FiOS Internet

[#1]

I understand that I can use my Airport Extreme Base Station as my secondary router.  Am I correct that I leave all my Cat5 cables plugged into the Airport Extreme and run a Cat 5 from the FIOS router to the WAN of the Airport, and turn off the radio of the FIOS router?  By doing this do I loose and functions? Keep in mind I have TV, Internet and Phone.

[#2]

Using an Actiontec LAN to AE WAN connection will cause anything behind the AE to be double natted.  Any port forwards will need to be done in both routers.

It's easier to put the AE in bridge mode so you are effectively connecting the Actiontec LAN to the AE LAN.  You will need to ensure that DHCP server is disabled in the AE.

[#3]

Putting the AE in Bridge Mode and going LAN to LAN screws me up as all my ports on the AE are being used.  I am a novice, what is port forwarding and is it used in normal Internet on a regular basis?

[#4]

I'm not an expert on the AE, but I believe that by putting the AE in bridge mode, the WAN port becomes a LAN port.

Port forwarding is a way of forwarding traffic from an outside (public) port and directing that traffic to a specific computer.

Port forwarding is frequently used by games, chat programs, etc.  If you're not familiar with it, then you're probably not using it, or any programs that need port forwarding are opening ports on the router directly using UPNP.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_forwarding

[#5]

Verizon said they would hook my router up and get it working, so I hope they are familiar with the way of doing this. I guess I will keep all my CAT 5 cables connected to my AEBS and turn off the transmitter in the FIOS router and make sure the AEBS is in Bridge Mode and DCHP disabled which the Airport software does when in Bridge mode.

[#6]

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joelw135 wrote:

Verizon said they would hook my router up and get it working, so I hope they are familiar with the way of doing this.

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Don't count on VZ being familiar with the AEBS or its bridge mode.

VZ's standard configuration for connecting user routers is Actiontec LAN to user router WAN port resulting in a double NATed configuration.

[#7]

Thanks, for the help, I know how to put my router in bridge mode so I will do it if the FIOS tech is unable to.  I would just prefer they do it and get it working before I play with the settings.  The Airport Extreme Base Station as I understand is smart enough to alert the installer to turn on Bridge mode.  I guess I will find out on the 31st when I have the install done.

[#8]

There is a great deal of information  on DSL Reports about the configuration of the Airport Extreme as a secondary router in FiOS installations.  In fact there are many step-by-step recipes for a  wide variety of installation options, and tables that show which FiOS functions (e.g.., Caller ID, Media Manager) operate successfully under  the various configurations.  I am far from expert in such things but the DSL information made installing and configuring my secondary router quite easy.

[#9]

Since I don't use Port Forwarding at this time, and I don't foresee ever using it as I am not a gamer, Bridging should work fine. The AEBS will supply my wireless N and my Gigabit network and the FIOS will just be the gateway.

[#10]

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joelw135 wrote:

Since I don't use Port Forwarding at this time, and I don't foresee ever using it as I am not a gamer, Bridging should work fine. The AEBS will supply my wireless N and my Gigabit network and the FIOS will just be the gateway.

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Hmm, that's an interesting question.  Once you bridge your gigabit router with a 100mb router do your gigabit ports work as gigabit ports or are they downgraded to 100mb ports?  I would suspect the latter.

I never bothered with bridging.  Just ran the VZ router for VOD and as a gateway to the internet and port forwarded everything to my internal gateway gigabit router