FIOS and Dynamic DNS

I'm thinking about switching from Verizon DSL to FIOS, but I have a few concerns.

Right now I am able to directly connect form my linux-based router to the DSL modem via PPPoE. If for some resaon the PPP link drops the router just re-establishes it, and it always knows my outside IP. It can also update my multiple dyanamic DNS addresses automatically when this happens. My DSL IP address seems to change only when I shut down my router - it lasts weeks at a time.

With FIOS it sounds like you are forced to use NAT with the supplied router. I can go ahead and disable wireless on it, and then just set up my own router to use a static IP and put it in the DMZ to get as close to a bypass as I can. However, if my outside IP changes my internal router isn't going to know about it, and won't be able to update my dynamic DNS/etc. It looks like the FIOS routers will update dynamic DNS addresses, but I'm not sure if they support namecheap, and I also don't know if they support updating more than one dynamic DNS service when my IP changes.

It also sounds like they cut the copper connection, so if it doesn't work out right it will be very hard to go back to DSL.

Does anybody know:

1. Will the supplied router update more than one dynamic DNS service automatically?

2. Will the supplied router update a namecheap hosted dynamic DNS record?

3. When updating a namecheap DNS record will it only touch the A record and not mess with all my other DNS settings?

4. Can I somehow configure the router to provide my external IP to a single internal computer via DHCP (ie router gets an address from verizon, and then the router offers that address to my own router)? Obviously this won't work with more than one computer on the router.

5. Can I alternatively connect to the verizon-provided router using PPPoE or a similar protocol to just get my external IP directly tunneled through the router?

6. Does a FIOS TV standard definition tuner box require a network connection?

7. What happens if the tuner it isn't connected to the network? I won't be using any kind of interactive services anyway since the tuners will just be connected to my DVR.

8. Does the network connection have to be on the same subnet as the verizon-provided router, or is it sufficient that it be able to reach that router or the internet via NAT (there would be a NAT layer between my internal network and the verizon-powered router)?

9. If this stuff doesn't end up working right, can I just pull the plug on FIOS and go back to Verizon DSL and POTS?

In case it isn't clear, here is how I envision the network looking:

Verizon - Verizon Router - NAT with My Router in the DMZ - My Router - NAT - My internal network

I guess if I get really desperate I could try to find a tunnel broker of some kind - not sure if anybody does that for IPv4 the way it is done for IPv6. That would allow me to get my external IP through the NAT and potentially give me a static one as well...

I REALLY don't want to pay an extra $50 for a static IP. I'd probably just stick with the DSL if it came to that even though it is actually more expensive than switching (for dynamic service) and it is a lot slower...

Accepted answers

BrianMcD

You can use another router in combination with the Verizon Supplied Router. There are pros and cons to each configuration.

Some additional information can be found here:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/3.0_Networking

All comments

rich00

I hate to reply to my own posts, but I was reading the user guide for the actiontec router (which assumes I'll get one of those). It looks like there is quite a bit of configurability there. Would it be possible to set the broadband coax connection to NOT obtain an IP address, but instead to bridge that to the regular ethernet network? Then I'd just have my internal router request an IP via DHCP and it would be talking to the verizon DHCP server and not to the actiontec router. As long as I only requested one IP I would assume that verizon wouldn't even realize that it wasn't talking to the actiontec router when it supplies it.

I'm not certain what the router's behavior would be if I tried to set it up this way. I'm not sure if it would actually truly bridge the coax network with the local network.

This also assumes that the actiontec router gets its IP simply via DHCP and that there isn't any kind of authentication between it and the verizon network (or if there is authentication that it takes place below the TCP/IP layer and it has already taken place when the link is established).

I do apologize as I realize these aren't the sorts of questions that are likely asked on this forum. I'm really keen on switching over to FIOS so I could probably improvise quite a bit to get things working. I just want to get an idea for what might or might not be possible...

rich00

Hmm - that idea might not actually work out all that well. It might or might not work at all, but one thing that it would probably do is make it impossible to access the router's web interface (since the router wouldn't have an IP address of its own on any of the ports). So, if it did work it would be a once-and-done configuration and then I'd need to reset it to do anything else with it. This would also make it impossible to attach set-top-boxes directly to the actiontec router, but then again they'd be only one NAT layer away from verizon if I attached them to my home network.

I suspect I might be better off with the DMZ approach and just living with a single dynamic dns entry. The main reason I use more than one of those is so that if my IP address changes I don't have to wait for the DNS TTL to run out to find out what the new IP is - I can just wait a few minutes to be safe and resolve one of my other dynamic addresses which won't be cached anywhere so it will get the fresh entry.

I guess my other option is to fire up nslookup and point it directly at the appropriate DNS server so that I"m not seeing a cached response.

I've heard mixed reports on how often the FIOS IPs change anyway. If they only change once in a blue moon I'm not terribly concerned about this stuff.

(Why can't everybody just switch to IPv6 and end all this NAT nonsense anyway...?) 🙂

NielsBohr

The available dynamic dns options on my Westell 9100em are:

dyndns.org

no-ip.com

tzo.com

easydns.com

Many of these dynamic DNS companies also provide perl scripts for you to update the DNS records for your accounts. You just need to get one of these running and keep track of your IP address so that you know when to update your records. You can get this from the router or else by connecting to one of the many whatismyip.com type companies. Good luck.

BrianMcD

You can use another router in combination with the Verizon Supplied Router. There are pros and cons to each configuration.

Some additional information can be found here:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/3.0_Networking

rich00

Looks like options 4-8 on that FAQ would potentially solve my problems. I might even be able to get by with the DNZ option. We'll see... I'm impressed that somebody wrote all that up! I'll have to read the rest of that FAQ. Thanks for answering!