Need Help With Adding My Own Router With Fios Internet + TV

Question

Hi everyone,

I have Fios Gigabit Internet+TV at home and while it works great, the Quantum router's Wifi signal is really weak. So I decided to add my own router to the mic, a Netgear X6S.

My setup is: ONT ->Netgear->Quantum router (Wifi/HDP disabled). And of course the ONT splitter between the Quantum and the cable box.

I followed the guides that everyone here recommends on DSL reports to get everything working.

My internet is now working fine, and I receive all my TV channels, but I cannot get my TV guide and VOD to work anymore.

I tried all the steps in the tutorials multiple times and nothing works.

Do you guys have any tips or additional things I could try to get this to work?

Thanks!

Capricorn1 · Accepted Answer

I have a couple of questions.

* When you reconnected the quantum router, did you connect it to the Quantum's WAN port of one of the Quantum's LAN ports?
* You said you disabled WiFI/HDP. What is HDP? Do you mean DHCP? I hope so.

One thing to keep in the back of your mind while you are setting this up is the coax connection on the back of the Quantum router is more or less a fifth LAN port. It's using Ethernet over coax (MoCA 2.0) rather than a typical RJ-45 cable you'd use with the other LAN ports, but it's still an Ethernet port. It is this port that the TV guide and VOD data are sent over (with Verizon Set-Top Boxes [STBs] at least). It does this by using part of the frequencies available on the coax cable for Ethernet data traffic. (Other frequencies are used for the video.) Therefore, the coax on the back of the Quantum gateway will need to be connected to the coax headed to your STBs.

If you connected from the Netgear to the Quantum's using one of the Quantum's LAN ports, you should be fine as that takes the Quantum's routing side completely out of the picture. Disabling the WiFi radio and DHCP server in the Quantum gateway is the correct approach. However, if you used the WAN port, the coax port on the Quantum is now on another network. If you aren't using the other Quantum LAN ports, it's on a network that only includes itself and your STBs. While many will say this is bad in the network sense, it can work just fine. (See double NAT explained at this Netgear site.)

There are two potential problems if you want to use the Quantum WAN port:

* DHCP has to be enabled on the Quantum router so that the coax port can present an IP over the coax to the STBs and also so the STBs can get their own IP addresses.
* Once you enable the DHCP server on the Quantum router, both the Netgear and Quantum DHCP servers use the 192.168.1.x network by default. That means that on both sides of the Quantum router, the network is 192.168.1.something. It's WAN port might be at 192.168.1.51 depending on what IP address it got from the Netgear (or what IP address you gave it explicitly if you are using static IPs). It is also trying to use 192.168.1.x on the LAN side. Therefore, it won't route any traffic through itself because nothing appears to need to be routed. Your coax port and STBs are cut off, so no guide and no VOD. The fix for that is to change the DHCP server on either the Netgear or the Quantum to be something else like 192.168.2.x. I'd change the Quantum gateway and reboot (power cycle) the STBs to make them get a new IP.

Personally, I'd just use the LAN side of the Quantum. If you don't need the other LAN ports on the Quantum for anything, you can remove it entirely and use an Actiontec ECB6200 to in its place. That does the one function you are using the Quantum for in this case: converting Ethernet to coax. (Technically, you only need the Actiontec ECB6000, but Actiontec is trying to discontinue that model.)