New FiOS installation

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Wheresatom

[H]ard|Gawd
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Mar 20, 2007
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I finally moved to a place where I can get FIOS internet. I wont miss DSL. Now, as long as I have had said DSL I have tried and tried and I can't seem to get port forwarding right. I think the problem was in the DSL modem. From what I could tell the last time I spent some good time working on it, I needed the DSL modem to be in "bridge" mode instead of router mode.

Anyway, long story short, I will have a Verizon Tech at my house for a few hours next week and I want to make sure I can get the port forwarding to work right this time. I have 2 routers with 3rd party firmware (one tomato, one dd-wrt) and of course they provide one verizon wireless router. The option I was thinking about was to get him to put the verizon router into bridge mode and use one of my routers to do the wireless. I don't really know if that is even an option though because I am quite a novice with this stuff.

Also, is that wireless router any good, or would I be better off using the linksys anyway?

Thanks!
 
Are you getting fios TV as well? If you aren't then just have them activate the cat5 Plug on the ONT and use what ever router you want. IF you are getting the TV package as well, things become a little more complicated.
 
I just had my FIOS internet installation done two weeks ago so I might be able to help with any questions you may have. The Westell 9100 router that was provided was surprisingly good. Good enough for me to stick with it rather than using my D-link for the time being. I checked the port forwarding abilities work fine and actually accepts UPnP port mapping.

The router is quite feature rich and apparently performs quite decently when it comes to numerous multiple connections (torrenting and such). My only complaint is the UI is not as neatly done nor as intuitive as my d-link's UI. But the features are there and more importantly, accessible.

Are you getting their FIOS TV or plan on eventually getting FIOS TV? If so, then they'll use a coax cable run to their router. When I asked them to do a cat5 run, they didn't want to "just in case you get FIOS TV in the future". I didn't find out about this until after, but you can specifically ask them to run a cat 5 wire to the router, in which case you can swap out the router for your own after the installation is complete. If you want, you can also run your own cat5 to the router and call Verizon's tech support to have them switch it over from coax to ethernet. This is the most likely route I will be using in the future.


good links:
DSLreports Verizon FIOS FAQ (found this very very informative)
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios

What is the process for FIOS install? http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12846

This link will tell you all the options you can use in regards to connecting your connection to x router:
What are the tradeoffs between the various router configurations? http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16077

Can I use my wireless or an extra router along with the Verizon provided router?
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12506
 
I will not be using the TV as of right now. Maybe in a few months, but I am working too much overtime for it to be worth it to pay for cable. Actually, over the air gets me all of the major networks pretty well so I haven't missed cable that much anyway.

Will I be able to get them to run the router to any room of the house, or is that where the free installation becomes a more expensive installation?
 
They rewired my whole house *all the tv's with new cable and didn't charge an extra penny.
 
As Veeb0rg said, they will wire the router to where you want it.
 
As a FiOS user, (25/25 line, really happy with it)...

I will say that setting up having a custom router at the forefront of your network is pretty time consuming if it's your first time installing it. I have a pfSense box installed, and it's epic.

Don't even bother with the FiOS guy, I just had him install the MoCA router near my network cabinet and just used my netbook for the installer PC. He said he had no idea how to do it, and really wasn't allowed to anyways.

If non of the guides seem to work, I can write one if people want it. I know I ran through about 2 or 3 before I pieced together my own that actually worked without fail.
 
What sort of setup did you end up running, Brak? What MoCA router did they provide?
 
They gave me the Actiontec MI424-WR Rev E, I think that is all they give the new installs these days.

Basically, I set mine up as a double-bridge appliance. The COAX-Internet interface is bridged to the Ethernet-LAN ports, and I have one Ethernet line going to the WAN input on my pfSense box from one of the 4 LAN ports on the Actiontec. The Ethernet-WAN port is bridged to the COAX-MoCA, then an Ethernet cable comes from a switch behind my pfSense box and plugs into the Actiontec's WAN port (so that the cable boxes pull down the guide info and OnDemand.)

COAX-Internet is disabled for pulling down a DHCP reservation, but the pfSense gets it anyways (as for as the ONT and pfSense box are concerned, there is nothing in between them but a wired connection). The Actiontec is also configured to use the Ethernet-WAN as what the Broadband Connection, all that means is that the MoCA devices use the Ethernet-WAN as a entrance-exit to the rest of the network.

