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Finally getting Fios

C

Calculator83

Banned
So what do i do with my current routers. The Fios guy said it comes with one. Do i set them up as repeaters?

How is the Fios router exactly, i don't see any reviews.
 
The FIOS router isn't that bad, but the one my parents got only had WEP encryption as the max. At first, I set the Verizon router to be a bridge and allow my old WRT54G to handle the DHCP on the network, but that screwed up the VOD service and menus on the tvs. So the Verizon router was reset with the help of a Verizon tech on the phone and then I had my dad set up the WRT54G to be a wireless access point with WPA2 encryption and the Verizon router handling all the DHCP stuff.
 
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
The FIOS router isn't that bad, but the one my parents got only had WEP encryption as the max. At first, I set the Verizon router to be a bridge and allow my old WRT54G to handle the DHCP on the network, but that screwed up the VOD service and menus on the tvs. So the Verizon router was reset with the help of a Verizon tech on the phone and then I had my dad set up the WRT54G to be a wireless access point with WPA2 encryption and the Verizon router handling all the DHCP stuff.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm getting Fios without the TV or phone. So i think dhcp will be fine. So you're saying that I should use wrt54g as standalone wireless because of the encryption?
 
Originally posted by: Calculator83
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
The FIOS router isn't that bad, but the one my parents got only had WEP encryption as the max. At first, I set the Verizon router to be a bridge and allow my old WRT54G to handle the DHCP on the network, but that screwed up the VOD service and menus on the tvs. So the Verizon router was reset with the help of a Verizon tech on the phone and then I had my dad set up the WRT54G to be a wireless access point with WPA2 encryption and the Verizon router handling all the DHCP stuff.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm getting Fios without the TV or phone. So i think dhcp will be fine. So you're saying that I should use wrt54g as standalone wireless because of the encryption?
Click to expand...

Even without internet, the easiest thing to do would be turn off the Verizon router/modem's wireless and then follow these steps (if using a Linksys router): http://linksys.custhelp.com/cg...p?p_faqid=4579#LAN-LAN
-If you follow these steps, consider using an IP address outside of the range that the Verizon router passes out (so if it hands out from 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.199, assign the router 192.168.1.2)

This way, you don't screw with the Verizon modem's settings, so if you ever have to call tech support, it won't be such a hassle. And you'll get the better encryption on your wireless. WEP is just a joke these days when it comes to encrypting wireless traffic.
 
FIOS is good for what it does. Its good for fast speeds which is good for tv, voip, and net. However, get ready for the absolute worst customer service you have ever seen. They know they are the fastest, and they act like it. Stay up on your bill, or they will gouge you. You have to call several times to get things changed, and they will blow you off like its cool. Ive had it for a little over a year now, and that is my history with them. If I had known that their customer service along with billing was soo bad, I would have stayed with sh1tty comcast. Even though they couldnt fix my microblocking issue on my hdtv...
 
Gratz on FIOS! I've been very happy with them for a while now. The connection has been rock solid, the speed has been as good as advertised and I get my full 20Mb down loads on sites that have the bandwidth all the time.

Now, about your FIOS router. It sucks. The good news is, you do not have to use it. Tell the installer that you want to run Ethernet rather than COAX to your router and use your own. Typically, they discourage it but if you insist they will do it. Like you, I only use FIOS for my net connection so I told them to use my existing router. It took some arm twisting, but they did it.

Now, if you don't want to do that, you can use your existing wireless router at the same time.
-Turn off the wireless function of the FIOS router.
-Use a cross over cable and connect it to a LAN port (not WAN) on both routers.
-Turn off DHCP on your WRT54G
-change your WRT54G's address to 192.168.1.2

You will now connect wirelessly through your WRT54G and everything will get routed to the FIOS router.

I didn't go that route since I already had a better router and I use a dynamic DNS service that my router natively supports. I didn't want to lose that function.


FIOS is good for what it does. Its good for fast speeds which is good for tv, voip, and net. However, get ready for the absolute worst customer service you have ever seen. They know they are the fastest, and they act like it. Stay up on your bill, or they will gouge you. You have to call several times to get things changed, and they will blow you off like its cool. Ive had it for a little over a year now, and that is my history with them. If I had known that their customer service along with billing was soo bad, I would have stayed with sh1tty comcast. Even though they couldnt fix my microblocking issue on my hdtv...
Click to expand...

I have to say, your experience with FIOS seems to be my experience with Comcast. I can't even count the amount of billing screw ups I've had to deal with anymore. And technical support through Comcast has been a nightmare for me and my friends. Getting problems resolved has always been an exercise in futility. At least in North East Massachusetts. On the other hand, I've had no billing issues with Verizon after a year or so and I've only had one technical problem.

