[Discuss] Fios direct connect to router?

[Richard Pieri]

Edward Ned Harvey (blu) wrote:
> I was just about to write you can't, because their actiontec router
> isn't a real router, but a thin device.  You did something, and I
> want to do the same, and I've tried long and hard ... but can't.

Nothing sold as consumer/residential broadband "routers" are actually 
routers. They don't route packets. They bridge networks. This makes them 
bridges. A bridge that connect networks that use dissimilar protocols is 
a gateway. Put such a device in a home setting and it's a residential 
bridge (Ethernet to Ethernet) or a residential gateway (DSL/DOCSIS/FiOS 
to Ethernet).

The Verizon FiOS-branded Actiontec devices are real residential gateways 
with more or less all of the features one would expect from a very good 
residential gateway with one exception: a miniscule 1K of RAM for the 
NAT table by Verizon's request to limit heavy usage like BitTorrent.


> I find that if I disconnect and power off the actiontec, plug in some
> other device (my laptop), power cycle the ONT, then the line was
> unusable.

You need to release your IP address from the Actiontec device first 
(Ethernet or coax WAN port). If you don't do this then Verizon still has 
the Actiontec's MAC address associated with the IP address assigned to 
you and you won't be able to get a new IP address until the lease 
expires. If this does not work then you need to contact Verizon and have 
someone reset the provisioning on their end so that you can use a new 
device. You could also try MAC address cloning.

There is no routing in an ONT. There is no need: the fibre line is 
private all the way back to the CO. That's where routing happens. The 
ONT is a bridge between the fiber on the outside and the ethernet/coax 
and analog telephone copper on the inside, plus a modem and battery for 
the telephone.

If you can take the Actiontec box out of the circuit then do so. It's 
not worth having there if you need lots of NATed connections. If you 
can't do this (you have TV service) then switch it to bridge mode. Doing 
this is a lot cheaper than forking over another $100 or so for a MoCA to 
Ethernet bridge when you already have a perfectly good one (mine's been 
doing it for three years). Either option lets you use your own bridge on 
the inside.

-- 
Rich P.