth which is now AT&T. They have it Gimmickized so that only their goods will work on their system. There may be a way around it, but I have no idea. Grady

If AT&T is being completely honest, it is a rare event! I am ticked off about several things today and this is one more opportunity to rant. I am an AT&T stockholder- AT&T screws us too, when/if we are customers. My cell phone, formerly Cingular, is now AT&T. Cingular had the best reception in my area. Reception is now better, due to the additional towers. But renewing my contract even one day early loses that calendar time on the previous contract. What if magazine publishers did that to you? And for several days before the renewal date, they interrupt your outgoing calls to give you the message- repeatedly. I wonder if the decision maker on this would appreciate such treatment from his/her suppliers of varied services?

A regular router will NOT work with wireless broadband, regardless of who your provider is (AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint). I plan to get Verizon as soon as I'm near the end of my satellite contract since that is the only wireless plan available to me. But I will get one of their USB cards that I can use in either my desktop or my laptop. Fortunately, I am the only one using a computer here, so networking is not critical. There are a couple of specialized routers that WILL work, but they are not cheap, and $130 sounds like a reasonable figure. There are several forums dedicated to EVDO (as this is known). Do a search and you'll find one or two. That's where I'm getting as much info as possible before I get into this myself.

They used to give you the router free if you signed up for their service. I never paid for a router when I had Verizon DSL and Fios. Now I have Cablevision and they gave us the router for free to sign up with them.

I guess I was lucky...

Jane

I question ATT's honesty. I too live in rural America and am clinging to an antique DUN.

Several years ago they came down the main road and replaced all the old copper lines with fiber optic. They also replaced the switching station components. The switching station in the nearby village is located five miles away. The village has DSL.

When they installed the new fiber optic they also created a sub station 1 1/4 miles from me.

I have had lunch several times with the area installers/repairmen. They have repeatedly told me I should be getting DSL service as the substation equipment is in place and it is the starting point for measuring the DSL exchange.

I contacted ATT with this information. Their response, 1.) Don't you think if you were able to get DSL we would be glad to give it to you? and 2.) Our field employees should not be discussing company matters with the public.

I told ATT that regardless of what they say I would believe the "grunts" long before I would believe the "shirts".

DA

I am just being honest here, but those wireless cards that use cell phone towers are no better, if not worse, than dialup. At least with dialup you can get booster software to help with your speed. I work for a very large company that has lots of salesmen out on the road. We trialed the cards and most of our guys told us they just wait until they can get to a regular wireless or hotel room lan connection rather than go through the trouble of pulling up the internet on the cards. I was travelling last year and took one on the road with me. I only checked emails when I absolutely had to because it was so slow. You might want to check and see if they will actually come out and let you trial the speed you will get at home with it, before agreeing to a contract.

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?

jackier123
(At least with dial-up you can get booster software to help with your speed.)
----------------------------------
Is their a website that I could learn more about this
booster software for dial-up?

Unless theren has been a break through and I missed it, which is always possible, packet compression software for dialup is uni-directional rather than bi-directional.

DA

I think some of you are missing what the OP asked about. Regular routers will not work with wireless broadband which gets its signal from cell towers. Just within the past few months both Sprint and Verizon (don't know about AT&T) have made available very fast service, EVDO Rev A. It is now available in the rural area where I live, and I intend to switch to it in the spring when the contract on my satellite internet service is fulfilled. I have already done some research on this and visited the Verizon store (only one available in my area). Verizon does NOT provide land line service where I live, only cellular. My neighbor now has this service, and while costly, it is extremely fast, rivaling the best DSL. Different "air cards" are available, and I intend to get a USB one which can be used in either my laptop or my desktop. The new Rev A service is much, much faster than that service described by jackier 123 in his/her post. Zoom, zoom!

I might add that AT&T told us that sometime in January all the upgrades will be finished in my area and I can expect speeds from 700kb to 2mb a second. I expect to get the service in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how it goes. I had given up on broadband internet so if this works, there will be no complaints.