Motorola's NVG510 DSL modem... not very good

14.03.2012
A few weeks ago here in the above ground portions of the we got hooked on the British series "".

The reason I mention this new found delight is that we wanted to watch it on Netflix and the best way to do that was on the Second Generation Apple TV connected to the TV upstairs. I discussed the Apple TV briefly and I realize that the problems I discussed then must have been related to the kind of problems I'm about to discuss.

The reason for choosing that particular TV was that the house isn't hard wired for data and as the Apple TV handles WiFi very well and as my AT&T DSL service was, at the time, stable, all was fine and we happily watched the episodes. For a while.

I've written about my problems with AT&T's DSL service (my editor recently threatened me with violence if he has to edit another column on DSL ... luckily we're on different coasts) and it is, in truth, a complete and utter mess. What's more, it appears I'm not alone. I've had more reader responses from those columns than almost anything else I've written, and it seems like when your AT&T Internet service has problems, it's almost always an ordeal.

In my case, my AT&T U-Verse connection is mediated by a . This device, customized for AT&T, has an ADSL2/2+ WAN port, a four-port 10/100 Ethernet switch, a 400mW 802.11b/g/n access point, and a single RJ-14 port for service (if such a thing is available in your area).

Note that Motorola offers no support whatsoever for this device and you cannot get the manual for this product from either Motorola or AT&T. You have to download it from , a PhD student in the marketing department of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, who also explains on how to download the manual from the FCC's archive of product approvals (Ron also answers a number of support questions about the NVG510 that AT&T fails to address; big props to Ron!).