How to Get the Most Out of ATT DSL Internet Service
I used to have broadband cable access, but after my special introductory offer ended it was no longer the cheap cable internet plan I signed up for. I actually had cable high speed twice here in Chicago and once in LA. The first time I had tons of connection problems and it would go out and I had to learn all about it to figure out how to get it working again. But today we’re here to talk about ATT internet service, which I’ve also had twice in Chicago and once in LA. Why all these switches. Well I’ve moved at least once in both cities AND I bought my own equipment for AT&T and for Comcast, so I can switch depending on whose got a better deal, it really only involves a phone call.
And a few years ago SBC would offer the internet service for one year at a special price before going up to its regular price. Now they just have flat rates with particular speeds you can buy. And my broadband cable access had a similar deal, in fact that’s what happened; they had a plan that came with a hundred dollar rebate, plus the 42 dollars a month rate also had a 10 month/20 dollar discount. But once the 10 months were up that 42$ just didn’t seem bearable. Certainly not in the face of old DSL internet’s 14.95. Now make no mistake, cable internet gets at least 1.5 mb of speed and the ATT plan starts at 768 kb of download speed. WOW!!!! Hold the phone! That USED to be the price! As of 2 weeks ago that was the price, and I JUST went to the website to make sure and they’ve CHANGED THEIR PLANS. Holy crap. Ok here’s the current situation; 19.95 then 25$ then 30$ and 35$-those plans are called ATT Basic, Express, Pro and Elite. That’s very important to know when you order because the lowest price, as I said, has a 768 download speed, then 1.5 m (that’s 1500 kbs), then 3.0 and finally 6.0. And as you can see all of those are still cheaper than cable internet.
So let me tell you a couple of short stories. My sister has ATT DSL internet but was having problems downloading stuff. First I decided to check her modem and see what speed she was getting. You can do that by typing 192.168.0.1 into your browser. Then I sent her to the ATT DSL speed test site . Because you see there are 3 factors you need to consider. 1) The speed they promise on the website “up to” 768 download speed. 2) The speed your modem is actually reading from the phone company. 3) The speed you are actually getting as far as the internet is concerned. So I ran these test for my sister and she was only getting 384 download. Because ATT only promises “up to” 768 and I guess we can assume the “at least” is 384 because they were definitely giving her the bare minimum. But here’s the catch; she was PAYING for the 19.95 plan, which meant she was getting the 14.95 service. So I told her to call them and either take her down to the cheaper price or provide the speed of the service she was paying for. In part 2 of this piece I’ll talk about what to do when your service gets interrupted.
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- Buy an Anonymous VPN Service to Hide Your IP Address and Surf Anonymously
Dave,
Thanks for your reply. I saw the picture of Connection Information before when my PC was directly connected with the modem. My question is whether I can still check the modem speed when my PC is NOW connected to a router, which in turn is connected to the modem. Will I only be able to check the DSL connection speed via the speed test site in this case, not the modem connection speed?
Thanks,
Jin
Yes. You can check your modem with a router in the way. You haven’t said if you’ve tried or not, but I’m assuming you tried and it didn’t work?
The image of my DSL Modem Access Page (showing the Connection Information) seen in this article is with my router connected.
You also haven’t said if you can connect to the internet with the router attached. If that’s the situation you should also get the IP number of your router. If your router is new the IP number will be in the instructions if you don’t have the instructions just type the model number into google and the words “IP address.”
Once you can access your router from your computer (like you did with your router) you would enter your login and password for your DSL account. This is IF you can’t access the internet with the router connected, usually most router have a function called “obtain IP automatically.”
(By the way I’m not sure why you’re checking your speed this way, you can just use any online “internet connect speed test” that you can find on google to test your speed. There’s also one linked to in this article. But usually you only need to use this modem access page if you’re not getting a connection and you want to fix it) In other words I’m not sure what you’re trying to do and what your problem actually is; is it a curiosity thing or are you actually not able to connect to the internet or having very slow speed or on and on and…
I’m able to connect to the internet via the router and was able to check the internet connection speed via some web sites. However, I thought that the modem connection speed is not always the same speed of you DSL connection speed. Are they the same then?
Thank you for taking your time to anwser my questions. Really appreciate it.
Yes, they’re pretty much the same. What you see on your modem is the “settings” speed, in other words, what ATT is giving you that day or for the next few weeks. When you check on the internet you find out what your actual speed is.
Think of it like the speedometer on your car saying 0-120 but when you actually drive…And that’s also why I was saying most people just check while they’re online and THEN if they see low numbers they go to the modem page to see what’s wrong.
But remember, you don’t want to check your speed while you’re doing some heavy internet usage going. For ex. I listen to internet radio, download movies, watching youtube, etc so I stop all that when I want to test. You can also get a free tool like NetLimiter or check download.com to look for a tool that tells you what things on your computer are currently connected to the internet and how much bandwidth they’re using.
