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bridge FIOS router and use Sonicwall router

T

ThePiston

Senior member
I've done this a few times over the years, but just wanted to bounce this off some of you before I do it.

I just got a Sonicwall router that I want to be my main router. I've got an Actiontec router from FIOS working now. I want to bridge that router so that I still obviously have FIOS, but the Sonicwall is the DHCP server parsing all of the packets.

Do I simply turn off the DHCP server in Actiontec, then set the IP adress of Sonicwall router to something like 192.168.1.2 and turn on the DHCP server is Sonicwall? Then hook up the Sonicwall's WAN port to the LAN port on the Actiontec?
 
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Just get Verizon to enable the Ethernet port on the ONT, and plug that directly into your router, then plug the Actionpoo into your router.
 
Not really, you would have to use a different internal IP range for the devices connecting the Sonicwall.
 
When I had FIOS, You need the Actiontec for things with the settop boxes, like on demand, to work. I had the ethernet port in the ONT enabled, plugged that into my router and just had the actiontec hooked up via cable and installed in the basement. I turned the wireless off on the actiontech and didn't hook it up to anything. It worked well.
 
I'm not even using cable - just using FIOS for my office. I wonder if I even need it if I don't have cable. I'll call Verizon - should be fun
 
ThePiston said:
I'm not even using cable - just using FIOS for my office. I wonder if I even need it if I don't have cable. I'll call Verizon - should be fun
Click to expand...

You don't if all you are doing is phone or internet. There is a specific bridge mode on the actiontec under the settings if you want to roll your own router, but still need the MoCA for WAN. Otherwise call Verizon and ask them to switch from the coax to the ethernet for WAN on the ONT. Then plug in your own router.

You'll need to clone the MAC on the Actiontec, wait 0-24hrs or else do an IP release and then unplug the Actiontec. Otherwise you'll get no internet with your router in place of the actiontec. The ONT hands out one and only one IP address and it is bound to whatever MAC is currently connected. It is a 24hr lease, so if it recently renewed, you'll have to wait 24hrs.

The once or twice I have forgotten about that crap and it was a hassle to plug in my old router to do an IP release, I just waited till the morning and I was back up and running.
 
turns out I was already running off of the ethernet from ONT since we have no cable. I was instructed to simply release IP and then set it to "No IP" and save. then replace old router with sonicwall. should be easy - we'll see. thanks
 
anyone tell me how to ensure the Sonicwall is set to grab an IP from Verizon before I release my FIOS router's IP?

I see 2 places where I can set the WAN IP on the Sonicwall - "Network" and "DHCP Server".

In Network area, WAN is set to Static - I'd have to set that to DHCP I assume.

In DHCP Server area, the WAN port is set to dynamic with Range: 172.16.31.2 - 172.16.31.254. I'm not familiar with that - should that be set to no range so that it can pull an IP from Verizon that will most likely be outside of that range?

New to Sonicwall - thanks
 
Use "network" with DHCP (client not server) and it should grab a IP address from Verizon. WAN should not have a DHCP server. There might be a need for the inside part though.
 
OP - Can you explain what FIOS services you have going through your ONT? Is it just internet or do you have tv service with STB's?

If you have no TV and no STB's and you're running on ethernet already, you can either release the WAN IP in the actiontec or simply unplug the actiontec for atleast two hours and then plug in the sonicwall. The FIOS lease time is only 2 hours. After that you should be good.
 
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Just using internet through ONT which is why they already had the ethernet enabled. I can't have a 2 hour down time so I'm going to release IP, set it to "No IP", save then replace routers after I set the network to DHCP on SW. will do it this afternoon when staff leaves. I also have to set up all of the whitelisted macs, etc.
 
I released the IP but could not get the SW to pick up one from Verizon. Does the Actiontec immediately try to obtain a new IP after you click "Release"? I tried to save the "No IP" setting quickly but I think it just got a new one right when I released which means I couldn't get another one for 2 hours.
 
Is the ONT an Alcatel by chance? It sounds like this is similar to the service I have. I have an Actiontec too.

The way my service works is that internet, TV and phone have their own vlan. There are also other vlans for management I believe. You may need to google for the specifics depending on the service you have.

For internet it's easy, you just plug your firewall directly into the ONT if you don't have TV.

Make sure you release the IP first. The problem is the TV. You need to setup 802.1p to priority 4 (video) and I could never get it to work. Basically what I tried is I plugged a managed switch into the ONT and set that port to a trunk and enabled the internet and TV vlans, I then setup an access port with internet vlan and plugged router into there then another access port for TV. The internet worked but not the TV. For TV I could not seem to get it to work. I would get about 5 seconds of TV then the signal would cut out. I don't quite understand how the TV network works 100% so I may have missed some steps there.

What I ended up doing is keeping the Actiontec as the main router but I port forwarded tcp/udb 1-65535 to my router. not exactly the cleanest thing to do but I don't really have any issues and even though it's still a double NAT at least if I need to port forward something I just need to do it once.
 
I think that there is an Inherent issue with the current FIOS ActionTech Model.

FIOS has a specific IP (in areas of the US) that serves as DNS FIOS Server server to assign Service to FIOS customers.

If you set your personal Router (Not the ActionTech) to general Dynamic WAN DHCP it does not know where to go and never obtains an IP.

If you record the Current WAN's DNS Gateway and IP from the ActionTech and configure them to your personal Router set for Static WAN IPs it will work for a while until it Time to FIOS to change IP. Then it will get stuck and the connection will be lost because it set to Static and would stop working.

If you have a personal Router that has a flexible WAN Menu that allows to set the Obtain Dynamic IP, and set the WAN DNS to static IP, put their the DNS of WAN IP recorded from the AcTionTech WAN DNS it might work.

Also clone the ActionTech WAN MAC to the WAN MAC of the personal Router.

Otherwise, the solution is to do what Red Squirrel posted above, it is a YMMV solution , in some complicated need for port forwarding it might Not work.




😎
 
Going to go into the office today (closed) and see if I can get it working. I might clone MAC and DNS but not sure why I'd need to. I may just need to wait the 2 hours for the SW to get the new IP. I'll chat with Verizon if that doesn't work. Right now I set up the SW unit to use openDNS IPs and my Actiontec is also set to use OpenDNS so I don't even have the original FIOS DNS servers anymore.
 
Issue with releasing IP was that I had to click apply 2x after setting to "No IP". After that the SW picked up the FIOS IP without a problem. After setting the LAN range to default 192.168.1.2-254 and setting up my wireless to same as last router, everything worked perfectly.
 
Glad you got it working. I feel like I may have had to click Release IP a couple of times as well with it not working immediately the first time.

My router is set to general WAN DHCP and the DNS is set to Googles and OpenDNS for the secondary. I prefer to steer clear of Verizon's DNS. Been working fine on 3 different routers over 2 years with no issues.
 
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