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Changing router to 3rd party router

I've been thinking about upgrading my router to a 3rd party AC wireless router so I can use more of my bandwith on my laptop and other wireless gadgets. My question is can I change it and keep all my tv services. I was told I have to use verizon's as a bridge. If I can how would I go about doing it.

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anonFios

Just connect a cable from one of the Ethernet ports on the Verizon router to the WAN port on your router.

You can either keep both wireless networks or turn off the Verizon one somewhere in the settings of the router.

VUser50

Check your new router's manual for how to put it into Access Point Mode. (most new AC routers just require changing a setting, some/ those without an explicit setting will require you turn off DCHP and make sure it is plugged in via one of its LAN ports ).* All your services will remain because your Actiontec will essentially be doing all the heavy lifting. You can even leave the WiFi on the old router on but I would recommend spacing out the channels to prevent interference. (also it is not very neighbor friendly if you live in an apartment)

Bridging the Actiontec is only needed if:

You have a pretty old one and want to do a lot of torrenting/ gaming (the older ones have small NAT tables ... I think any of the ones over 100,00 should be fine for most)
You want to use some specialized features besides WiFi on your new router (its firewall, advanced management of the usb port, ect.... Access Point mode disables some of these features)
You have time to waste
You have so much heavy traffic/ devices on your router that the cpu/ ram of your new router will make a difference (unlikely)

Anyway, if you do bridge (and it is a fun little project if you have the time), you can create a double bridge which shouldn't be much harder to fix the On Demand problem**. It is option 5 of this guide: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/16077

*Just plugging the router in normally without putting it in Access Point Mode means all your WiFi internet traffic has to go through two routers to reach the internet. It will likely work most of the time, but it may cause unnecessary problems with devices on your network communicating to each other and also port forwarding which is important to a lot of applications.

**Only On Demand and DVR will go away with a regular bridge... Not your entire TV service. (possibly the tv guide/ on screen caller ID but I've heard from multiple people that is not the case)

viafax999

@mls73 wrote:
I've been thinking about upgrading my router to a 3rd party AC wireless router so I can use more of my bandwith on my laptop and other wireless gadgets. My question is can I change it and keep all my tv services. I was told I have to use verizon's as a bridge. If I can how would I go about doing it.

I didn't bridge it.

Had router provisioning changed to ethernet and added my own router as the gateway (192.168.0) and attached the Verizon router as a separate subnet via a lan-wan connection to run the STBs on it's original subnet without changing anything on it.

Everything appears to work fine for me after some minor tweaks. Don't know about DVR as I don't have a VZ one but VOD and on screen caller id all work with no issues as does guide.

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