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Router Upgrade

I have recently upgraded to 50/25 but have an old router (at least 5 years old) and do not understand why Verizon doesn't automatically upgrade your router when you've stuck with them for a long time. The fastest wireless rate I can get this to go is 18/17, while I'm paying for 50/25? I know wireless is slower, but seems like a scam to pay for something you are never going to get.... Unhappy!

Comments

VUser50

It is annoying, but unless you need a gigabit ethernet connection, you are really better off just buying your own router (just a regular one to hook up behind the Verizon one) for better wireless speeds/ range.

darocket

If you buy a netgear (WNDR4500) router don't upgrade to Firmware v1.0.1.36_1.0.63:

After the last update, the router would lose it's WAN connection after ~30 minutes
Release / Renew fixed WAN connection on every drop, but only temporarily
Using in AP mode causes the light to flash green/amber. As I recall, I saw a setting to enable/disable this. I left it checked.
Downgrading to the previous firmware V1.0.1.20_1.0.40, has fixed the WAN connection problem.

Fios support would not offer any help with the drop wan connect issue because it's not their router. I still think their support database should have know about the netgear firmware issue and been a bit more helpful.

Terri188

It seems to me like Verizon should offer the solution and upgrade the router after 5 years - what kind of router comes with a new installation?

smith6612

@Terri188 wrote:
It seems to me like Verizon should offer the solution and upgrade the router after 5 years - what kind of router comes with a new installation?

Depends on your tier of service. Up to 75Mbps you may get a Revision F ActionTec MI424WR as it's capable of delivering the 75Mbps speeds wired. Anything higher (150Mbps+), or in some areas, you will get an ActionTec MI424WR Rev. I regardless. It depends on inventory, and Verizon like any other company, is trying to purge older units from inventory.

db909

I have a 50/20 plan. On the initial install a few months ago, the tech tried to give me a router that only supported WEP. After I pick up myself up off the floor and explained that a 6th grader can hack WEP in less than 5 minutes, he went to the truck and returned with a Revision I ActionTec MI424WR.

If you have an older WEP router you may want to try and get them to swap it out for security reasons. Frankly Verizon should not be shipping routers where WEP is the best encryption on it.

Having said that, on the Revision I ActionTec MI424WR my wifi devices topped out around 20. After adding an Asus RT-N66U as an AP, my devices topped out at 40. 20 is generally plenty, heck you can stream HD over 20, but if you need more, you probably need to go buy your own AP or router. I would suggest buying your own anyway. There is more to this than speed. You also need to consider range, maintaining the connection,, and concurrent throughput.

This is all predicated upon the assumption that your have wireless N devices. If you don't, don't bother, older devices won't see the benefit.

beetlejuice2

I just bought the newer rev. i router after having a Westell 9100 for almost 4 years. I honestly would rather buy it and own it then "borrow" it.

I also upgraded to the 50/25 plan. I was getting 50 mbps easily with the g router on wired, but my pc, cell phones etc. would get poor wireless speeds. My phone would only get between 6-8 mbps down. My laptop couldnt even get n band just g until I bought a new adapter for it.

The new router gives me around 57 mbps down wired, about 28 down on my laptop, and I am easily getting 50 down and 35 up on my cell phone.

The router has to be on performance mode and only on n band to work 100%. They come with compatibility mode enabled by default and this is why a lot of people experience speed issues.

Also some people change the default wpa2 security when it needs to stay on it.

Then theres of course environmental issues that can effect wireless speeds, the channel the routers set to, local server congestion, etc..