Do be sure to release the DHCP reservation from Verizon before you put the pfSense or other router online, since apparently Verizon does NOT give multiple IPs out, and you would then need to wait for it to expire (2 hours.) Also, make sure you configure pfSense (if that is what you have) to give the Traffic Shaper the right values for how fast your connection is, otherwise you will beat your head for a week figuring out why you only get 30% upstream of what you should be. :p

If you want a guide + pictures, I could probably write one. ...But that logic above is what I used to figure it out on my own, so it should work. I had minimal issue with it, and barely had to look for anything to read about it once someone just posted what needed to be done. Almost all the guides I saw had some error in it that killed the whole thing at some point.

I believe that you could bridge the connections as COAX-Internet -> Ethernet WAN (wired to WAN interface on pfSense box) and Ethernet-LAN (wired from switch behind pfSense box) -> COAX-MoCA to give yourself 3 more LAN ports that act like a switch, but I never tried it and maybe there is something that breaks like configuring what interface the MoCA devices look for as an entrance/exit. I read this once, and never heard about it again, so I wouldn't waste time on it unless you REALLY want to see if you can save those 3 LAN ports.
 
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Quite a logical setup you have there! I would do that as well but I was issued a Westell 9100, which unfortunately doesn't have a bridge mode. There is some sort of interface that allows you to set custom routes, but I do not have enough networking experience to even begin to tinker with that :)
 
The installer came today. After running the coaxial through the middle of my closet ceiling and then around the room he realized the box on the back of my house was not the correct type for the installation. Instead of connecting to the router right behind my desktop, it is sitting in the corner of my living room way downstairs.

Now, when I plug my laptop into the modem/router I get amazing download speeds. However, upstairs connected wirelessly I can't seem to get close to what I am paying for.

The installer seemed kinda stupid. I find myself somewhat disappointed.



What should I do? Do I need to call them or is this the best I can expect through wireless? I even went through the trouble of turning off the wireless on their router and I plugged in mine and I got similar results. I thought wireless g was supposed to be better than that.
 
Have them move the modem/router upstairs so you can hard wire your desktop, or run a cat5e cable upstairs.

those actiontec modem/routers have a weird menu interface, took me some time to figure out how to set it up as a wireless access point and switch.
 
Best advice I can give is to have them run it on Ethernet, or enable the Ethernet port while they are there. All my problems cleared up when I connected my WRT54GL running Tomato to the ONT via Ethernet and setup the Verizon router as a client behind the WRT54GL to handle the requests from the set top boxes. Never have to deal with the crappy Actiontec interface again.
 
Wheresatom said:
The installer came today. After running the coaxial through the middle of my closet ceiling and then around the room he realized the box on the back of my house was not the correct type for the installation. Instead of connecting to the router right behind my desktop, it is sitting in the corner of my living room way downstairs.

Now, when I plug my laptop into the modem/router I get amazing download speeds. However, upstairs connected wirelessly I can't seem to get close to what I am paying for.

The installer seemed kinda stupid. I find myself somewhat disappointed.



What should I do? Do I need to call them or is this the best I can expect through wireless? I even went through the trouble of turning off the wireless on their router and I plugged in mine and I got similar results. I thought wireless g was supposed to be better than that.
Click to expand...

That's pretty awful, particularly for a FiOS connection.

You need to get off of wireless, especially G... the max data throughput you'll see off of a G connection is about 22 Mbps; over half of the bandwidth of that 56 Mbps wireless connection ends up being consumed as network overhead. Add in bandwidth falloff due to signal strength and you're looking at a connection that will likely never match the speed of your FiOS connection. An N connection would probably be okay, but it still sucks to rely upon a wireless connection for your primary internet connection. I'd say you need cable run, pretty much.

I'm surprised they didn't just run cable up the side of the house into the second floor. At least, that's what they should have done. Hell, it doesn't even need a ladder; tech takes a run of wire upstairs, drills a hole through the wall, throws the cable through the hole, puts in a plug to weatherproof it, goes downstairs, drills another hole into your basement / ground floor, connects the coax up to rest of the house.

There's better ways of doing it, but they should have at least offered you that option.
 
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