One tip that many do not know about U-verse is that the ethernet port on the back of the STBs is hot. Meaning you can plug your laptop, router, xbox, ps3, slingbox, or whatever into the back of your STB with an ethernet cable and get internet access. Being a new tech to U-verse this might be helpful knowledge doing installs.

Hey premtek, off subject but what ever happened with the union talks? Any hope on a pay increase?

Well they still in limbo about what they wanna do anyone can check it out at http://district6.cwa-union.org/bargaining/ on the progress. I think they company and the union is just screwing around about it instead of reaching an agreement. att needs a union. If it was not for the union and the public service commission att would be out of control. The union is just not out to screw the company with pay raises and incentives but i also helps to protect the customers  as well the employees. During the contract negotiations, the company and union discuss on how, where, when they roll out and develop dsl, uverse and whatever. Alot of the stuff the union makes the company do forces att to put services in rural areas instead of cities. Truth be know if it was not for the union att would be paying premtechs minimum wage and no health care and probably contracting it out. they wont say it, but its said threw there actions. “Att looks at premtechs as a red headed step child” Just about every week they come in and say that we half to start doing this and this with no pay increase. A entry level premtech make 360.00 a week and it maxes out right now after 5 years of service around 615 i think. But ir entry level is around 16 an hour and maxes out after 5 years and 30 and hour. And now the company is trying to get us to do ir work plus our normal uverse stuff. and its not gonna happen. So if it was not for the union there would be alot of companies out there screwing the employees over. but its mainly there for the checks and balances to keep the company in check.

I'm threw raving my fingers are tired of typing lol

Wow!! Looks like I missed the hot topic while I was out of town. Personally I believe in both sides the Union and management and it's hard to draw the line of what is fair and not fair. There are a lot of union workers that work really hard, odd hours, and tons of overtime that deserve every penny they get. To me it's a shame when they try to union bust while CEO's are ranking in millions not including all the CFO, VPs, and etc and the millions their making. I think the biggest problem is some people take advantage of the benefits a union offers and this gives a bad name to all unions when really a lot of them are really good workers and a few bad apples spoils the bunch.

It's easy to say jump from job A to job B but when you have worked at a company for some time and put some hard work into it you really don't want to leave.

I think you have to work in a union to really understand how it all works and up east it's completely different. I have worked both sides of the fence and honestly I can see where both sides have very valid points. I think it's important for both management and unions to work together and keep a good open line of communications.

Here are my tech tips for you:

I use a small belt sheath with 3 tools in it.  These three tools make up 30 to 50 percent of tools used on a daily basis, depending on the day.  The sheath is from a klein tools cabler's kit.  The kit comes with a pair of wire snips and a sheath knife.  I dont use the sheath knife so dont see the value in carrying it around.  The sheath has two overlapped pockets in it.  In the inner pocket I put a pair of fluke networks needle-locks pliers (can be purchased at most home depots for around $20.00).  Also in the inner pocket I put a small (6  3/4″ overall length X 3/16″ wide blade) Stanley flat-tipped screw driver.  In the outer pocket I have a pair of fluke networks D-snips (harder to find but well worth it).  I carry this small assortment with me everywhere I go while I am on the job.  The needle-locks have a wire stripper, wire cutter, needle-nose, and scotchlock plier all built into one handy little package.  The screw driver is perfect for use in almost all cross-boxes as well as most wall plates and all of the various binding posts found on the baluns, VDSL filter splitters, and telco retrofits used in NIDS.  The Fluke D-snips are much better than the Klein standard model snips and MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the Jameson snips at&t is going to give you.  In a pinch they will EASILY cut through the tri-shield coax at&t uses like a hot knife through butter.

As a rule, the company does not like it's techs to use their own tools but they will overlook a small, personal belt kit like the one described above.  I have displayed mine in front of all types of managers to include the VP in charge of U-verse operations for North America (my overall boss as well as yours) and have heard nothing from it.

Unless you live in a very small town, you would do well to get yourself a GPS navigator (ie:  Tom-Tom, Garmin, etc.)  You would be suprised on how much time you will save by just programming your destination in and driving straight there versus looking over a google map and still having to hunt it down once you get fairly close.  The company wont buy one for you but the managers did recommend it to us when we were in training.  Another handy feature is that they still work when you have to work outside of your regular area (ask premtek about navigating around the Dallas area).

I will put more in here as it comes to me but this will help to get you started.

Hey, im new at this, i am also a “premtech” i seen someone said something about the network plug in the back of STBs being active for internet, yes indeed they are active for 54mbs, in which will give service to cpus,and cpus only. The reason being the more bandwidth that device takes from the stb, the stb in turn will need more bandwidth to operate. This in time can cause your Modem to go out. Premtechs have you ever pluged another stb to a stb? It will load and what not, but if you leave it on for 10 min. the picture will freeze, shortly after you will get a client error screen. Try it

You are confused.  The reason for the ethernet connection in the back of the STB's is to provide an alternate means of connection.  You can either use the coax or the ethernet to connect it to the RG.  If you plug a PC into the ethernet connection it will work, yes but it will change some of the settings inside the the STB and could lead to the box's early demise.  As far as connecting boxes together, the only reason I can think anyone would is to load up all of the STB's early during those times when it is necessary, like on a scheduled new client update push day.  That said its just easier (and smarter) to plug them all into the RG with ethernet cables to get them to load up while you are finishing the wiring in the other parts of the house.