I'm more then happy with the new router. Even my range jumped up. I'm getting what I pay for.

db909

@beetlejuice wrote:
I just bought the newer rev. i router after having a Westell 9100 for almost 4 years. I honestly would rather buy it and own it then "borrow" it.
I also upgraded to the 50/25 plan. I was getting 50 mbps easily with the g router on wired, but my pc, cell phones etc. would get poor wireless speeds. My phone would only get between 6-8 mbps down. My laptop couldnt even get n band just g until I bought a new adapter for it.
The new router gives me around 57 mbps down wired, about 28 down on my laptop, and I am easily getting 50 down and 35 up on my cell phone.
The router has to be on performance mode and only on n band to work 100%. They come with compatibility mode enabled by default and this is why a lot of people experience speed issues.
Also some people change the default wpa2 security when it needs to stay on it.
Then theres of course environmental issues that can effect wireless speeds, the channel the routers set to, local server congestion, etc..
I'm more then happy with the new router. Even my range jumped up. I'm getting what I pay for.

That will work for some. Any non-N devices like iphone 3gs, ipads, older laptops etc won't work anymore though. I also saw a pretty big difference in range, but if you don't need to get too far from the FIOS router you'll never notice. You are also giving up 5ghz as the Actiontec is 2.4 only.

tns2

@db909 wrote:
I have a 50/20 plan. On the initial install a few months ago, the tech tried to give me a router that only supported WEP. After I pick up myself up off the floor and explained that a 6th grader can hack WEP in less than 5 minutes, he went to the truck and returned with a Revision I ActionTec MI424WR.
If you have an older WEP router you may want to try and get them to swap it out for security reasons. Frankly Verizon should not be shipping routers where WEP is the best encryption on it.
Having said that, on the Revision I ActionTec MI424WR my wifi devices topped out around 20. After adding an Asus RT-N66U as an AP, my devices topped out at 40. 20 is generally plenty, heck you can stream HD over 20, but if you need more, you probably need to go buy your own AP or router. I would suggest buying your own anyway. There is more to this than speed. You also need to consider range, maintaining the connection,, and concurrent throughput.
This is all predicated upon the assumption that your have wireless N devices. If you don't, don't bother, older devices won't see the benefit.

All but the oldest routerscan be changed to WPA2 security, I didn't think they had any of those left. Even MI424WR rev a's can be changed to WPA although not WPA2. Rev I's should have no problem getting better than 20 for Wireless N devices, you definitely must use WPA2 for wireless-n, and if you have all wireless N devices you can get improve speed by specifying wireless n only in your configuration.

beetlejuice2

Thought I'd give an update to my reply above. I used inSSSIDer to check the channel congestion around me. A lot of people seem to be on ch. 6 which my router was set to. I changed it to 1, then 11 and on 11 I'm pulling in 43 mbps down on wireless on my laptop. I was getting better on my phone with ch 6 though. 50 mbps as opposed to 36 on ch. 11.

courtcc

I upgraded to the 50/25 plan a few weeks ago but with my old router from verizon I was getting the promised speed through ethernet but wireless was sad at 28/26. I was chatting online and a rep suggested the turbo router which I bit the bullet. I ordered on thursday and it came on friday. Hooked everything up and my wireless is now 56/38 and couldn't be happier. I wish verizon had upgraded for free but when it comes to retention I'll make up for that in a couple months.

beetlejuice2

@courtcc wrote:
I upgraded to the 50/25 plan a few weeks ago but with my old router from verizon I was getting the promised speed through ethernet but wireless was sad at 28/26. I was chatting online and a rep suggested the turbo router which I bit the bullet. I ordered on thursday and it came on friday. Hooked everything up and my wireless is now 56/38 and couldn't be happier. I wish verizon had upgraded for free but when it comes to retention I'll make up for that in a couple months.

There is nothing "turbo" about the new routers, they just have n band which the old routers never had. n band will always be better on wireless over g. g just sucks on wireless. The new routers arent even dual band, but for most the single is enough.

If you want you can download a free program called inSSIDer which shows you everyones internet around you and what channels are the least congested. Since you are getting great speeds the channel the router is set to seems to be ok, but if it ever slows down you can see if other channels would work better. My router was set to ch 6, but that was the worst one for me. 1 or 11 were both better.

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