Help on FIOS Extender Choices?

[Greg26001]

So a family member of mine has FIOS at their home, which is a small Victorian style that goes up three floors though floor space wise it's not that big.  As with those types of homes, there's a lot of stairs and walls and the reception suffers.  They've got a G1100 router on the first floor.  A few years ago, I put a WCB3000N MOCA extender on the 3rd floor, which helped for awhile.  It also has two PC's connected via ethernet.  They began having this strange issue where if the PC's were on (via ethernet), the wi-fi reception suffered badly.  Or if game consoles/smart TV's were on, the same.  

I cannot get over there anytime soon, so I need an affordable solution that they can install themselves with me only able to guide remotely.   My suggestion to them was to get another Actiontec MOCA 2.0 extender for the 2nd floor.  Obviously another WCB3000N is the cheapest route, and I know a reset plus WPS should allow it to pick up the network automatically, right?  Having two of those going (separated by a ceiling/floor) is not a problem?

Alternatively, I was going to suggest the WCB6200Q extender (which I have in my house).  However, it's tricky because if you get one that wasn't a FIOS configured device, SON (Self-organizing networking) won't work or something like that, right?  i.e. it has the Verizon logo on the side and not Actiontec.

Appreciate the help thanks.

[appDev]

sounds about right, but may i ask for a quick clarification? - When you say "the wi-fi reception suffered badly", is it actual connection to the router/wi-fi network or connection to the router is fine, but speeds are horrible?

If its the latter (well, easier at least) - what speed are they subscribed to? Could it just be the bandwidth is being used up?

If its the former, is the extender a rental? VZ should be able to troubleshoot and replace.

[Greg26001]

No rentals.  Again, I'm not there but the description I have is that their phones won't work.  I mean, I realize the WCB3000N is a tad out of date, but come on, a couple of PC's hooked up directly, and it can't process cell phones?  There's no way.  

What about the WCB6200Q  extender, does that need to be "Verizon" branded?  I think that's what they should get.

[appDev]

I agree with you - doesn't sound like it should be an issue, but you'll get the classic "not verizon equipment, can't help" runaround.

For the extender, it shouldn't need to be VZ branded, but troubleshooting will be a problem, as you're finding out.

I think you need some more information (at least i would) - wi-fi signal versus speed is the most important.

Finally, not sure where you were going to buy the WCB6200Q from, but verizon actually had it for cheaper (new) than other places last i checked. You might want to order through VZ just for convenience especially you cannot be there.

My $.02

[Greg26001]

Ok so I found out specifically what their problem is, even though it's quite bizarre to me.  So as I said, they have two PC's hooked up via ethernet to the WCB3000N extender on the 3rd floor.  When the kids are playing games on them, idk I suppose Fortnite or whatever, the wireless on their smart TV on the 2nd floor (and cellphones) seem to lose the internet.  

They'd already gotten a WCB6200Q Actiontec branded extender.  It would not inherit the wifi properties from the router using WPS.  So I had to walk them through manually setting it up.  So Wi-Fi is now extended on each floor with the same node name and password.

I had them plug the Smart TV into the WCB6200Q via ethernet.  However, if the TV is on, suddenly the kids on the 3rd floor PC's lose their internet access!!  Frankly I've never seen something like this before, and no, I made sure IP addresses weren't being duplicated or anything.  I'm very much confused.

[appDev]

That is indeed very bizarre - at this point, might be worth having verizon tech support troubleshoot over the phone?

[Greg26001 · Accepted solution]

I believe I solved it, had to go there finally.  Not sure this "did" anything but the only setting that was different between the WCB3000N extender they had, and the WCB6200Q extender they added was in the MOCA setup, network controller on the 6200 was off.  I switched that to Yes.  What I also did was to disable wi-fi on the two PC's in question, and leave them on Ethernet only on the WCB3000N.  I verified that the extenders, the PC's, and the smart TV all had unique IP's.