FIOS Router

Gary R.

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Love the Fios network, great speed, etc. I think the wireless router part is a POS. My camera's seem to blink out a lot, and some of them are 25 feet from the router. Latest router, just doesn't seem to keep connected.

Anybody have that problem with the Fios router. Suggestions. Thanks.

Just upgraded to Blue Iris 5 from latest 4 version.

Also, does any vendor now have a 5g camera?
 
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YYZed

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I just went through the process of ditching my FiOS branded router. I never used it for its wireless capabilities, but it was very limiting (and frustrating) for the network architecture that I’m currently building.

If I’m reading this right, your cameras are wireless and appear to be having a hard time keeping the signal. Would you mind telling us a little more about your setup? It could be as simple as plugging in a more powerful wireless router to the FiOS provided one and using its wireless, or it could be something else unrelated that the gurus on this form could help to diagnose.
 

YYZed

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You can avoid using the Verizon FIOS router in a few different ways -

1. Purchase your own router/modem. If the feed into the house comes through coax you'll need a cable modem/router that is compatible with FIOS. A quick Google search should give you some options.
2. If it comes through an ethernet cable then your options are just about unlimited. I currently have an Asus RT86U doing that job and I'm about to switch over to a Ubiquit ER-X so that I have VLAN capabilities.
3. Keep your FIOS provided router and buy any wireless router of your choice, plug it in, set it up, and start moving your devices over to its wireless network. Disable the wireless on the FIOS router to help avoid interference.

#1 and #2 help you save $10/month on your bill, provided that you return the router, and also open up more options for you to customize your network. The FIOS routers are locked down far too much.

#3 is what most people will go with because it's the easiest solution to get a far more powerful wireless signal, provided that option #2 isn't possible.
 

Gary R.

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Well, my FIOS is fiber all the way to the house. Ethernet speed is top notch. I assume I could connect another router or just wireless device to the FIOS router and try it out. If I had just an occasional camera going down once in awhile, I could see that, but I sometimes lose the whole bunch that are wireless, the Ethernet camera's stay up. May just think to rewire them with Ethernet.

I cannot ping the camera's when they go down, yet other software shows the wifi is still up. Just weird.
 
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YYZed

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Well, my FIOS is fiber all the way to the house. Ethernet speed is top notch. I assume I could connect another router or just wireless device to the FIOS router and try it out. If I had just an occasional camera going down once in awhile, I could see that, but I sometimes lose the whole bunch that are wireless, the Ethernet camera's stay up. May just think to rewire them with Ethernet.
The way it's usually run is the fiber goes to a gateway (ONT), which likely is a big white box, then comes out from there either via coax or ethernet and then to your router. Check the back of your router and see what's connected to it. The ONT is usually located in a garage, basement, or somewhere else that give access to your home's coax or ethernet cables if it's wired for either.

Yes, you can connect another router to the FIOS router to handle wireless and other wired duties.
 

Gary R.

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The way it's usually run is the fiber goes to a gateway (ONT), which likely is a big white box, then comes out from there either via coax or ethernet and then to your router. Check the back of your router and see what's connected to it. The ONT is usually located in a garage, basement, or somewhere else that give access to your home's coax or ethernet cables if it's wired for either.

Yes, you can connect another router to the FIOS router to handle wireless and other wired duties.
Because the router does both my internet and TV, it connects to the router with both cable and ethernet. The wireless is what doesn't work at times. I even moved it to a high spot in my house to make sure it was easier to connect to the camera's. Running a program to see if the wireless goes down, and other than times with high noise, not seeing anything that corresponds to the camera's going down. Because it gets socket errors on the camera's, I think it's Blue Iris.
 

YYZed

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Because the router does both my internet and TV, it connects to the router with both cable and ethernet. The wireless is what doesn't work at times. I even moved it to a high spot in my house to make sure it was easier to connect to the camera's. Running a program to see if the wireless goes down, and other than times with high noise, not seeing anything that corresponds to the camera's going down. Because it gets socket errors on the camera's, I think it's Blue Iris.
Then option #3 of buying a much more powerful wireless router and plugging it into the FIOS router is the simplest way to go. You might look into a mesh system to where you can place nodes in areas of your home that need to see a stronger signal. There are even models with nodes rated for outdoor use now.
 

vandyman

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I installed a Tp-link C2300 in place of my fios router. And removed the ONT connection to ethernet.
If you have the TV package, you will have to leave hooked up to the ONT.
I went with Silicondust HD homerun units for my TV package, instead of using The Verizon boxes. The two HDHomeRun use a cable card so I do not need the ONT.
 

Mike A.

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Best way with FIOS for most is to replace the ActionTec with your own router. If you only have FIOS Internet and no TV service, then you're done. The only thing that you'll lose is their ability to do remote diagnostics. They're used to people doing this by now though so, while they won't officially support your router, they will help up to that point and they're generally helpful if you need support. If you currently have only a coax connection to your ActionTec, then you can have them switch over to the RJ45 Ethernet connection on the ONT. Again, a common request these days and nothing special required in most cases. Obviously, you'll have to put whatever cabling you need in place between the ONT and your router. That gives you your own router up front so that you can use VPN, avoids double NAT issues, cuts out their ability open ports and make other changes on your router, etc.

If you do have TV services, then the easiest/best way is to put one of their routers behind yours on a second subnet and point the gateway to your router. The old red and black ones work fine and can be picked up cheap. That provides the physical coax MoCA bridge for the set top boxes. They don't need much for TV. All that they need for the guide, on-demand, and most other services is an out-going Internet connection. What you will lose are in-coming services like remote DVR programming, using their app to change channels, etc. Technically, you could open up all of the ports required for that to work but since they use a large range of dynamically assigned ports, that kind of kills the whole purpose of setting up your in-coming VPN.

They're also now starting to roll out Ethernet-based set-top boxes which gets rid of the coax entirely so you don't even need the second coax-based router. The limitation on in-coming services probably still applies in that case without opening up a ton of ports.
 
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