FIOS Router questions.
Casen_
Newbie

HI all,
I have the MI424WR Rev. I router from Verizon and I have a few questions regarding it.

1. My laptop is only connecting at 65mbps as indicated by going to the status menu of the active connection. I know I have a Wireless N connection as I have the wireless N router on normal mode using b/g/n. I have a wireless N enabled Windows 7 laptop with the Atheros AR9002WB-1NG wireless card. And finally, if I just allow my mouse to hover over the active connections ssid in the wifi indicator menu in the bottom right of the screen, it says 802.11n.   I was under the impression that Wireless N had a 150 or so intRAnet connection speed.
Is this normal?

2. While I had Comcast (shudder) I bought a Netgear N750 router, model number WNDR4000. This router had a fantastic connection speed in the local WAN (can't remember but it was much higher that the 65 one that I have currently) and had the added bonus of having a USB 3.0 compatible slot on the back of the router. This allowed my to plug in my 2tb USB 3.0 external, and access my files via FTP pretty much anywhere I was...   
I noticed my current Verizon router has 2 available US ports on the back of it. Am I able to plug my hard drive in to one of those and use it wirelessly?

If not, is there a way to connect my Netgear to my FIOS router for the sole purpose of getting my hard drive not only back on my local network, but also online again via FTP?

And if so, what is the best way to connect them. My feeble attempt to run a Ethernet cord from one of the 4 ports on the back of the Verizon router to the Netgears "Internet in" port failed miserably in ever aspect. 
A wireless connection of the two routers would be preferred, but I can run Ethernet between the two if necessary.

A couple other forum posts had this question asked my members so I will go ahead and answer it, 
I do have the FIOS TC Prime HD along with one HD Multi room DVR and one HD Cable Box that plays the multiroom DVR.

3. Is there a way to use the Verizon router as a modem, and allow my Netgear to act as the main router mainly for its much higher throughput abilities?
Maybe even mix questions 2 and 3?

And how will doing this affect my TV situation?

Thank you in advance for any advice, hints and answers you can give me.


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Re: FIOS Router questions.
JDoe5
Specialist - Level 1

"1. My laptop is only connecting at 65mbps as indicated by going to the status menu of the active connection. I know I have a Wireless N connection as I have the wireless N router on normal mode using b/g/n. I have a wireless N enabled Windows 7 laptop with the Atheros AR9002WB-1NG wireless card. And finally, if I just allow my mouse to hover over the active connections ssid in the wifi indicator menu in the bottom right of the screen, it says 802.11n.   I was under the impression that Wireless N had a 150 or so intRAnet connection speed.
Is this normal?"

Its normal.  What really counts is that the WiFi connected devices operate on the LAN and transfer data quickly.  Don't get caught up in a "numbers" game.  See...   Can Anyone Help me Please???Why is it my Wireless N connects only at 65Mbps with Fios?

{ One should always read the forum posts for relevant articles that may have already had a query similar to your own prior to posting }

"2. While I had Comcast (shudder) I bought a Netgear N750 router, model number WNDR4000. This router had a fantastic connection speed in the local WAN (can't remember but it was much higher that the 65 one that I have currently) and had the added bonus of having a USB 3.0 compatible slot on the back of the router. This allowed my to plug in my 2tb USB 3.0 external, and access my files via FTP pretty much anywhere I was...   
I noticed my current Verizon router has 2 available US ports on the back of it. Am I able to plug my hard drive in to one of those and use it wirelessly?"

Using the USB ports for Network Attached Storage (NAS) has not been implemented yet.  Read the PDF manual on your Router.  Of course you can have any modern OS "share" that USB drive as a NT Share or SMB Share.


"If not, is there a way to connect my Netgear to my FIOS router for the sole purpose of getting my hard drive not only back on my local network, but also online again via FTP?"

And if so, what is the best way to connect them. My feeble attempt to run a Ethernet cord from one of the 4 ports on the back of the Verizon router to the Netgears "Internet in" port failed miserably in ever aspect.   A wireless connection of the two routers would be preferred, but I can run Ethernet between the two if necessary."

Yes if you disable DHCP, WiFi and Routing on the Netgear and connect it to the LAN via a LAN port on the Ethernet Switch (E-Switch) part of the device.  Thus the Netgear will be simplified to an E-Switch and NAS server only.

"3. Is there a way to use the Verizon router as a modem, and allow my Netgear to act as the main router mainly for its much higher throughput abilities?
Maybe even mix questions 2 and 3?"

No. The closest thing to a modem in your topology is the ONT which is really a bridging Gateway of sorts.



