Recently moved and the only option I had for staying with Sonic was the resold AT&T U-Verse service. I had some misgivings after reading about how it differs from pure Sonic service, but I couldn't stomach going to another provider so I went through with it anyway.
Overall, the process went as expected, AT&T showed up on time (twice), Sonic's team is as great as ever to work with, and I was able to get a higher speed tier than in the original estimate.
After about two weeks, I can confirm that the experience others have shared about the resold AT&T service is still true as of mid-2021:
(Side note: I used to be on Sonic DSL at ~25 / 3, and the difference between 3 and 8Mbps up is huge when I access my home network with WireGuard / RDP.)
To deal with being on AT&T's network, I did some prep work to try to create a more Sonic-like experience. At the very least, I wanted to use my own router to specify different DNS servers on all my devices. I also got a more beefy router to run OpenWrt with, so I can use OpenVPN on that and encrypt all of my traffic. This part has been more of a mixed bag.
The setup I ended up with: Linksys WRT32X (identical to the WRT3200ACM), OpenWrt 19.07.7 with the following enabled-
But what I found was that Google doesn't play well with VPNs. When I enabled whole-home VPN, some Google services like the Messages for Web client (to use a desktop browser as the interface for my Android's text messages) wouldn't work, and my TV's Chromecast started acting up. Then WireGuard got mixed up when OpenVPN got into the picture, and I didn't want to spend more time getting that fixed.
The Messages for Web documentation shows that it's not compatible with VPNs, although I'm not sure if that's the case for Chromecasts. Maybe there was some other configuration issue at my end that caused problems with it. I believe WireGuard should work if configured correctly, too. But I just ended up leaving OpenVPN off on my router, and more or less run it like a "stock" AT&T customer except using Cloudflare's DNS instead of AT&T's.
I haven't run into any issues with the AT&T network yet, but it's good to know I can still use Sonic's VPN with my router, or a software client if I need to. If anyone else has tried something similar with OpenWrt or some other setup, it'd be great to hear about your experience.
Overall, it's been a good experience so far and I'm glad I can stick with Sonic. Thanks for the added features like VoIP, and giving us the VPN option!
Overall, the process went as expected, AT&T showed up on time (twice), Sonic's team is as great as ever to work with, and I was able to get a higher speed tier than in the original estimate.
After about two weeks, I can confirm that the experience others have shared about the resold AT&T service is still true as of mid-2021:
- Actual speed is closer to the advertised speed when compared to traditional DSL
- Forced to use AT&T RG (I got the BGW210 model)
- BGW210's "IP passthrough" isn't a true bridge mode, in that I still see 192.168.1.254 as the second hop after my router when I traceroute anywhere
- Cannot use Sonic's DNS servers without being on Sonic's VPN
(Side note: I used to be on Sonic DSL at ~25 / 3, and the difference between 3 and 8Mbps up is huge when I access my home network with WireGuard / RDP.)
To deal with being on AT&T's network, I did some prep work to try to create a more Sonic-like experience. At the very least, I wanted to use my own router to specify different DNS servers on all my devices. I also got a more beefy router to run OpenWrt with, so I can use OpenVPN on that and encrypt all of my traffic. This part has been more of a mixed bag.
The setup I ended up with: Linksys WRT32X (identical to the WRT3200ACM), OpenWrt 19.07.7 with the following enabled-
- SQM (cake)
- OpenVPN client
- Dynamic DNS
- WireGuard for remote access to my home network
But what I found was that Google doesn't play well with VPNs. When I enabled whole-home VPN, some Google services like the Messages for Web client (to use a desktop browser as the interface for my Android's text messages) wouldn't work, and my TV's Chromecast started acting up. Then WireGuard got mixed up when OpenVPN got into the picture, and I didn't want to spend more time getting that fixed.
The Messages for Web documentation shows that it's not compatible with VPNs, although I'm not sure if that's the case for Chromecasts. Maybe there was some other configuration issue at my end that caused problems with it. I believe WireGuard should work if configured correctly, too. But I just ended up leaving OpenVPN off on my router, and more or less run it like a "stock" AT&T customer except using Cloudflare's DNS instead of AT&T's.
I haven't run into any issues with the AT&T network yet, but it's good to know I can still use Sonic's VPN with my router, or a software client if I need to. If anyone else has tried something similar with OpenWrt or some other setup, it'd be great to hear about your experience.
Overall, it's been a good experience so far and I'm glad I can stick with Sonic. Thanks for the added features like VoIP, and giving us the VPN option!