I appreciate your appreciation. I’ve got another lady over at my Magicjack article right now answering her Att questions-she’s nice too, so I stop making money for a while and do these Q & A’s.
Speaking of making money have you considered Magicjack….
Dave,
I have another question for you. I have the DSL + phone services through att and am considering drop the phone line and keep the DSL only. Is there any physical changes needed, such as a technician visit to install any switches or jacks in my home or outside of my house? Will my connection speed still be the same as with the phone server together (I’ll keep the same level of DSL service subscribtion)? This might be why I thought about to check the connection speed both with the modem and with the DSL connection.
Once again, thank you very much for your reply in advance!
Jin
Jin
It more or less IS the same but let me direct you to my main ATT DSL article to see the prices and the comment section. The comments are the most crucial part to help you understand as I explained it to other people.
Don’t panic because it looks like a lot of print, if you have time, scan through the article and comment section because it’ll gives you the “how to.” In a nutshell; nobody needs to come out to your location but you wont keep the same account. No more phone number but you will have a 7 digit account # that starts 081.
That’s great, Dave!
You’re really helpful and I’ll be back if I run into any issues during my switching process and maybe some questions with MagicJack down the road!
Ok Jin
And you don’t HAVE to come back here with more questions, I’m sure there are some other places..No. no I’m kidding you’re welcome back. After all that’s the name of the site…
Dave,
I said that I would be back again, didn’t I? OK, I dropped my phone service, switched to the Dry Loop DSL and got the magicJack to work. Now I want to setup my fax machine to work with the magicJack, will it can be done at all? Any experience in connecting a fax machine to the magicJack?
As always, thank you very much in advance for your help!
Jin
Hi Jin
Hope you’ve been well. And I’m glad you were able to get so far so fast.
As you may have read at my MAGICJACK piece I have connected my computer fax. Some guy emailed me last week, and I sent him the instructions but he never wrote back. But if you’re using the computer fax in windows on an XP machine it’s usually in the Accessories-Communications-Fax folder. Haven’t gotten a copy of Vista yet, but it’s probably someplace similar.
But physically the wiring would go like this
MJ to computer USB
MJ phone line to computer modem
If you want to have the phone AND the fax connected get a 99 cent splitter (see a photo at the MJ article) and plug that into the MJ. Then plug the phone in one side and the computer modem on the other side. Dial tone on both.
Now if you’re using an external fax machine I would guess that you can take the phone out of the MJ and just plug the fax line in instead. I haven’t used an actual fax machine in a while, but I seem to recall them having TWO phone lines; one for input and one to go back to the phone. So you should have
MJ to computer USB
MJ phone line to Fax
Fax to Phone
And a dial tone on phone and fax
But it definitely works because I do it when I need to send contracts all the time.
Hi Dave,
Thank you for writting back to me with some many options. I’m using a fax machine and thought about just connecting it to the magicJack as a regular phone. However, I read many posts said that magicJack won’t work with fax machine, so I asked whether you have had any experience with faxing. Anyway, I’m going to try it.
I also used a phone jack splitter to “wire” the whole house phone lines, but the sound quality wasn’t that good comparing the direct connection to the magicJack. I can hear some background noice, something like the AC currrent wave during the call. Any suggestions?
By the way, what is the re-register with my new att DSL account. I was told to re-register with att using the new account number after the switching. I went to their registration page and entered my new account number; I used my existing primary email address since I want to keep it, however I got the message of saying that the email address is already associated with an existing service and has to be disconnected first. I’m confused. Do I have to re-register with the new account number?
Again, appreciate your help, Dave!
Hi Jin
Good luck with the fax. Yeah when I read other people’s NEGATIVE advice I take it with a grain of salt and if I WANT to do something I’ll still try myself. And then if I can’t get something to work THEN I look to see if anybody has been able to do the that thing. So you might need to do some testing…
In terms of your whole house situation, that would be a perfect example of when you should go to get some outside help. This is a perfect example when a person needs to hear many “voices.” Because there are so many variables. For example, are you using a plain splitter or one of the att dsl filters that look like a splitter, are you using wired house phones or wireless, are those wireless phones analog or digital, is the phone connection still connected at the NID box outside your house. Please don’t answer those questions, those or just examples of why it’s kind of impossible for a one person blog to resolve that and you need to read other people’s experiences at a forum.
Here are some samples; ehow has a magicjack section
I think typing “magicjack forum” into google will also bring up some
But the oldest collection of information is probably at dslreports.com
Lastly in our last exchange a week ago I believe I did mentioned the “DSL only” account would be a new account that starts with “081″ and not the same as your dsl and phone account. So you do need to register online to pay your bills with the new email/login information of your new account. In other words, you can probably still use the old email and even login into your bills with that email but that is NOT your current (new) bills. You should also call att and ask them how long your old email will remain usable. It might be forever and it might not. You can read this article I wrote
Pay Bills Online For ATT – DSL Only Dry Loop Accounts
Please, going forward, never never never use your ISP email as your personal email. Because if you change ISP then you loose your email. Always get a free email account that’s dependable. Like yahoo or better yet gmail. In fact you can even control your att email from gmail, so I suggest you sign up and start gradually telling people to start using the new email.