One evening my router tried to renew it's IP address with Verizon and it couldn't. So, I called them. There was an on hold wait of one hour, but they gave an option for them to contact me as soon as my turn came up in the queue. I skeptically took the option and to my surprise 30 minutes later I got a call from Verizon and they fixed my problem in a couple of minutes.

Granted, it wasn't a tricky issue, but my typical problem with Comcast was random packet loss causing me to frequently lose connection to any online game or VOIP service. I would fight with tech support for hours only to have the issue somewhat resolved a couple of weeks later but only return a month or two after that. I was all to happy to drop comcast.

A little anecdotal note here: I'm a Vonage user. After I switched, most of my friends and family asked me if I stopped using Vonage. They all told me that the voice quality improved noticeably. Apparently under comcast, the packet loss caused the VOIP to have minor drops resulting in calls sounding like Marginally ok Cell phone calls. Under FIOS it works perfectly.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am a completely satisfied FIOS user at the moment.
 
Originally posted by: Griffinhart
Gratz on FIOS! I've been very happy with them for a while now. The connection has been rock solid, the speed has been as good as advertised and I get my full 20Mb down loads on sites that have the bandwidth all the time.

Now, about your FIOS router. It sucks. The good news is, you do not have to use it. Tell the installer that you want to run Ethernet rather than COAX to your router and use your own. Typically, they discourage it but if you insist they will do it. Like you, I only use FIOS for my net connection so I told them to use my existing router. It took some arm twisting, but they did it.

Now, if you don't want to do that, you can use your existing wireless router at the same time.
-Turn off the wireless function of the FIOS router.
-Use a cross over cable and connect it to a LAN port (not WAN) on both routers.
-Turn off DHCP on your WRT54G
-change your WRT54G's address to 192.168.1.2

You will now connect wirelessly through your WRT54G and everything will get routed to the FIOS router.

I didn't go that route since I already had a better router and I use a dynamic DNS service that my router natively supports. I didn't want to lose that function.


FIOS is good for what it does. Its good for fast speeds which is good for tv, voip, and net. However, get ready for the absolute worst customer service you have ever seen. They know they are the fastest, and they act like it. Stay up on your bill, or they will gouge you. You have to call several times to get things changed, and they will blow you off like its cool. Ive had it for a little over a year now, and that is my history with them. If I had known that their customer service along with billing was soo bad, I would have stayed with sh1tty comcast. Even though they couldnt fix my microblocking issue on my hdtv...
Click to expand...

I have to say, your experience with FIOS seems to be my experience with Comcast. I can't even count the amount of billing screw ups I've had to deal with anymore. And technical support through Comcast has been a nightmare for me and my friends. Getting problems resolved has always been an exercise in futility. At least in North East Massachusetts. On the other hand, I've had no billing issues with Verizon after a year or so and I've only had one technical problem.

One evening my router tried to renew it's IP address with Verizon and it couldn't. So, I called them. There was an on hold wait of one hour, but they gave an option for them to contact me as soon as my turn came up in the queue. I skeptically took the option and to my surprise 30 minutes later I got a call from Verizon and they fixed my problem in a couple of minutes.

Granted, it wasn't a tricky issue, but my typical problem with Comcast was random packet loss causing me to frequently lose connection to any online game or VOIP service. I would fight with tech support for hours only to have the issue somewhat resolved a couple of weeks later but only return a month or two after that. I was all to happy to drop comcast.

A little anecdotal note here: I'm a Vonage user. After I switched, most of my friends and family asked me if I stopped using Vonage. They all told me that the voice quality improved noticeably. Apparently under comcast, the packet loss caused the VOIP to have minor drops resulting in calls sounding like Marginally ok Cell phone calls. Under FIOS it works perfectly.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am a completely satisfied FIOS user at the moment.
Click to expand...


OK, what is this arm twisting that you're talking about. And I'm keeping comcast cable, so what is actually going to becoming into the house,, as the coax cables in my house are comcast.

What will they actually do if i ask them to link my house up with Ethernet? where are they plugging the other end of the ethernet into.
 
I haven't heard any positive reviews of the FIOS included router, the best I've heard is that it can be lived with. If you don't need video on demand, you can just bypass it entirely by getting them to enable the cat5 port on your ONT, use your own router, and be done. Please note that cheapie/old SOHO routers can't handle FIOS speeds, so you'll need to buy a higher-end product.

