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Should we upgrade our Verizon FiOS router?

We have had Verizon FiOS Internet and phone service for several years, with one speed upgrade during that period, and earlier this year we added FiOS TV service.

We currently have three desktop PCS in regular use, one with a wired connection and two that are connected wirelessly. According to Verizon's speed test, we get similar download speeds on two of the PC's—about 28 Mbps on the wired PC and one of the wireless PCS--but much slower downloads (less than 10 Mbps) on the third (slightly older) PC, which did not originally come with a wireless card and is connected via a wireless USB dongle instead. Our children find these connections to be somewhat slow on the first two PC's and painfully slow on the third, especially for video content. Our service plan is supposed to provide 75 Mbps downloads.

We see that Verizon is now offering an opportunity to upgrade our current router—an Actiontec M-1424 WR Rev. E—to the Actiontec M-1424 WR GigE, which appears to be the same as the Rev. I. There is a 1-time charge of $100 for the upgrade.

We are wondering if any other Verizon FiOS users on this board have made a comparable upgrade, and if so, have you noticed substantial improvements in connection speed on your wireless and/or wired connections? And if you know whether there any equipment-specific or plan-specific factors that might make such a switch more or less useful for us? FWIW, both of our newer computers have 802.11n wireless LAN cards, and the wireless dongle on the third is also an 802.11n.

If you have any other advice for improving our connection speeds, that would also be welcome. Thanks.

Lorin and Cathy in Maryland

Comments

walt178

If you are only getting 28Mbps on a wired connection, upgrading the router won't change that. I would recommend that you take a look at that before spending any money. It could be a bad line, bad router or bad network card. Try all of your computers wired and if the results are low on each, contact customer support.

On the wireless side, make sure your router security is set for WPA as that will effect speed.

Before buying the router see if you can get it for free. Verizon use to give the Rev I to users with the 75/35 and up plans. Another consideration if you buy is whether or not you want to get the Actiontec or add a second router to handle your wireless connections. It will be more complicated to set up, but you can get better routers than the Actiontec. If you go that route, post back or do a search for two router setup.

beetlejuice2

@2kids3PCs4cats wrote:
We have had Verizon FiOS Internet and phone service for several years, with one speed upgrade during that period, and earlier this year we added FiOS TV service.
We currently have three desktop PCS in regular use, one with a wired connection and two that are connected wirelessly. According to Verizon's speed test, we get similar download speeds on two of the PC's—about 28 Mbps on the wired PC and one of the wireless PCS--but much slower downloads (less than 10 Mbps) on the third (slightly older) PC, which did not originally come with a wireless card and is connected via a wireless USB dongle instead. Our children find these connections to be somewhat slow on the first two PC's and painfully slow on the third, especially for video content. Our service plan is supposed to provide 75 Mbps downloads.
We see that Verizon is now offering an opportunity to upgrade our current router—an Actiontec M-1424 WR Rev. E—to the Actiontec M-1424 WR GigE, which appears to be the same as the Rev. I. There is a 1-time charge of $100 for the upgrade.
We are wondering if any other Verizon FiOS users on this board have made a comparable upgrade, and if so, have you noticed substantial improvements in connection speed on your wireless and/or wired connections? And if you know whether there any equipment-specific or plan-specific factors that might make such a switch more or less useful for us? FWIW, both of our newer computers have 802.11n wireless LAN cards, and the wireless dongle on the third is also an 802.11n.
If you have any other advice for improving our connection speeds, that would also be welcome. Thanks.
Lorin and Cathy in Maryland

Walt gives great advice.

I recently upgraded to the new router myself and it was mostly because I wanted only one router in the house, wanted it to be super simple to set up, and I wanted the n band since my old router was only g and of course g doesn't put out good wireless speeds.

Since you are already on n band you really don't need to spend $100 on a new router unless you are going to go higher with speeds (150 or up) or just simply want a new one.

Test all of the computers on wired. If any are putting out the speeds you are paying for then a new router isnt going to do anything really different, but if as you said you are only getting 28 mbps on all of them then I'd call customer service since wired you should be getting more. I have the 50/25 plan and had no issues getting 55 mbps wired on my old g router. I know I could have went up to 75 if I wanted on it. Since you have a newer router then I had you should have no issues getting at or near 75 mbps on wired.

I would suggest when testing them wired test one while the other 2 are off or the internet disabled to make sure all of the bandwidth is going to only one computer which will give you more accurate results. Then turn another one on and the other one off then move on to the last one. I recommend doing this during non peak times as well. Are the speeds the same? Different? Close?

If they are all still slow a call to customer service to troubleshoot might not be a bad idea. Might have a bad ont, a bad router, could be the isp's server, etc..

You mention video playback painfully slow on one computer. If this goes on espcially during peak times with youtube its an issue that's been going on for a long time now with Verizon and a new router won't fix it one bit.

As far as wireless if you have never done it you can try changing the routers channel to ch 1, 6 or 11 and see if speeds increase any. ch 6 is so congested in my area I never use it. If I do I get really poor speeds.

You can get much better routers then Verizon's and it is a few more steps to get it going, but it's really not that hard to do. You'd just have 2 routers instead of 1 since the Verizon one is needed for tv.

Also, if any of the wireless cards in your computers have dual band in them a dual band router might benefit you since they Verizon router is just a single band. If not then a single band router is just fine.

I was told in order to get the new router for free you have to have the 150 tier. Anything below you have to pay, but its always worth a shot.

If you do decide to get the new Verizon one there are 2 other options besides paying $99 plus shipping up front.

