Verizon FIOS - change to other wireless routers?

[tpctcn]

Complete networking noob here.. Hope someone would answer my questions.

So as the title suggests, I am using verizon fios. It's pretty fast, in fact I just did a speedtest and here is the result.

But I always want more. My laptop has Intel 6300, which supports up to 450Mb. But the Actiontec MI424WR only has 54Mb. It has nice features, but it uses MoCA and connects over coaxial cables, making it unnecessarily harder to use my own router. So I searched online and found tut about how to set the actiontec as a bridge and use your own router. However that leaves me a few questions:

1) Wouldn't that lower the speed of the router of my choice? Say if I get a 450Mb router, but I need to connect it through the port on the Actiontec, which iirc is only 100Mb. Shouldn't that mean that the new router is forced to operate at only 100Mb max?

2) What is FIOS' top speed? I'm not even sure if it can go up to 450Mb.

3) Would this be worth the trouble? I have no problems with this Actiontec currently, the only thing I'm looking for is more speed. Has anyone tried calling Verizon and see if they could switch the connection from coax to CAT5? Doesn't sound free to me.

Anyway, I appreciate in advance for those that would kindly reply.

 

[pwrusr]

Do you currently have FiOS TV?
If not you should be able to call Verizon to have the ONT's cat5 port enabled and coax disabled to allow use of your own choice of router.

If on the other hand you DO have FiOS TV you can still buy your choice in wireless router and hook it up to one of the network ports on the actiontec router.
Then setup a DMZ for your new router and use it for your home's network. Use the actiontec as a "guest" network.

 

[Nocturnal]

Complete networking noob here.. Hope someone would answer my questions.

So as the title suggests, I am using verizon fios. It's pretty fast, in fact I just did a speedtest and here is the result.

But I always want more. My laptop has Intel 6300, which supports up to 450Mb. But the Actiontec MI424WR only has 54Mb. It has nice features, but it uses MoCA and connects over coaxial cables, making it unnecessarily harder to use my own router. So I searched online and found tut about how to set the actiontec as a bridge and use your own router. However that leaves me a few questions:

1) Wouldn't that lower the speed of the router of my choice? Say if I get a 450Mb router, but I need to connect it through the port on the Actiontec, which iirc is only 100Mb. Shouldn't that mean that the new router is forced to operate at only 100Mb max?

2) What is FIOS' top speed? I'm not even sure if it can go up to 450Mb.

3) Would this be worth the trouble? I have no problems with this Actiontec currently, the only thing I'm looking for is more speed. Has anyone tried calling Verizon and see if they could switch the connection from coax to CAT5? Doesn't sound free to me.

Anyway, I appreciate in advance for those that would kindly reply.

Router speed and your internet speeds are two different things. Your FIOS is limited to whatever you pay for. From the looks of things it looks like you might have a 25/25Mbit connection.

 

[AMD_RULES]

I have FiOS with the DVR service, so I left my actiontec in place as the 'edge' router and disabled the wireless. Then I added my own wireless router to the network. That's what I would suggest doing if you are a FiOS DVR customer as well. The DVR runs off that router...

 

[dhc014]

I have FiOS with the DVR service, so I left my actiontec in place as the 'edge' router and disabled the wireless. Then I added my own wireless router to the network. That's what I would suggest doing if you are a FiOS DVR customer as well. The DVR runs off that router...

To elaborate; you can use pretty much any router as an access point by disabling its DHCP server. Leave wireless enabled on the FIOS router and use it for all of your G clients, then connect your N clients to the new (presumably N) router. Keeping them separate prevents the router from slowing down the N clients because the G clients don't support certain features. You may also want to change the new router's assigned IP address if it would conflict with the Actiontec's IP address.

 

[AMD_RULES]

To elaborate; you can use pretty much any router as an access point by disabling its DHCP server. Leave wireless enabled on the FIOS router and use it for all of your G clients, then connect your N clients to the new (presumably N) router. Keeping them separate prevents the router from slowing down the N clients because the G clients don't support certain features. You may also want to change the new router's assigned IP address if it would conflict with the Actiontec's IP address.

That is certainly true. I only disabled the wireless on the Actiontec as all my devices utilize N.

 

[jadams]

If you guys are going through the trouble of adding another router to a FiOS install why on earth would you want to keep that Actiontec as the edge device? Its a steaming pile of pooooo.

ONT----> router of your choice ---> double NAT'd/bridged Actiontec.

 

[dhc014]

If you guys are going through the trouble of adding another router to a FiOS install why on earth would you want to keep that Actiontec as the edge device? Its a steaming pile of pooooo.

ONT----> router of your choice ---> double NAT'd/bridged Actiontec.

Isn't the modem built into the Actiontec router?

 

[AMD_RULES]

If you guys are going through the trouble of adding another router to a FiOS install why on earth would you want to keep that Actiontec as the edge device? Its a steaming pile of pooooo.

ONT----> router of your choice ---> double NAT'd/bridged Actiontec.

It would be more trouble for me to go through all that extra configuration then to simply add a second router like I did

Isn't the modem built into the Actiontec router?

Yes

 

[pwrusr]

If you guys are going through the trouble of adding another router to a FiOS install why on earth would you want to keep that Actiontec as the edge device? Its a steaming pile of pooooo.

ONT----> router of your choice ---> double NAT'd/bridged Actiontec.

Doesn't sound like you're too clear on how FiOS works...

If you have FiOS TV you need to have it go from the coax port of the ONT to the actiontec router:

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If you don't have FiOS TV you can simply enable the networking port on the ONT by calling Verizon and use your router of choice

Isn't the modem built into the Actiontec router?

Not really. The ONT takes care of that "modem" part. If you connect a wireless router directly to the networking port (if enabled) it will work.