I'd suggest you try the included device, check the dslreports.com FIOS forum for configuration and firmware tips, and see if you can get it to work for you. If not, switch to cat5 and wave it goodbye.
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
I haven't heard any positive reviews of the FIOS included router, the best I've heard is that it can be lived with. If you don't need video on demand, you can just bypass it entirely by getting them to enable the cat5 port on your ONT, use your own router, and be done. Please note that cheapie/old SOHO routers can't handle FIOS speeds, so you'll need to buy a higher-end product.

I'd suggest you try the included device, check the dslreports.com FIOS forum for configuration and firmware tips, and see if you can get it to work for you. If not, switch to cat5 and wave it goodbye.
Click to expand...

i have a wrt54g with the ddwrt. what router do i need?
 
Originally posted by: Calculator83
Originally posted by: cmetz
I haven't heard any positive reviews of the FIOS included router, the best I've heard is that it can be lived with. If you don't need video on demand, you can just bypass it entirely by getting them to enable the cat5 port on your ONT, use your own router, and be done. Please note that cheapie/old SOHO routers can't handle FIOS speeds, so you'll need to buy a higher-end product.

I'd suggest you try the included device, check the dslreports.com FIOS forum for configuration and firmware tips, and see if you can get it to work for you. If not, switch to cat5 and wave it goodbye.
Click to expand...

i have a wrt54g with the ddwrt. what router do i need?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
Originally posted by: Calculator83
Originally posted by: cmetz
I haven't heard any positive reviews of the FIOS included router, the best I've heard is that it can be lived with. If you don't need video on demand, you can just bypass it entirely by getting them to enable the cat5 port on your ONT, use your own router, and be done. Please note that cheapie/old SOHO routers can't handle FIOS speeds, so you'll need to buy a higher-end product.

I'd suggest you try the included device, check the dslreports.com FIOS forum for configuration and firmware tips, and see if you can get it to work for you. If not, switch to cat5 and wave it goodbye.
Click to expand...

i have a wrt54g with the ddwrt. what router do i need?
Click to expand...

I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.
Click to expand...

If the fios router is as good as one of those,, why do i need to consider anything else, LOL.
 
Originally posted by: Calculator83

OK, what is this arm twisting that you're talking about. And I'm keeping comcast cable, so what is actually going to becoming into the house,, as the coax cables in my house are comcast.
Click to expand...

The arm twisting was nothing more than insisting on them using cat 5 ethernet cable instead of Coax. Really nothing more than that.

If you are running TV (which you are not) they need to run Coax and older ONT's can only run either Ethernet or Coax. So they prefer Coax simply because it will work for both TV and Internet. But, you are the customer and ultimately, they have to do what you want.

What will they actually do if i ask them to link my house up with Ethernet? where are they plugging the other end of the ethernet into.
Click to expand...

When they install, they will do a few things.

1. They will likely replace the copper telephone line running from the street to your house with a Fiber line.

2. They will install an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) and UPS for it.

3. They will take your homes existing twisted pair telephone cables and connect it to the ONT for Telephone service.

4. They will then run a Coax or Ethernet cable to your router. As I mentioned they prefer Coax. The supplied router is by a company called Actiontec. It's an 11g router that has a Coax and LAN port available for a WAN connection. The rest is just a simplified consumer router.

5. Once they connect the router they will configure the network and get things working.

Once they do all that, you simply take the settings such as MAC address and DHCP settings of the Actiontec router and configure your own router to the same settings and then swap them out. You should then be up and running.

Wikipedia has a decent write up on the hardware etc of FIOS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fios

In my case, I had them run an ethernet cable from the ONT, Through the cellar, up through the kitchen floor where they mounted an Ethernet port on the baseboard. Then it was a simple patch cable from that to the router.
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
I haven't heard any positive reviews of the FIOS included router, the best I've heard is that it can be lived with. If you don't need video on demand, you can just bypass it entirely by getting them to enable the cat5 port on your ONT, use your own router, and be done. Please note that cheapie/old SOHO routers can't handle FIOS speeds, so you'll need to buy a higher-end product.

I'd suggest you try the included device, check the dslreports.com FIOS forum for configuration and firmware tips, and see if you can get it to work for you. If not, switch to cat5 and wave it goodbye.
Click to expand...

The supplied router works well enough for wired connections. It simply doesn't have many advanced features that a good consumer router comes with. QOS, IP forwarding, Dynamic DNS abilities, etc. For someone just wanting a fast connection but nothing else, it works just fine... Except for the wireless....

The 11g of the router seems to be hit or miss. While the router they gave me had no issues with the wireless portion my neighbor's constantly drops wireless connection, even with unobstructed line of sight. A common problem with low end consumer G routers.

If you you don't care about advanced router features, you could just turn off the wireless portion of the Actiontec router and (as was mentioned earlier) Use another router as an access point for wireless.
 
>I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.