Check out ch. 692. At least where I live the channel lets you order it on the channel for 3 installments if you'd prefer to pay a little at a time. You can also keep an eye on ebay where people list them all of the time. They seem to go for around $60-$65 lightly used.

If you do buy one through Verizon make sure they send you a brand new one. It will come wrapped in plastic, come with a cd, a set up book, a yellow and white enthernet cable, the stand for the router and all ports will have stickers covering them.

Why I say this is because when I ordered and received mine they tried pulling one over on me and sent me a used/refurbished one. I had to call and have them send me another one.

Also the gige and rev i are the same.

It is easy to set up. Just swap them out, sign into the new router and configure the ssid and password (or use the default which I dont recommend) and it was done.

HomeGrown203

I have the rev F and 75/35. Will they still upgrade me for free?

beetlejuice2

Doubt it since the rev f isnt that old. If you went 150 then yes. Nothing wrong in trying though.

Wizard_of_Oz

NO, DO NOT DO IT! Save your money because what they advertise is not what is provided.

I paid for 50/25 and I do not get it. I made the mistake of switching from Cablevision thinking I was saving money and getting a better deal but it has been 2.5 months of hell with Fios.

I run speed tests on their "service" but it varies greatly. I have spent countless hours trying to get what I pay for and was told by a Verizon tech that it is "traffic that reduces my speed" and they cannot control traffic. Not only does my speed drop dramatically, but very often, my PC detects no connection.

I work from home in my castle and in the morning it is not bad but after 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, it is all DOWN hill. I consistently have buffer issues and time outs because of this "service".

The tech today told me to buy a booster but I am hard wired so that makes no sense. I told the tech to stop apologizing because it is just a word in their script that has no meaning. If Verizon were truly sorry, they would "fix" these issues and stop apologizing. Did you ever count how many times these reps apologize, it makes me sick.

Therefore, my advice is to keep your hard-earned money and look for other alternatives.

Sorry I switched Cablevision ..... take me back please.....

beetlejuice2

@Wizard_of_Oz wrote:
NO, DO NOT DO IT! Save your money because what they advertise is not what is provided.
I paid for 50/25 and I do not get it. I made the mistake of switching from Cablevision thinking I was saving money and getting a better deal but it has been 2.5 months of hell with Fios.
I run speed tests on their "service" but it varies greatly. I have spent countless hours trying to get what I pay for and was told by a Verizon tech that it is "traffic that reduces my speed" and they cannot control traffic. Not only does my speed drop dramatically, but very often, my PC detects no connection.
I work from home in my castle and in the morning it is not bad but after 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM, it is all DOWN hill. I consistently have buffer issues and time outs because of this "service".
The tech today told me to buy a booster but I am hard wired so that makes no sense. I told the tech to stop apologizing because it is just a word in their script that has no meaning. If Verizon were truly sorry, they would "fix" these issues and stop apologizing. Did you ever count how many times these reps apologize, it makes me sick.
Therefore, my advice is to keep your hard-earned money and look for other alternatives.
Sorry I switched Cablevision ..... take me back please.....

I get what is advertised so not everyone will run into the same situation. Yes peak times will play a part in speed, but that goes on with any isp. It has a lot to do with the local servers (verizon or non verizon) where your computer connects to where one lives as well.

Doug104

I fell for that sales pitch on the channel lineup, and I'm online tonight to see about sending it back. The new router is no faster and the signal (my main issue) is no stronger, well maybe just a tad. Also it says they bill you $33 a month for three months and I just got my monthly bill and it has a $100 full charge for the router on it.

beetlejuice2

@Doug104 wrote:
I fell for that sales pitch on the channel lineup, and I'm online tonight to see about sending it back. The new router is no faster and the signal (my main issue) is no stronger, well maybe just a tad. Also it says they bill you $33 a month for three months and I just got my monthly bill and it has a $100 full charge for the router on it.

The new router isnt any better because its really meant for those who have fast speeds (150+) since the old ones cant handle the high speeds as they dont have gige ports. Its also for those who have the old g band routers who want n band for better wireless speed. Thats about it though. Verizon should disclose things a lot better as most have no idea its just a router and nothing special at all, yet they are advertising it as "advanced" and as if its some miracle router when its not.

If they are advertising 3 installments and billing the full amount thats not cool at all. I wont have my bill for mine for a few weeks so I cant say until then how they billed me.

db909

My advice:

1) Figure out why your wired speed is slow and if a FIOS issue get that fixed first.

2) Make sure you have wireless N capable devices. A new router will NOT make pre-N devices much faster.

3) Try and get FIOS to give you their best router for free.

It makes absolutely no sense to buy a new router from FIOS when you already have a FIOS router. For $100 or less you can buy a vastly superior router and use it with your old one. Turn off the wifi in the old one, set up the new one as an Access Point. For some people with basic, low range, installations, the FIOS router works fine. That is not the point. Why not get something BETTER for the same price or less?

ocoffey

I windered whether to get a new browser or anything else when my netflix streaming movies were stopping every 5 minutes to recharge.

I have verizon standard router - whatever that is - and perfectly adequate it is for my desk top and 2 laptops + i pad and whatever.

I have a sony blueray to relay movies from my router to my tv.

It occurred to me that netflix movies showed up fine on all my computers, but were terrible via my Sony blue ray relay.

So I connected my Acer Aspire laptop video and sound outputs directly to my T.V.

The netflix streaming is now fine - except for the need for the occasinal tap on the space bare to let it know i'm still listening.

So - for me - it seems the blue ray is the weak link, not verizon nor the router.

Let me know if you find the same experience when you try direct laptop to t.v link.

TTFN

ocoffey

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