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AT&T U-Verse Router/Gateway Issue

I recently had an interesting problem. I kept getting warnings from my router about a 3rd party router being connected. You might say, “How does your router warn you?” While browsing the web my router would force a redirect to a web page (hosted by the router’s web server) instructing me that a 3rd party router was detected and I could put it in the DMZ. I closed it. I think the message came up again later and one of my kids hit RESOLVE. The router then proceeded to put my iMac in the DMZ!

My iMac didn’t have the firewall on because I was troubleshooting problems with syncing my AT&T Tilt (Mac syncing is not for the faint of heart). All of a sudden I’m getting email bounce messages from all over – I think my Mac somehow was being used to send canned ham. I couldn’t figure out how to stop this DMZ feature from happening. I disconnected my Mac and my laptop was the next silicon offering to the DMZ.

Time for U-Verse support. I called before I left work because I didn’t know the hours of support, seems they are available 24×7. The tech said he’d call me back when I got home and setup a callback time. They called and tried to configure my router remotely but was unable to see my device configuration. Since he wasn’t familiar with my issue he quickly handed me off to the next level of support. This person was an expert in the configuration and had no trouble connecting and turning off the DMZ (just do a restore default settings under Firewall – I was looking for a check-box). Then he set it to not warn me anymore if it detects that condition (which he wasn’t sure why it would do that, I was the first one he had heard of). I asked if there was a way to just use my old linksys router for wi-fi. Answer? Sure – just go to your TV channel 411 and watch the video HOW-TO! Very helpful, 10 minute call. Kudos guys.

If you got the same message and don’t want to be bothered (or having someone click RESOLVE) go to this URL:
http://192.168.1.254/MDC

This is the more advanced management console for your router. Go to Local Network on the left, then Configuration. Scroll down on the right side and you’ll see an option “Display router behind router warning”. Just uncheck it and be happy.

Cingular 8125, A2DP, Stereo Bluetooth headsets

I recently got a really great set of Bluetooth stereo headphones. I have a bluetooth PocketPC Phone (Cingular 8125) loaded with Yahoo Music (The online music rental plan for $9.99/mo). Sounds like I’m heading for a great thing…

I did some research on this setup. I found a few people in newsgroups saying it worked great. The headphones arrived. I had the latest ROM from Cingular, but I couldn’t get the headset to work for music. Back to the forums to figure out what is going on.

Turns out there really isn’t any ROM support for A2Dp, except some custom ROMS (no thanks). The folks at HTC (the manufacturer) provide a A2DP stack for M$ bluetooth – for the Tornado phone. It is a few DLL files and some registry changes. It also “works” for the Wizard (8125). Works, just like “Greatness” is a relative word.

After resolving I was going to have to use a hack I made the updates, and it worked. I tuned into one of my favorite bands, David Chowder Band – sounds great. Then I head over to some instrumental music. Hmm… What’s that instrument in the background? Is that some kind of modulating electronic HISS? Yup. Back to the forums.

The hiss is apparently some sort of byproduct of the Microsoft bluetooth stack as other PocketPC devices with the Widcomm stack can tweak the sound out. Do I keep the $100 headphones or … ebay them!?

Here is the place to get the A2DP hack ->
http://www.htcwizardweb.net/node/304
This is a CAB with all the registry changes and DLL’s. Just register first, otherwise you can’t download the file in the thread.

Here are some tuning tips, YMMV ->
http://www.firstloox.org/forums/showthread.php?p=60192

Last bit of advice? OVERCLOCK! I run mine at 240Mhz and it makes up for the bluetooth stack CPU usage.

Great PDA/Phone

Well I finally gave up on my Treo. 1) It was dying a terrible battery death 2) The hinge broke AGAIN 3) I work for AT&T and people look at me funny with my Sprint Treo. I switched to Cingular and got the new 8125 phone (a.k.a. HTC Wizard). It’s really awesome. I’m creating an article with all my Cingular 8125 notes with my software finds, and migration from Palm.