A SOHO router is okay, you just need a higher-end/newer one. For example, many of the 802.11N routers have a lot more horsepower in them. The old WRT54G or other older models we know and love might not be able to handle a 20/5 link so well, much less a 50/50 link.

A Cisco 800 is overkill and might not really deliver the performance (you're mostly getting features and standardization for your trouble).
 
Originally posted by: cmetz
>I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.

A SOHO router is okay, you just need a higher-end/newer one. For example, many of the 802.11N routers have a lot more horsepower in them. The old WRT54G or other older models we know and love might not be able to handle a 20/5 link so well, much less a 50/50 link.

A Cisco 800 is overkill and might not really deliver the performance (you're mostly getting features and standardization for your trouble).
Click to expand...

bwarg.. so what's the consensus on the new Know and Loved Wireless N Router of choice. Any that support DDWRT? LOL
 
Originally posted by: Calculator83
Originally posted by: cmetz
>I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.

A SOHO router is okay, you just need a higher-end/newer one. For example, many of the 802.11N routers have a lot more horsepower in them. The old WRT54G or other older models we know and love might not be able to handle a 20/5 link so well, much less a 50/50 link.

A Cisco 800 is overkill and might not really deliver the performance (you're mostly getting features and standardization for your trouble).
Click to expand...

bwarg.. so what's the consensus on the new Know and Loved Wireless N Router of choice. Any that support DDWRT? LOL
Click to expand...

I'd skip the Draft-N wireless unless I had computers with Draft-N cards in them and I was wirelessly sharing files on my network. The wireless N standard hasn't been solidified yet, so things can still change, thus if you bought a draft-N router to future proof your network, it might not work right when it is standardized.
 
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
Originally posted by: Calculator83
Originally posted by: cmetz
>I'm thinking something along the lines of a Cisco 800 series is what he's talking about. Not your typical Linksys/D-Link/Belkin routers from Office Max.

A SOHO router is okay, you just need a higher-end/newer one. For example, many of the 802.11N routers have a lot more horsepower in them. The old WRT54G or other older models we know and love might not be able to handle a 20/5 link so well, much less a 50/50 link.

A Cisco 800 is overkill and might not really deliver the performance (you're mostly getting features and standardization for your trouble).
Click to expand...

bwarg.. so what's the consensus on the new Know and Loved Wireless N Router of choice. Any that support DDWRT? LOL
Click to expand...

I'd skip the Draft-N wireless unless I had computers with Draft-N cards in them and I was wirelessly sharing files on my network. The wireless N standard hasn't been solidified yet, so things can still change, thus if you bought a draft-N router to future proof your network, it might not work right when it is standardized.
Click to expand...

Should I just stick with my 54G Till something "Better" comes out? Are there any upcoming routers? All the negative reviews for that Dlink-655 reminds me of the Dlink Air+ Extreme, OMG I HATE that dreaded thing. Good thing i plugged in the wrong ac adapter and burned it out. It was such a piece of crap.

 
Negative reviews for the DIR-655? It's one of the better reviewed routers out there. I, personally, have had one for well over a year and it's been a fantastic router in general.

That said, I'm not sure that your current router couldn't handle a 20/5 FIOS connection. At least wired. If you use wireless to connect to your network, I don't think any 11g product will get to the 20mbps download speeds.

In that case, I think 11n would be your best choice. Of 11n routers, I am a huge fan of the DIR-655.
 
My opinion on the router that is supplied is that it is junk. The first one I got the wired connections died then about a week later the wireless died. This also happened to a friend of mine almost exactly. They sent out an adapter replacement because of several reasons, but the biggest was that it got too hot. I am now on my second router, and it does its job, but just barely. The reason I use it is because I am a verizon only house. So my cable, internet, and tv are all in one.


As I said before, comcast sucked, but so does verizon. I guess it all depends on how you want it to suck. A sucky product, with decent support, or a good product with sucky support. You pick your poison.
 
Originally posted by: Tbirdkid
My opinion on the router that is supplied is that it is junk. The first one I got the wired connections died then about a week later the wireless died. This also happened to a friend of mine almost exactly. They sent out an adapter replacement because of several reasons, but the biggest was that it got too hot. I am now on my second router, and it does its job, but just barely. The reason I use it is because I am a verizon only house. So my cable, internet, and tv are all in one.


As I said before, comcast sucked, but so does verizon. I guess it all depends on how you want it to suck. A sucky product, with decent support, or a good product with sucky support. You pick your poison.
Click to expand...

Well, I'm an avid torrenter of legal content. Hence the switch. I was actually getting 26/3mbps on comcast.

Alright, I'll bite and get the D 655,, If this flops,, i'm gonna be angry on the internet.
 
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