How To Use Your Own Router with Out Loosing Verizon’s FIOS Services
Murnet
Newbie

How to use your own router with Verizon’s FIOS Service

 

First, you need a basic understanding of how FIOS works but unfortunately there are two types of FIOS systems out there. All of the systems utilize a fiber optic cable to bring TV, phone and internet to your location over one optic cable. In addition these systems provide interactivity including widgets, remote DVR, movies on demand and so forth via an IP (Internet Protocol) signal.  Your STB (Set Tip Box) requires both a video and IP signal. The IP signal is necessary for all of the aforementioned interactivity.  The fiber cable terminates at the Optical Network Terminal or ONT for short.  The ONT converts the optics into a digital signal that can be utilized by ones equipment.  From the ONT your video, phone and internet are provided to the location.  This is where things can differ as the internet signal can be provided via a coaxial (MoCA or Multimedia over Coax Alliance) or RJ45 Cat5 (Ethernet) cable.  It is important to identify and understand the differences of these two setups.  In my case I have my internet entering via Ethernet cable, which in my humble opinion makes things a heck of a lot easier.

 

How does one tell the difference? In most cases it’s rather simple; just look at the Verizon’s router WAN (Wide Area Network) Port.  Does it have a RJ45 (Ethernet) or Coax (TV cable Cord) going to it? If the router’s WAN port doesn’t have a coaxial connector then one will need to convert the MoCA signal into a usable Ethernet signal that routers understand. The easiest way is to use Verizon’s router as a bridge. In this method the Verizon’s router simply converts the signal and passes it along to your own router. The challenge is to try to maintain the interactivity that FIOS TV provides. Because of this one needs to supply the IP routed signal back to the FIOS router.  There are multiple methods for doing this and I would recommend investigates which one make the most sense.   

 

In my particular case the IP signal was provided by Ethernet.  Again there are various ways of installing one’s own router. The hardest is to utilize Verizon’s router as a bridge.  This setup requires configuring Verizon’s router as a bridge and also creating a VLAN (Virtual Local Area Networks). In addition one needs to set up their own router so it will work with the various routing tables and networks. For me this is too complex for the average person and it can be difficult to trouble shoot if something goes wrong. Please consider that Verizon will not support utilizing third party routers.   

 

The easier method is to request an Ethernet signal (if you don’t already have one) from their ONT.  I would highly recommend getting your hands on a NIM or Network Interface Module. This device is used to convert Ethernet to Coaxial so it can be fed back to your STBs.  These can be purchased online and Verizon technicians can be a valuable resource with these sorts of acquisition.  At the very least they can point you to the right direction.  Once you have a NIM the rest is rather simple.

 

  1. Log into the current Verizon Router.

  2. Located the router’s MAC address and copy it down.

  3. Go to the port forwarding section and copy down the Applied Rules. 

    Example:  

    Network Computer/Device: 192.168.1.100:63145

    Application & Ports Forward:  Application UDP Any -> 6347  

    Note: There may be up to three entries for each one of your Set Top Boxes.

  4. Look at your current device list, typically found on the home screen. Copy down your STB MAC and IP address.

  5. Example:

    IP-STB1

    Connection Type: Ethernet

    * IP Address: 192.168.1.100

    IP Address Allocation: DHCP

    *MAC Address:                07:73:fFe:ad:8b:3f

    * Things you will need to write down

  6. Go to the network section and look for the main Ethernet connection.  Select this and then select more setting, typically found at the bottom. Release the current lease.

  7. Remove the Verizon router

  8. Install your router

  9. Connect the NIM by plugging in an Ethernet from one of the routers LAN (Local Area Network) ports to your NIM. Then connect the coax cable, the same cable that was used by Verizon router.

  10. Set you DHCP routing IP pool to accommodate Verizon’s STB IP’s  (note their IP’s start at 192.168.1.100)

  11. Go to DHCP section and reserve the STB IP’s by inserting the IP’s and MAC addresses. This shall ensure that nothing else utilizes the same IPs as the STBs thereby preventing IP address conflict.  

  12. Add the port forwards from Step 5 above.

  13. Clone Verizon’s Mac Address utilizing the info from step 2

  14. Finish setting up the router in typical fashion.

  15. Unplug and re-plugin your STB’s and test functionality.  It’s best to try using a widget or Movie on demand function.

Note: if the new router can net get an internet signal contact Verizon’s support and have them release the IP and reset the ONT.  

EVERYTHING should be working at this point.

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Re: How To Use Your Own Router with Out Loosing Verizon’s FIOS Services
viafax999
Community Leader
Community Leader

 3 Go to the port forwarding section and copy down the Applied Rules. 

Example:  

Network Computer/Device: 192.168.1.100:63145

Application & Ports Forward:  Application UDP Any -> 6347  

Note: There may be up to three entries for each one of your Set Top Boxes.G

Your display obviously is not like mine as mine does not dosplay the port associated with the ip address

whatever, the STB's start at 192.168.1.100 and icement by 1 for each

the port addr's will be 63145 alo incrementing by 1

there is 1 entry for each in my pf list

however each ip addr also has a port entry starting at 35000 also incrementing by 1 for each ip addr

For some unknow reason these are duplicated e.g I appear to have 11 entries exaactly the same for each stb and as the fios services rules have no action switc there is nowhere to delete the extraneous garbage.

Why do you clone the mac addr??

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