According to AT&T, they only support two types of DSL modems in my area: their 2-wire model which is an all-in-one router and DSL modem and the Motorola 2210 modem-only. For several reasons that aren't really relevant to this post, I choose the Motorola 2210 solution. Unfortunately, I've not had a lot of luck with the 2210's lasting very long and I always seem to forget a simple, yet key, configuration step when setting up a new one.

The 2210 comes factory configured to connect directly to your computer which is fine if you only have a single wired computer to deal with. However, I have multiple wired and wireless devices that need to share the connection so I have my own router that connects to the 2210 via the WAN port on the router. I've had several different routers from different manufacturers over the years and the configuration is pretty simple: go into the router's web-based configuration, set the WAN configuration to PPPoE, enter your account user name and password, then you're all set. Or at least that's how it appears.

The part I always seem to forget is that part about the modem being factory configured to be directly connected to a single computer, not a router. The reason is that everything appears to work correctly... sort of... for a while. What I mean by that is that my devices are connected to the Internet, browser and email access works, files can be downloaded, media can be streamed, etc. Inevitably, I soon notice that periodically my Internet connection drops, large file downloads fail, video streams freeze up, and eventually I get fed up with the issues so I go into troubleshooting mode. At least the way I troubleshoot these types of network issues, the last place I look is actually where the issue is. So this post is a reminder of the steps needed to configure the modem correctly:

1. Connect the modem directly to your PC (configured either to DHCP or a static IP address of 192.168.1.*)
2. In your web browser go to 192.168.1.254
3. Set the modem to bridged mode
4. Now disconnect from the PC and connect to the router

Thanks to broadbandreports.com and their Motorola Info page for refreshing my memory on this. Another reminder is that when directly connected to the PC, some fairly detailed information is available on the line stats page when troubleshooting DSL line problems (much easier than dealing with AT&T tech support.)