Thank you so much Dave, especially for the advice on having a free email account.
I do have a hotmail account myself, but I have to tell my wife and kids to get one as well.
Later,
Jin
Hi Dave, thanks for the service you are providing. I need your help.
I have dry loop internet with Verizon. a Dell AIO printer with fax capability, and magic jack
The line from the magic jack is connected to the back of the Dell AIO printer port that has the wall socket icon.
The line from the phone is connected to the back of the Dell AIO printer port that has the phone icon
I have set my baud to 9600 as recommended and have turned off error correction
When I try to send a fax, I hear the number being dialed and I see the operation on my magic jack wimdow.
On the Dell AIO window , I can see connecting, sending at 9600 and then I get waiting for redial message.
Is there any thing I am doing wrong? Why isn’t my fax working Thank You
Hi Joel
Well I drew a diagram following what you described so it SOUNDS like you’ve got a logical setup.
And I’ll be honest I’m not really a Verizon user so I don’t know what you can/can’t do on their service, or what their modem allows/restricts in terms of blocking certain kinds of data.
BUT, if I were in your shoes I’d start ruling things out.
-I’d first get the free version of NetLimiter or any tool that shows how much bandwidth is using by various things on your computer and make sure that while I was trying to fax nothing else was using my bandwidth. But FIRST find out exactly how much download AND upload speed you actually have (not what they told you, but what you actually have in real life) by going to one of the online speedtest. Just type “test my dsl speed” in google.
-Next Id try to use the computer fax to see if I could just fax out (minus the Dell)
-Then I’d take the Dell to somebody’s place with a traditional dial tone (minus the MJ and your Dry Loop)
-While at that location I’d also try MJ (if they have internet), if that worked I’d then connect the Dell to the mix (in this case we’re minus your Dry Loop again but trying the MJ and the Dell)
-And then I’d try to borrow somebody’s fax and try it with your regular setup, so in this case it’s minus the Dell.
So I think you get the idea, after making sure you’ve got bandwidth it just becomes a process of ruling elements out.
Dave
Thanks Dave, I will try the suggestions you made
Hello,
Recently without knowing much we ordered AT & T U Verse service for internet and Land phone line. It is costing us arm and leg. We are in a tight budget. I am wondering will we be able to get internet service only via Dry Loop DSL Direct?
I want to know if you get only Dry Loop DSL Direct Basic or Express or Pro or Elite service do we get wireless internet access through DSL modem?
We do have an year old AT&T DSL modem (as I mentioned above we started the U Verse service only few months ago), do we need to get a new modem?
Let us know
Thanks
Lila
Hi Lila
Sorry it took me a day to get back to you-making money online! And more importantly I’ve got a broken laptop keyboard so I’m waiting parts from ebay, you don’t even know what I’m having to do to type this…
So, your situation is both complex and not. In the sense that I don’t know what exact deal you have since Uverse is a mix and match, and I don’t know if phone service is in there. And I don’t know if you’re on a month-to-plan or some type of annual plan. On the other hand the extremely easy solution would be to just call ATT.
I think people sometimes forget that as the customer they can ask a company about changing their plan-or even LOWERING the amount of service they’re buying. In fact the company will bend over backwards. I’ve got about 4-5 ATT articles and in all the comments sections I have a question like this, and I always ask “why didn’t you just call ATT” and very people ever respond so I’ve learned to live with it.
I have a few THEORIES about what would happen in your case but I’m SO reluctant to speculate because if it’s wrong then I get “that internet bastard ruined my life!” But I can tell you a few things for certain;
-If you don’t need all the stuff in Uverse downgrade to less stuff
-If your modem was yours pre-Uverse it’s still yours-and it will work with Dry Loop
-If you DO have phone service, you do understand that DRY LOOP means no phone service right?: That’s internet only. So you have to decide about the phone #
-A wireless router IS included in some of the Dry Loop packages (see the big chart above) but you can BUY a wireless router for like 25 bucks. Do you get what I’m saying? Internet is internet. The wireless part depends on the router or modem/router combo.
-ATT does have a DSL Internet and phone service that $40 dollars a month. Don’t think it includes long distance I’m in the middle of researching/writing that for another article
Thanks Dave, we only have 2 services with U Verse. Those are Phone (voice service) and internet service. I do understand on the DRY LOOP there is no phone. We don’t want phone, we only want internet service. We did call ATT but forgot to ask how much it would be to get only DSL internet service. We will do that. Thank you so much
Lila