Difficulty getting a Westell style MSTATEA DSL modem to work properly.

[brightlight864]

I have had DSL service with AT&T for several years.  Up until now, I've always had Motorola DSL modems and have never had a problem.  My last Motorola modem was fried in an electrical storm in the fall.  When I called for a replacement, I was sent a Westell MSTATEA modem.  Right now, I have three, only one of which works "sometimes".  I have to return two of them since they are all under warranty.  (Westell sold its DSL modem business to Netgear last year and the model number does not come up when I went to the Netgear site.  Westell's site refers all questions to Netgear.)

I have spent hours on the phone and in chat with AT&T's support people and have not been able to connect to the internet with any regularity.  I've been to the site 192.168.1.254 and have been unsuccessful in setting the modem up.  I've made screenshots of the error messages I've received but haven't attached them.  If anyone thinks they would be helpful, I'll be more than happy to post them.

My computer is an Acer Aspire 5532, 64 bit, AMD brand running Windows 7.  I mostly use the most recent Internet Explorer.  By the way, I'm a retired electronics and instrumentation tech; I learned BASIC on an old Apple IIe with the green monitor in 1984; my first computer was a Commodore 64 and the DOS I learned to work with was IBM (not Microsoft) 1.1.

I'd appreciate any suggestions for working with the modem I have.

Thanks

[Geek-9pm]

I also had a Motorola modem and it went bad. Not for the same reason. I bought a Two-Eire from AT&T and it worked for a long time. It to went bad.

I was desperate, so I sent to a local Stapes and got the only DSL router they had. A Netgear model #DGN 2000 which has wireless and LAN.

The Netgear has IP 192.168.1.1 and is very different from the Two-Wire.
Still, ATT tech support was able to walk me through the setup.  There were able to make the connection for me somehow. My e-mail and password are somehow used to let the modem enter the ATT server. Not sure how it works, but it does.

Of cause the wireless part I had to do myself. They got it to work to the router. I had to start out with my laptop wired to the router.
That is most of what I know about using  ATT DSL.  The tech support person I got was brilliant. Took about half an hour, but it worded and has ever since.