demonikal
New Member
*JohnB already tried to help me out with this, but I think because I didn't understand what a router was for & what a gateway was for & what a modem was, we weren't making any headway.
*AT&T U-verse is our Internet Service Provider. I've heard we have Fiber Optic cables running in the backyard, but I'm pretty sure we have a DSL line running to the back of our house [and into the back of the kitchen wall].
-The gateway/router is AT&T-owned. It says at&t U-verse on the front and Model No. 3801HGV on the front and back.
-We also have VoIP with Vonage, so we have a Vonage adapter sitting on a shelf directly below the gateway/router, which is sitting to the right of our landline telephone.
-Here's how the back of the router/gateway is laid out, from top to bottom:
The following is written on the back as "Home Network":
--Phone Lines 1 & 2 (only one port though). Gray phone cable from there goes to an RJ-11 jack in the wall. That was there when we moved here like 13 years ago and the people that lived here before didn't have internet.
--Ethernet ports: 4, 3, 2, and 1 (top to bottom):
---> port 3 is a white cable that travels across the entire length of the house through the basement and back up into the closet floor of my bedroom to my PC.
---> port 2 is a black cable that goes to our network attached printer, which sits right next to the gateway/router.
---> port 1 is a blue cable that goes to the back of the Vonage VoIP adapter.
Below that, the following is written on the back as "Broadband":
--ONT. It's an ethernet port and I've never known what it was for.
--DSL. An RJ-11 port from which we have a green cable, labeled by AT&T I guess that says "DATA CABLE" and goes from there to a lower point on the wall. That lower point on the wall also has a male coaxial. I remember watching the AT&T guy putting that whole thing in himself.
And below those are the reset button, then the power.
Now for the Vonage adapter:
--1 gray phone line goes from the back of the adapter to our landline telephone.
--1 yellow ethernet cable goes from the back of the adapter to my mom's HP laptop. Vonage told us the adapter had to be wire-cabled to an actual PC or laptop.
--the 1 blue ethernet cable that I mentioned goes from our gateway/router to back of this adapter.
--and last the power cable and reset button.
*I have no idea what to do. We have a one-floor ranch house, but with a basement that takes up just about the same square footage as the first floor. I'll be moving most of my stuff down there fairly soon for the Fall/Winter. It doesn't bother me if we need more than one device, but as long as they are all 802.11n capable, since now 3 of the 4 devices in our house, not counting our mobile phones, are N-capable. I also don't mind doing the wiring. I prefer a wired PC over a PC on WiFi, but I prefer a laptop on WiFi over wired, unless it has a built in ethernet port, which mine doesn't. If anyone has any ideas on what to do and what devices to get, it'd be a great help. I don't know anyone that works in IT & if I went to Geek Squad or something, I'm afraid I'd get dooped into buying something that I really don't need. I'm not a total n00b, but there's just some things I don't get at all and networking is one of them.
*Two last things. I would really prefer not to use AT&T's branded equipment. And if anyone knows of an easier way to have landline service than Vonage, let me know. I realize not everyone here lives in the U.S., but maybe there's a VoIP company out there that's international.
*AT&T U-verse is our Internet Service Provider. I've heard we have Fiber Optic cables running in the backyard, but I'm pretty sure we have a DSL line running to the back of our house [and into the back of the kitchen wall].
-The gateway/router is AT&T-owned. It says at&t U-verse on the front and Model No. 3801HGV on the front and back.
-We also have VoIP with Vonage, so we have a Vonage adapter sitting on a shelf directly below the gateway/router, which is sitting to the right of our landline telephone.
-Here's how the back of the router/gateway is laid out, from top to bottom:
The following is written on the back as "Home Network":
--Phone Lines 1 & 2 (only one port though). Gray phone cable from there goes to an RJ-11 jack in the wall. That was there when we moved here like 13 years ago and the people that lived here before didn't have internet.
--Ethernet ports: 4, 3, 2, and 1 (top to bottom):
---> port 3 is a white cable that travels across the entire length of the house through the basement and back up into the closet floor of my bedroom to my PC.
---> port 2 is a black cable that goes to our network attached printer, which sits right next to the gateway/router.
---> port 1 is a blue cable that goes to the back of the Vonage VoIP adapter.
Below that, the following is written on the back as "Broadband":
--ONT. It's an ethernet port and I've never known what it was for.
--DSL. An RJ-11 port from which we have a green cable, labeled by AT&T I guess that says "DATA CABLE" and goes from there to a lower point on the wall. That lower point on the wall also has a male coaxial. I remember watching the AT&T guy putting that whole thing in himself.
And below those are the reset button, then the power.
Now for the Vonage adapter:
--1 gray phone line goes from the back of the adapter to our landline telephone.
--1 yellow ethernet cable goes from the back of the adapter to my mom's HP laptop. Vonage told us the adapter had to be wire-cabled to an actual PC or laptop.
--the 1 blue ethernet cable that I mentioned goes from our gateway/router to back of this adapter.
--and last the power cable and reset button.
*I have no idea what to do. We have a one-floor ranch house, but with a basement that takes up just about the same square footage as the first floor. I'll be moving most of my stuff down there fairly soon for the Fall/Winter. It doesn't bother me if we need more than one device, but as long as they are all 802.11n capable, since now 3 of the 4 devices in our house, not counting our mobile phones, are N-capable. I also don't mind doing the wiring. I prefer a wired PC over a PC on WiFi, but I prefer a laptop on WiFi over wired, unless it has a built in ethernet port, which mine doesn't. If anyone has any ideas on what to do and what devices to get, it'd be a great help. I don't know anyone that works in IT & if I went to Geek Squad or something, I'm afraid I'd get dooped into buying something that I really don't need. I'm not a total n00b, but there's just some things I don't get at all and networking is one of them.
*Two last things. I would really prefer not to use AT&T's branded equipment. And if anyone knows of an easier way to have landline service than Vonage, let me know. I realize not everyone here lives in the U.S., but maybe there's a VoIP company out there that's international.