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Re: FIOS Router questions.
Casen_
Newbie

I did read through that post you mentioned before, and in the post it stated Rev. I was capable of 160, while lower revisons were at the 65 max and I do have Revision I as my router.

Now,


http://www.dslreports.com/faq/12506


If I were to follow this route, and disable the wireless on my Actiontec router, will this allow me to use my Netgear as the main wireless ajccess point, and keep the LAN ports on the Actiontec active and working too?

and

"Yes if you disable DHCP, WiFi and Routing on the Netgear and connect it to the LAN via a LAN port on the Ethernet Switch (E-Switch) part of the device.  Thus the Netgear will be simplified to an E-Switch and NAS server only.
"

by E switch part of the device, you mean the 4 ethernet ports that are seperate from the one that is usually internet in.



Thank you for your help, I'm just having a hard time going through all the fancy lingo, so I try to simplify things to anyone can understand. (I've been on Google for about an hour now looking up MOCA bridges, ONTs, WAN stuff)

I called the Actiontec the "router" in my first post because its the part that the coax cable runs in to. Now, after further searching, I realized I had a whole nother piece of eqipment in my garage already thats is technically "the modem."

Also, whats will this

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16710

do differently than just using the other link Imentioned before?


I really just want the Netgear for its wireless access speed, as I know its much greater than the Actiontec I have. Is the first link all I need? Simplyn disable wireless on the actiontec, and LAN (one of the 4 ethernets on the actiontec) to LAN (one of the group of 4, not the lonely one of on its own) to the Netgear?

Again, thank you for your help. Im just used to having one router and one cable modem, so verizon intrducing their own router into the mix is pusing the limits of my current networking knowledge.

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Re: FIOS Router questions.
Justin46
Legend

Casen,

If you are willing to spend a little more time working with your Actiontec Rev. I router, I think you can get it to work at or at least close to the speeds you want. Here is a link to a thread on the subject of getting higher N speeds on the Actiontec:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-Internet/Installtion-of-New-Actiontec-Gigabyte-MI424WR-Router/m-p/...

Once I made the change my wireless speed improved dramatically, my laptop now shows the speed at 130 Mbps (depending on the signal strength of course).

Keep in mind that you will never get the 300 Mbps or whatever is possible with a dual-band router. Also remember that if you do what is in that link above, it will be N only, so no B/G devices will be able to connect.

I hope this helps, at least a little.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, 25/25 Internet, and Digital Voice user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9.1
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: FIOS Router questions.
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

Another thing for food for thought: The speed reported by the System is also whatever the driver is telling the system the card is running at. Keep this in mind as well. If your Wireless card comes with a utility, or if you can find a 3rd party tool that can find the exact link speed you can see what sort of speed you're running at. I've seen some times where a 65Mbps reported link is running at 65Mbps realistic throughput, when the actual theoretical link speed is 130Mbps.

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Re: FIOS Router questions.
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

@Casen_ wrote:

HI all,
I have the MI424WR Rev. I router from Verizon and I have a few questions regarding it.


If not, is there a way to connect my Netgear to my FIOS router for the sole purpose of getting my hard drive not only back on my local network, but also online again via FTP?

And if so, what is the best way to connect them. My feeble attempt to run a Ethernet cord from one of the 4 ports on the back of the Verizon router to the Netgears "Internet in" port failed miserably in ever aspect. 
A wireless connection of the two routers would be preferred, but I can run Ethernet between the two if necessary.

3. Is there a way to use the Verizon router as a modem, and allow my Netgear to act as the main router mainly for its much higher throughput abilities?
Maybe even mix questions 2 and 3?

And how will doing this affect my TV situation?

Thank you in advance for any advice, hints and answers you can give me.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Connect your laptop to your netgear router with an ethernet cable and change the dhcp address range to something other than 192.168.1  maybe 192.168.2 

then connect a lan port of the VZ router to the wan port of your netgear. 

attach your wired devices to the ethernet ports of the netgear.

tell your wireless devices to forget the VZ ssid and configure them to connec t the the netgear ssid

leave the stb's connected by moca to the vz router.

Everything will work fine with the VZ router just being the gateway and controlling the tv stb's and all your devices will be interconnected on the netgear subnet. but using the VZ gateway for internet access.

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Re: FIOS Router questions.
JDoe5
Specialist - Level 1

"then connect a lan port of the VZ router to the wan port of your netgear. 

attach your wired devices to the ethernet ports of the netgear."

It should qualified that in doing so, it will add an additional hop and latency for every Internet packet sent and received.  Thus lowering overall performance.

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