Initial FIOS Installation/Activation
JeliRoll90
Newbie

I am new to FIOS (internet and phone) and have just scheduled my installation date. When I had DSL set up years ago, no one had to be home. All I had to do was connect the router and visit a website to agree to the terms and conditions and activate the service. The support materials on the subject on this site contradict each other and nothing is easy to find. I found a self-installation guide as well as a document saying that a Verizon technician has to do the entire set-up. I really can't take off of work right now to be here during their very inconvenient service windows (weekdays only, between 8 and 4), and I'd prefer not to ask any of my family or friends to take off of work to come sit in my apartment for 4-6 hours with nothing to do. 

Was anyone able to set up FIOS internet themselves? I don't actually have a home phone (they just force you to sign up for that as well), so it is only the internet that needs to be set up.

Thanks in advance for your help! 

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Re: Initial FIOS Installation/Activation
Branch1
Enthusiast - Level 3

Unfortunately, Fios requires a tech to install an ONT, so you'll need to be home. 

Re: Initial FIOS Installation/Activation
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

To expand on the previous comment.

FIOS services requires a device called an ONT.
This is the fiber termination that provides phone, Internet and TV.

Is your apartment already wired for FIOS?

Re: Initial FIOS Installation/Activation
Capricorn1
Community Leader
Community Leader

Just to expand on the expansion of the expansion Smiley Happy

DSL ran over the same pair of copper wires you had for land-line telephone service. After installing filters on all your phones, fax machines, answering machines, etc. to keep the voice and DSL signals separate, you just hooked up the DSL router (without a filter) to the phone line. (If you had never had phone service before they would have had to send a tech out for that installation, too.)

FIOS runs over fiber optic cable, not copper wires. If your apartment has never had FIOS installed before (It doesn't matter if it was you or someone else that had it.), they may have to run a fiber optic line from the nearest optical splitter to to your apartment. The fiber optic cable has enough bandwidth to handle your Internet, phone and television data at the same time. However, just like the DSL signals, the different types of data needs to be separated (and possibly converted). That's what the optical network terminal (ONT) does for you. A fiber optic line goes into the ONT and is converted to a one of two things.

In my house, it is converted to an Ethernet cable (that is the same type of cable that plugs into a computer or router) plus a POTS (plain old telephone system) cable for my phone service. The Ethernet cable goes into (the Internet side of) the Verizon router which has several other Ethernet ports and one coax connector. The Actiontec router also supplies wireless Internet service. The coax connector is a converter that converts Ethernet to a TV signal and Ethernet-over-coax (also called MoCA, which stands for Multimedia over Coax Alliance). This is needed for the TV signal and programming guide for your set top boxes (if you have FIOS TV service). My installation is very, very old though I have been told by a Verizon tech that if you get very high-speed Internet service (100 Mbps/100Mbps or higher) that is still the way it's done.

Nowadays, instead of an Ethernet cable, you will likely have a coax cable from the ONT, which is more or less the same type of cable that the cable company uses. If you have FIOS TV and Internet, that coax is generally split into two where one coax line connects to the Verizon (Actiontec) router that converts the coax to Ethernet for your computer (which is the reverse of what I have) and the other line is the coax (in a loop or split further) to your set top boxes (again, for video signal the the programming guide if you have FIOS TV). The tech may have to run the coax inside your apartment to somewhere close to where you want/need the router for wired Ethernet. Again, the Actiontec router also supplies your wireless Internet service, so centrally locating that my help your wireless range depending on the size and construction of your apartment.

Regardless of how the Internet (and TV) are supplied (coax or Ethernet), you will also have a separate phone line coming from the ONT for your regular telephone service (if you have land-line service). Depending on where they bring the fiber optic line into your apartment and install the ONT and where your phone service terminates inside your apartment now, the Verizon tech may have a tiny bit of work to do to run a line to connect that up. The ONTs keep changing is their construction, but unless they have changed drastically, part of what you will get will include a battery backup unit (UPS) that plugs into a socket in your house. That provides up to eight hours of telephone service if the power goes out. Verizon doesn't say that it also keeps your Internet service going, but in at least my (ancient) ONT, it does. (The battery lasts about 2-3 years, and [yay] is your responsibility to replace. I'm on my third one. The last one cost me less than $20. When it starts to go bad and is not holding a charge, the battery backup part of the ONT will beep once every 10 minutes or so. All. Night. Long.)

If you have had FIOS service before, they can and will send you a self-install kit. I've hooked up two of them for others. You hook up the router to the coax (or Ethernet) from the ONT to the router they ship you overnight. That supplies the wired and wireless Internet service. If you have FIOS TV service and was coax was not already split (between the ONT and the router to make a separate line to the set top boxes) that will need to be done. I can't recall if they included a splitter or not.