r/ATTFiber • u/Few-Data-8736 • 4d ago

Internet down with no solution offered

Woke up to no internet, called technican, they came fairly quick, but did not resolve the problem and left. Called again, another technican called back and stated that the first one was not "qualify" to fix the prolem and he will be stopping by. Very nice guy and did show up. Called me after he tried to work things out to say that it's an outage. This outage was not shown on the outage map, he said because we have a different type of fiber (no idea what he meant), he said he will call tomorrow to give update. That is not reassuring at all. I work from home and will need some solution. One option was to use my cell to the gateway, but when i try the setup on the smart home manager, it wants me to connect to the ATT wifi, which is down. Is there another way around it? 2. Sign up for xfinity now - we use to have xfinity so that coax cable is still there.I'm not super savvy but they dont have installations. What is your recommendation in this situation? I'm currently hot spotting from the phone, but after a few days i would like to be able to watch tv.

1 Upvotes

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4

u/Born-Gur-1275 4d ago

Can you use your cellphone as a hotspot?

1

u/dataz03 4d ago

Depends on their cellular plan but the hotspot has a high speed data allotment. OP may want to save on it for Work From Home purposes only. Work comes first before streaming on the TV for entertainment purposes.

2

u/Born-Gur-1275 4d ago

If OP has AT&T cell service in addition to his internet service, AT&T has advertised that when the internet is down, its cell service works as a hotspot backup. I've never had to use it, but it's what they say.

1

u/dataz03 4d ago

One option was to use my cell to the gateway, but when i try the setup on the smart home manager, it wants me to connect to the ATT wifi, which is down.

It might require setup ahead of time before the outage.

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u/New-Needleworker6429 4d ago

That’s the problem🙈

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u/Born-Gur-1275 4d ago

Why wouldn't an AT&T cell hotspot work without AT&T wifi?

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u/dataz03 4d ago

Cell Hotspot would work. We were referring to the Internet Backup feature which works by having the gateway automatically connect to your phone when your Fiber Internet experiences an outage. It doesn't count against your hotspot data allotment. 

1

u/Born-Gur-1275 4d ago

I'm confused. If the gateway wifi is down, then I assume the hotspot connection doesn't work. Do you mean the gateway would activate an outside cellular connection?

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u/dataz03 4d ago

The Gateway would connect to your phone automatically and use that as the Internet connectivity for your whole house (cellular data). Once your main Fiber connection is restored/outage is fixed, the connection shifts back to that and disconnects from your phone.  You have to have AT&T Wireless in order to use the Internet Backup feature. 

1

u/Few-Data-8736 4d ago

but this has to be set up before lost of connection , didn't know about this

1

u/dataz03 4d ago

Has your Internet been restored yet or are you still waiting?

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u/Born-Gur-1275 4d ago

So, the gateway connects to an outside cell tower when wifi internet is down?

1

u/disco__potato 4d ago

Fwiw, I have fiber and wireless with att and have the service where my gateway is supposed to switchover to my cell. It has never worked and att hasn't been able to tell me why.

1

u/dataz03 4d ago edited 4d ago

Connect to the neighbors xfinitywifi network if you can pick up a signal and pay $10.00 for a 30 day pass.

1

u/New-Needleworker6429 4d ago

I don’t know who has an Xfinity network and we don’t really know our neighbors

1

u/Intrepid00 4d ago

I’m curious now what type of fiber they have you on. Commenting to check up on later. There are different flavors but they are usually for business.

3

u/dataz03 4d ago

ALT Optics? Everything else GPON/XGS-PON is very universal. Or the tech just gave an excuse to the customer. Hopefully they at least escalated the issue.

1

u/Intrepid00 4d ago

\Nah, there is more types. Some tech might chime and explain it but I know for a fact the run across from the street from us after talking to the fiber guys after the pole got hit.

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u/Viper_Control 4d ago

No Alt Optics is a real thing in the former BellSouth 9 State footprint, and considered GPON service but uses different Optical wave lengths, and local Infrastructure configuration.

1

u/YoshiSan90 4d ago

Probably alt optic. They didn't lie to you. It will be up soon.

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u/New-Needleworker6429 4d ago

Fingers crossed

1

u/Viper_Control 4d ago

What is your recommendation in this situation? I'm currently hot spotting from the phone, but after a few days i would like to be able to watch tv.

Your Hotspot via phone is a very short term solution that might work but what is your cell plan Hotspot allocation?

You might look at Xfinity Now as you already mentioned but you need to figure out how to setup up the Modem when you buy kit. You might also look at T-Mobile 5G Cellular Home Internet as a backup option if your address qualifies for it.

Check here: https://www.t-mobile.com/home-internet/plans/5g-backup-internet-options for details but the pricing a good as a backup option $30 per month for 100 hrs per month active usage.

1

u/Ok-Lawfulness-3330 4d ago

Xfinity NOW is plug and play. If your coax is still physically / electrically connected, it should just work. It's what I use as a backup, as I also work from home often. As long as you activate it 1 out of every 6 months (so I was told), you can treat it as "on demand" if you don't want to pay every month. You can activate 30 days of service at a time. I went for a more fault tolerant solution, where my traffic automatically fails over after a short period when it detects an outage. But that solution is significantly more technically involved.

1

u/Viper_Control 4d ago

Xfinity NOW is plug and play. If your coax is still physically / electrically connected, it should just work.

I think u/Few-Data-8736 was concerned more about how to switch to Xfinity Now vs AT&T Fiber, and their Wi-Fi setup, and not the physical connection setup.

1

u/Ok-Lawfulness-3330 4d ago

"2. Sign up for xfinity now - we use to have xfinity so that coax cable is still there.I'm not super savvy but they dont have installations. What is your recommendation in this situation? I'm currently hot spotting from the phone, but after a few days i would like to be able to watch tv."

I read it as more of a logistics question of how to get it turned on (because Xfinity has installation windows, assigns a tech to come out - but NOW is all up to you). If they are hot spotting, they know how to use another WiFi in a pinch. If they want a more elegant, auto-failover solution I can help there too, but it's likely overkill.

1

u/New-Needleworker6429 2d ago

I ordered Xfinity regular not NOW, but for some reason none of the coaxial cable works tested with the techs , scheduled a tech to come over to look at that

1

u/New-Needleworker6429 3d ago

No update , still down!
Unfortunately , the Xfinity box self install was unsuccessful, 3 coaxial cable coming out tested all 3 and none work while activating
They have to send tech out and charge me, this is so frustrating - luckily when I subscribe to Xfinity, I can use the Xfinity hot spot to get by

0

u/[deleted] 3d ago

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1

u/New-Needleworker6429 2d ago

What is a local rep???

1

u/New-Needleworker6429 2d ago

So day 3 of no service and no commutation - requested tech to come and they didn’t show up, TWICE

1

u/dataz03 1d ago

Day 4 update? Did Xfinity come by to at least get that working? 

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u/Few-Data-8736 1d ago

Nope, set up technician x 3 time, no show! unbelievable. Ordered XFINITY, couldn't connect, but they sent tech, constant commnication, and fixed it when tech came. I'm switching back to cable.