Improving Verizon Fios Range and Reliability?

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mccoolaustinm

mccoolaustinm

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In a house of 11 people (one family in the fully finished and furnished basement and the other upstairs) and 5 of those 11 people being intense gamers with their own $2000 gaming PCs, torrenters, and almost everybody else less tech-savvy wanting to stream something at the same time, we went with a pretty nasty internet package and split the bill. Currently paying for 300Mbps down from Verizon Fios. Not going to lie, it rocks; I get everything and more when I test it on speedtest and when I download files on a hard connection.

But the router they give you, and on top of that, the cable installation they provided us with... is pretty terrible. I understand that installing a new router in a FiOS network is difficult and requires some working around, but I've been told its possible, and that it can help.

I've been looking at this router for a while now: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2426296,00.asp

AC1900 Nighthawk... It has good reviews and the features I need at a glance, like extreme range and throughput, dual band... But does it have enough? I'm talking about 10 mobile devices possibly running at the same time across a pretty large house, and this house even has a business built into it that needs its own guest wi-fi. And that room would be up to thirty feet away and through at least two walls... I wouldn't want those guests to suffer the consequences of a bad decision on my part.

So is this a good choice? Is it enough? Will I see significant gains over the current unacceptable performance of the Actiontec router provided by Verizon?
 
Solution
Solandri

You can, but that can be a lot trickier to set up.

Easy way:
Plug 3 devices into the Actiontec's LAN...
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Solandri

Solandri

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The Verizon FIOS router is necessary to communicate with the device Verizon installed (usually in your garage) which converts the fiber optic signal to electrical over 75 ohm coax. If you also have FIOS TV service as well, the router is necessary for the TV's program guide as well. You can't just replace it with a different router.

Verizon stuck me with an old FIOS router which didn't even support gigabit ethernet. And yeah its wireless signal strength sucks, and the interface for forwarding ports or assigning static IPs makes you want to pull your hair out. What you can do is turn off the FIOS router's wireless, plug another router into it, and set the new router as DMZ. So everything the FIOS router receives automatically gets forwarded to your new router, and it acts as your new gateway to the Internet.

For a large house, if the wireless signal on the new router is insufficient, obviously installing a wired gigabit ethernet network is best. Then you can drop more access points throughout the house. If ethernet isn't an option, normally I'd suggest getting powerline ethernet adapters. They won't get you 300 Mbps (not even close - 100 Mbps if you're lucky), but they'll give you a wired connection to a different area of the house. Then you can drop a wifi access point there. This tends to work a lot better than wifi repeaters, although the powerline ethernet will screw up any ham radios nearby (they operate at the same frequencies, and your home's power wiring is like a great big antenna).

However given the size and speed of your installation, you may want to consider a DSLAM. That's the device that sits in the phone company's office which talks to the DSL modem in your house. They're commonly used in hotels and apartments to distribute Internet to each unit over existing phone lines. It's a more robust solution, but a lot more expensive. So I won't go into details unless you decide to consider it.
 
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mccoolaustinm

mccoolaustinm

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Thank you for the elaborate response! I was intending to do what you said with the new router- leave it in place and connect the new one to it, using its wireless instead. I tried to install a basic access point once before with a verizon router and couldn't get it to work- for some reason I thought they were incompatible, and now I can't remember why. One question however- if I'm only turning off the wireless on the Actiontec, can I still use its four available LAN ports to connect to nearby devices? Not an issue, but wondering if, when I run out of ports (more than 4 devices connected directly to it) I can connect to the Actiontec without any additional hardware.

I would love to get ethernet wired to different portions of the house, but that's a grand project that I'm not willing to undertake for the sake of my mother's Netflix :na:



 
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Solandri

Solandri

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You can, but that can be a lot trickier to set up.

Easy way:
Plug 3 devices into the Actiontec's LAN ports. Plug new router's WAN port into the Actiontec's last LAN port.
- This will create two networks, one within the other. The 3 devices will be on the outside (Actiontec's) subnet. The new router's LAN ports will be another firewalled subnet within the Actiontec's subnet.
- Devices within a subnet will be able to communicate with each other.
- Devices will not be able to communicate between the two subnets (unless you set up port forwarding on the new router).
- All devices will have access to the Internet.
- Port forwarding you do on the new router for Internet access will have to be duplicated on the Actiontec (forwarding to the WAN IP of the new router).
- The Actiontec router controls traffic to the 3 devices and your new router.
- Your new router controls traffic to any devices plugged into its LAN.
- Optionally - enable the Actiontec's wifi. This can be your guest wifi. It can see the Internet and the 3 devices plugged into the Actiontec's LAN. But it cannot see anything behind your new router.

Hard way:
Plug 3 devices into the Actiontec's LAN ports. Plug one of the new router's LAN ports into the Actiontec's last LAN port.
- This will create one subnet. All devices will be able to see and communicate with each other.
- Before plugging the new router into the Actiontec, you will need to login to the new router using its LAN ports. On the new router:
- - Assign it a static IP address within the Actiontec's domain.
- - Set its netmask to 255.255.255.0.
- - Set its gateway and DNS to the Actiontec's LAN IP address.
- - Turn off the DHCP server.
- - Reboot the new router.
- - If you goof and can't login to your new router, you will probably have to reset it and configure it all over again.
- - Depending on how you goofed, your Actiontec router may not work as long as the new router is plugged into it.
- Once this is set up correctly, your Actiontec controls your Internet connection and is your router/gateway.
- Your new router is essentially acting as a switch + wifi access point. It does no routing. Use the static IP address you set for it to login and configure your wifi.

Easiest way:
The way I originally suggested. Plug new router's WAN into Actiontec's LAN. Plug nothing else into the Actiontec.
- Set DMZ on the Actiontec to point to the new router's WAN IP address.
- Ignore the Actiontec from now on. All traffic will automatically go to your new router. Use it to control your network.
- Yes, just the one step. That's why I initially suggested it.
 
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mccoolaustinm

mccoolaustinm

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Realizing now that I never responded to this thread after this point. Solandri's suggestions worked perfectly. In the end I did it the hard way, but it only took me an hour and I didn't find it TOO hard to do. I settled for no less than a Netgear Nighthawk to cover my massive house. In the end, the 5GHz band reaches through most of the home providing between 100Mbps to 150 Mbps (my maximum bandwidth) depending on the receiving device at close range, and around 50Mbps to all mobile devices almost anywhere in the house, and the router is in the basement. Now imagine that we have a front yard the size of a football field to account for some city-owned power lines. The 2.4GHz band slices right through the earth and reaches all the way to the street. Before you can see my house, you can see my wifi, and it'll give you a workable 5Mb/s connection at that distance if you can get past the security. If I could give the router 6/5 stars I would. Something I did in the configuration of it and the Actiontec prevents me from having a guest network using the Nighthawk, but I think I still can with the Actiontec, and it's no big deal.

I wrote down all the information for both routers, connected my desktop to the Nighthawk LAN, and configured it as Solandri described. Then connected the same desktop to the Verizon, and configured that one. Finally connected the two together, left my personal desktop connected to the Actiontec, and it worked like a charm after a reboot of both routers. It does exactly what I wanted. No wireless from the shameless Actiontec hiding behind the rather majestic Nighthawk, which now forms the centerpiece on a nice glass shelf in a corner of our entertainment room in the basement.

Anyway, while it's two months late, thank you Solandri for all your help!
 
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