Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
NBF1
Enthusiast - Level 1

I've been a FiOS customer for about four or five years now and have the older Actiontec Router.  I got fed up of waiting for Verizon to upgrade my router so I went ahead and purchased the newest one last week on their website.

I was wondering if anyone has upgraded their old Actiontec Router for this router and if so, were any problems encountered?

If not, did you see increased WiFi connectivity and/or speed?  I live in a three story home and run MAC computers.  I also have a Netgear WiFi extender on the second floor which seemed to help extend the WiFi signal to the top floor.  

Looking at the instructions it seems to be pretty straightforward and swapping them out.  I noticed the instructions to connect your TV cable boxes jump out of nowhere.  I mean, they did not even preface the installation of a new router with removing the cable from the existing HD boxes and powering them back up after installation of the new router.

I look forward to hearing any of your experiences with your installtion.  BTW, the router is down to $79 now.  A little better than it was before.

Cheers!

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Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
Justin46
Legend

@NBF wrote:

I've been a FiOS customer for about four or five years now and have the older Actiontec Router.  I got fed up of waiting for Verizon to upgrade my router so I went ahead and purchased the newest one last week on their website.

I was wondering if anyone has upgraded their old Actiontec Router for this router and if so, were any problems encountered?

If not, did you see increased WiFi connectivity and/or speed?  I live in a three story home and run MAC computers.  I also have a Netgear WiFi extender on the second floor which seemed to help extend the WiFi signal to the top floor.  

Looking at the instructions it seems to be pretty straightforward and swapping them out.  I noticed the instructions to connect your TV cable boxes jump out of nowhere.  I mean, they did not even preface the installation of a new router with removing the cable from the existing HD boxes and powering them back up after installation of the new router.

I look forward to hearing any of your experiences with your installtion.  BTW, the router is down to $79 now.  A little better than it was before.

Cheers!


I started having some internet connection problems and Verizon sent me a Rev. I Actiontec to see if that would fix the problems (and it seems to have done so). I had done a little bit of customization on the previous Actiontec (changed the SSID, customized the encryption, set it to use channel 1 only, etc.), so what I did was disconnect my PC from the existing router, letting my wife continue to access the internet while I did the configuration work, and connected my PC to the new router and did all of my customization first, before installing it. Made things simple. Some things to be aware of:

1) The Rev. I comes with WPA/WPA2 encryption already set as the default. They WPA key is on the label on the bottom of the router. I was already using WPA2, but the Rev. I would not accept my existing key, it requires numbers in the key and I had only mixed case letters and special characters. So I was forced to change the key, not a big deal, but not something I was expecting. And since I changed the key I had to change the key in both my PC and my phone to get them to connect.

2) I was using the default TPIK/AES encryption, and could not get higher wireless speeds once I installed the new router. Turns out that it only works at actual N speeds if AES only is specified (maybe a little clarification here: when set to use TPIK/AES it will communicate with B/G/N devices, but apparently only at up to G speeds, changing to AES and N only lets the router go up to real N speeds). Once I found that out and changed the setting, I got just as fast speeds wireless as I was getting wired (I have 25/25 service), last time I checked i got 33/27 wireless I think. So I have quit connecting the ethernet cable, I am now just using wireless.

Once I had things configured the way I wanted, I shut the new router down, turned off the old router, disconnected it, and put the new one in and started it up. Worked like a charm. I don't remember if I needed to reboot the STBs, although I may have done so, actually probably did just in case.

Hope this helps.

__________________________________
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: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
Justin46
Legend

@NBF wrote:

I've been a FiOS customer for about four or five years now and have the older Actiontec Router.  I got fed up of waiting for Verizon to upgrade my router so I went ahead and purchased the newest one last week on their website.

I was wondering if anyone has upgraded their old Actiontec Router for this router and if so, were any problems encountered?

If not, did you see increased WiFi connectivity and/or speed?  I live in a three story home and run MAC computers.  I also have a Netgear WiFi extender on the second floor which seemed to help extend the WiFi signal to the top floor.  

Looking at the instructions it seems to be pretty straightforward and swapping them out.  I noticed the instructions to connect your TV cable boxes jump out of nowhere.  I mean, they did not even preface the installation of a new router with removing the cable from the existing HD boxes and powering them back up after installation of the new router.

I look forward to hearing any of your experiences with your installtion.  BTW, the router is down to $79 now.  A little better than it was before.

Cheers!


I started having some internet connection problems and Verizon sent me a Rev. I Actiontec to see if that would fix the problems (and it seems to have done so). I had done a little bit of customization on the previous Actiontec (changed the SSID, customized the encryption, set it to use channel 1 only, etc.), so what I did was disconnect my PC from the existing router, letting my wife continue to access the internet while I did the configuration work, and connected my PC to the new router and did all of my customization first, before installing it. Made things simple. Some things to be aware of:

1) The Rev. I comes with WPA/WPA2 encryption already set as the default. They WPA key is on the label on the bottom of the router. I was already using WPA2, but the Rev. I would not accept my existing key, it requires numbers in the key and I had only mixed case letters and special characters. So I was forced to change the key, not a big deal, but not something I was expecting. And since I changed the key I had to change the key in both my PC and my phone to get them to connect.

