FiOS Internet

[#1]

What's up with this 10/100 router (Westell 9100 EM) Verizon just installed with my new FiOS internet service?  I've been all excited, waiting for the FiOS service to become available in my neighborhood, after they ran fiber throughout the area recently.  The ads all claim "State of the Art servie" ... and I would assume a brand-new fiber backbone would mean exactly that.  But then they drop off a 10/100 router and suggest that I use it as the basis for my home LAN (which would be a downgrade from the gigabit router  I'm currently using).  Gigabit routers have been widely available for several years now ... 

It's hard to believe Verizon is pushing yester-year's technology and calling it State of the Art. 

[#2]

That's easy to fix, use the fios router for data in, and then connect your gig switch to your fios router. Then attach all your devices to your gig switch. And there you go. Your all set. You would be suppressed how many people still don't have gig nic cards. So it really would not be a cost effective thing for Verizon to send everyone out a gig router until more people have adapted the technology. Believe me that is one of the fist things that bugged me about fios too. But I just went out and go a 24 port gig switch so I don't have to worry about it.

[#3]

Yes I have my connections made as you describe ... my point was that the router Verizon is supplying is not State of the Art.  It's at least 5 years behind SotA, in fact.  That's eternity.

Here's a related question, that I haven't had time to figure out via trial and error.  Looking at "the fine print" related to running Media Manager, it says the service works only via the DVR STB (which I have) and "on a home network using ... the Verizon-supplied router."  So when connected in the way described (i.e., PC > Gigabit router > Verizon router) I wonder if this service will work?

[#4]

yes it should work. I dont use MM myself. but I know you need to make sure you have the Multi-Room DVR service, or it will not work.

[#5]

The fastest publicly available speed offered by Verizon is 50Mbs  The router can do 100Mbs. So the router is at least twice as fast as the internet connection. Since they only provide internet service the router is fine. They dont support internal LAN and is not what they are offering. Now if they ever get internet speeds over 100Mbs then they will upgrade to a gigabit router. but from their standpoint, why give out equipment that is more powerful than needed?  With a 10/100, the slowpoint in the system is still the internet, not the router

[#6]

I'm not complaining about the speed of their WAN connections / equipment ... just the LAN equipment.  This router, were I to actually use it at the hub of my home LAN, would introduce an order of magnitude bottleneck between my various equipment / hardware.  It would limit the bandwitch to 100 mbps, rather than the 1000 mbps I currently enjoy.

[#7]

---

AdamCV wrote:

I'm not complaining about the speed of their WAN connections / equipment ... just the LAN equipment.  This router, were I to actually use it at the hub of my home LAN, would introduce an order of magnitude bottleneck between my various equipment / hardware.  It would limit the bandwitch to 100 mbps, rather than the 1000 mbps I currently enjoy.

---

I don't think anybody is really disagreeing with you, but what percentage of the 2.8 (I think) million FiOS internet users have 1) PC equipment that will do gigabit, and 2) care? I suspect not a very high percentage at all. So, why should Verizon invest extra bucks now to provide hardware that very few people would actually use/need, probably for a very long time? I suspect that the next generation of routers that Verizon delivers will have gigabit capability (I don't know one way or the other). In the meantime, since you already have the hardware I think, you can make it happen for you at no extra cost, can't you?

Anyway, it is the way it is, at least for now.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

[#8]

The main reason for requiring the Verizon supplied router is to handle Remote DVR features from the Verizon Central Website to your DVR. If you do not have the Verizon supplied router then there is no way to access the DVR from the web. The firmware in the Verizon router allows the network to see the STBs and DVR as IP-STBs and allows them to comunicate. There is what I am sure to be other proprietary programming in the router to make all this work. Not just port forwarding. Your PCs can run at Gigabit and still talk to the Verizon router just fine. My PCs do just fine on a gigabit switch with all else on the Actiontec.