Problems with my LinkSys wireless routers since getting AT&T u-verse

Question

I recently installed AT&T u-verse. Every since it's hit or miss on whether I can connect to my two linksys wireless routers. Sometimes it connects fine but other times I can try for hours and never obtain an IP address. I never have a problem connecting to the 2wire wireless router which was installed when u-verse was installed but it doesn't have coverage for my whole house.
The AT@T tech says the 2Wire has problems with routers being configured behind their router??? He said that I need to set my Linksys wireless routers up as access points???
Anyone have any suggestions on what to try? Anyone else have issues like this after u-verse was installed?
Thanks

Answer 1

I've had AT&T U-verse since March, and I wish it wasn't the best option in my area. I have been through 3 of those 2-Wire Gateways and as best I can track down it's that DHCP Server. I have a BEFSR41v3 (and yes, I am NOT using the WAN port, just the switch at IP 192.168.1.10) and a WAP54G (IP 192.168.1.11) using WPA2-PSK and have been using for years now. AT&T tried telling me it was my wireless devices, which strangely enough worked PERFECTLY fine on my Linksys hardware with the same SSID/Key when I was with TWC. My wireless devices would work fine for a while, then gradually start having problems until by 2 weeks they are completely unable to negotiate an IP from the DHCP. Called AT&T, they reset the gateway, and everything works for 2 more weeks. Most my computers (wired or WiFi) are manually IP configured. Only my laptop (also used on a college WiFi) and visitors use the DHCP server (and the AT&T Boxes).  THUS far I've been reasonably successful by limiting the AT&T Gateway to 3 addresses for my Boxes, letting it issue them to the TV's, then adding my linksys router (ignoring the WAN port and using DHCP on with an allocation of 15 addresses) and setting the Linksys WAP to the #4 port. This weird setup now gets short lasting fits in the form of "Limited Connectivity" for my WiFi devices using Dyamic IP.  It can still access the LAN perfect, only that device has no Internet Access, and Windows says i'm being blocked by a Firewall. It self resolves in a few minutes without me doing anything and it MIGHT come once or so a month, or until they run another update which seems to ALWAYS reset that gateway (I've given up changing the password and now keep a txt on every system since it seems to reset at least monthly). A few days ago it's started giving me IP conflicts that disappeared within 1-2 minutes, which is odd since it is my manual IP's getting the conflicts... It did that for 2 days then hasn't since.
Currently I'm wired as...
AT&T Gateway 192.1681.254 w/ 3 DHCP range 1.160-163, WiFi disabled, and 3 LAN ports to 2 TV's and my BEFSR41
BEFSR41 192.168.1.10 w/ 15 DHCP range 1.60-74, WAN port unused, 4 LAN ports to 1 Desktop, 2 unmanaged Netgear 1000 switches, and 1 to the WAP
WAP54G 192.168.1.11 with it's gateway set to 192.168.1.10 
1 Netgear switch provides wired access for the entertainment center (PS3, DVD player, DVR, etc) and open ports for visitors
Other Netgear switch is upstairs and runs to 2 additional desktops and one more cable box...
All my wired NICs are set to a 1.2x address and all configured WiFi devices (Wii and a pair of Android phones) i have on a 1.3x.
Manual IP with a 255.255.255.0 mask and gateway 192.168.1.254, manually entering the DNS from the gateway's Broadband Details page 
As far as I've been able to test and observe, that gateway is tempermental (and intermittent so tech support can't EVER find a problem conveniently) with anything using the DHCP other than the cable boxes. My manual set devices have had no problems other than that strange IP conflict that popped up on 3 computers, bugged me 2 days, then just never came back (also ironically the monday i was going to call a tech support about it)
I've attempted to disable the DHCP entirely from the gateway and only use my Linksys DHCP. That seemed to work for a few hours untill, i'm guessing, the leases expired. Then all 3 TV's stopped. Everything getting it's IP manually or from the Linksys continued just fine, internet and all. The cable boxes only returned when i re-activated the 2-Wire's DHCP Server.
I would like to try using the Linksys router to isolate my LAN (and everything else i can) from that 2-Wire with a cascade, just link across on a single static IP to dodge that DHCP, but i havn't been able to get the cablebox upstairs to work off the Linksys DHCP. Even then, I'm not sure how i can get a network split to work. If i only isolated the DHCP over my WiFi, they would still at least loose file-sharing with the my File/Media/Backup PC downstairs. Move that to the other side, then the PC's upstairs loose access. As is it's MOSTLY stable though, i just have to pull apart the gateway and cut down it's DHCP range so my devices will actually get an IP from my linksys. If i don't take away the 2-wires, i still get a high IP fail rate. It would be great if i'm overlooking some way to force all DHCP IP requests -OTHER- than the cable boxes to get their IP from the Linksys and not the 2-Wire
Far as jdaley, I havn't tried to set a cascade since I'm having problems figuring out a means to isolate the boxes (and 2-wire) away from the LAN since one box is upstairs sharing a single cable with the computers there. Someone else seemed to report a success that way. If not that, then only other thing I can think of might be to just manually set all your WiFi IP addresses by hand
Thanks for any other ideas on dodging this 2-Wire's DHCP I'd really appreciate it. I'm really hoping i'm just overlooking something SIMPLE.