2) I was using the default TPIK/AES encryption, and could not get higher wireless speeds once I installed the new router. Turns out that it only works at actual N speeds if AES only is specified (maybe a little clarification here: when set to use TPIK/AES it will communicate with B/G/N devices, but apparently only at up to G speeds, changing to AES and N only lets the router go up to real N speeds). Once I found that out and changed the setting, I got just as fast speeds wireless as I was getting wired (I have 25/25 service), last time I checked i got 33/27 wireless I think. So I have quit connecting the ethernet cable, I am now just using wireless.

Once I had things configured the way I wanted, I shut the new router down, turned off the old router, disconnected it, and put the new one in and started it up. Worked like a charm. I don't remember if I needed to reboot the STBs, although I may have done so, actually probably did just in case.

Hope this helps.

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

Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
NBF1
Enthusiast - Level 1
Thanks for the rundown Justin. I really appreciate the time you took to explain your experience. I just finished my swap yesterday and will check out how to get the highest and best wireless speed that I can. I believe my router forces me to use the WPA2 security - is this different from the setting you chose to force it to use N protocol? Where do I go to change this setting? I'm hoping my iMac which I bought less than a year ago uses N speeds.
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Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
tns
Master - Level 2

Note what tkip/aes is really allowing WPA TKIP or aes, and WPA2 AES.  By the time WPA2 standard was finalized they knew TKIP was compromised and its not allowed.  Wireless-N standards only allow forms of WPA2 security, although many routers allow you to mix.

Unless you have no choice do not allow tkip.

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Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
Justin46
Legend

@NBF wrote:
Thanks for the rundown Justin. I really appreciate the time you took to explain your experience. I just finished my swap yesterday and will check out how to get the highest and best wireless speed that I can. I believe my router forces me to use the WPA2 security - is this different from the setting you chose to force it to use N protocol? Where do I go to change this setting? I'm hoping my iMac which I bought less than a year ago uses N speeds.

You are welcome. From your post I gather the new router is up and running, great!

You can still use WEP or WPA encryption with the Rev. I router if you want, but I highly recommend you not do that, for security and speed reasons. You should use WPA2 if all of your devices support that. And that is the only way you are going to get 130 Mbps speed as far as I know. But the router defaults to TKIP/AES with WPA2, which will NOT give you the N speed it is capable of, instead it supports B/G/N compatibility, but only at a slower N speed.

The N performance mode setting only shows up if you change the Encryption Algorithm from TKIP/AES to AES via the pull-down.

Here is what my settings look like now (with the SSID and the WPA2 password covered up):

image

If I go look at my Wireless Properties dialog in Windows I see this (again with the SSID covered up):

image

The key thing you are looking for is the 130.0 Mbps being displayed. As I understand it, you will never get that speed if you leave the encryption at TKIP/AES (I never did, I think it showed as 56 Mbps). Just keep in mind that only N mode devices will be able to connect to the router with this setting, no B/G.

I hope this helps. I am very satisfied with the performance and (at least so far) the reliability of my Rev. I router.

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

Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
NBF1
Enthusiast - Level 1

Justin, the installation went smooth thanks to you, but I run iMacs and MacBookPro and and iPad, so I can't see what speeds I'm getting now.  I turned QOS WMM off and selected the AES and wonder what speeds I'm now obtaining, but can't find out how to see them in OSX.  Guess I'll have to download a speedtest app or something similar.

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Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

@NBF wrote:

Justin, the installation went smooth thanks to you, but I run iMacs and MacBookPro and and iPad, so I can't see what speeds I'm getting now.  I turned QOS WMM off and selected the AES and wonder what speeds I'm now obtaining, but can't find out how to see them in OSX.  Guess I'll have to download a speedtest app or something similar.


As a heads up, WMM QoS is required for Wireless N certification. Make sure it is kept on if you're seeing lower throughput with it off.

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Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
Justin46
Legend

@NBF wrote:

Justin, the installation went smooth thanks to you, but I run iMacs and MacBookPro and and iPad, so I can't see what speeds I'm getting now.  I turned QOS WMM off and selected the AES and wonder what speeds I'm now obtaining, but can't find out how to see them in OSX.  Guess I'll have to download a speedtest app or something similar.


Glad to hear it is working. I am surprised that OSX doesn't have something that would give you and indication of the wireless speed you are getting, but then I know nothing about Apple stuff, purely Windows here.

What I think is most important, however, is what actual download/upload internet speeds you can get now using a wireless connection. So I would hope that you can find some speed testing sites that will give you some at least semi-accurate info. I tend to prefer Speedtest.net, but that tool requires Flash I think, and OSX does not support Flash, is that correct? But surely you can find something that will give you some kind of indication. For me, I had measured my wireless speed with the TKIP/AES setting at 20/15 or so, after switching to AES only my wireless speed was about the same as my wired speed, 30/26 or so with 25/25 service. So I encourage you to find a site that will work with OSX and then test both wired and wireless to see how you are doing.

Anyway, good luck, glad you are up and running, hope all is/remains well.

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

Re: Installtion of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
smith6612
Community Leader
Community Leader

You Control-Click the Wireless icon in OSX. That gives signal levels in RSSI and the speed, and also shows the band being used. Also, iOS is the OS from Apple that doesn't support Flash. OSX has full flash support still.

Re: Installation of New Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router
redup
Enthusiast - Level 2

Does the new Actiontec Gigabyte MI424WR Router still use coax for the connection with the ONT (Optical Network Terminal)? I've not ordered one yet and have not been able to locate any installation instructions.  Sure looking forward to the N upgrade on my home wireless network.  

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