Instructions for using Fios TV Plus, G1100 and your own router

[eric_b2]

Here’s my experience with getting the Stream TV+ (plus) activated and working with my G1100 router.  Hopefully, this will help someone else since I wasted an entire weekend on it.  Please let me know if you run into any issues and I can update the instructions.

Background:

I’ve been using my own router for several years.  I purchased the G1100 many moons ago and had it working as my MoCA adapter on my existing network.  I recently upgraded to a 4K TV (I know, I know) and I wanted my feed from Fios to match.  I called and asked for the updated boxes.  After over 1.5 hours of run-around because Verizon wanted to sell me the $400 router, I accepted the free TV Plus kit sans router.

Preparation

You will need:

• the G1100 router
• a network cable to get you from the ONT to the router
• A laptop and a network cable that you can use to connect to the G1100.
• The Fios TV Plus kit that you received.

This may deviate from other people’s setup, but I use a 10.0.0.x local LAN network instead of the 192.168.0.x that is the common standard, so when I mention 10.0.0, just swap it out for 192.168.0.

Get activated:

1. If you already had the G1100 configured in your current network, you will need to reset the router.  Before that, you should capture your existing settings just in case nothing works and you need to return your equipment.
2. Take a picture of how you had everything plugged in (if you already had the G1100 setup) and disconnect all of your existing network and Coax cables.
3. Use a paper clip and reset the G1100 back to the factory setting by holding down the reset button on the back of the G1100.
4. Grab a spare Ethernet cable and run it from your ONT to your G1100.  Plug it into the WAN port (white block on the back of the router).
5. Run a spare Ethernet cable from one of the four router ports to your laptop.
6. Let your laptop get connected to the router.  You can check by using ipconfig to make sure you have a connection.  From a command prompt, execute: ipconfig
7. The ipconfig will tell you your default gateway.  By default, it should be 192.168.0.1.
8. Using your web browser on your laptop, go to: http://192.168.0.1  You should be redirected to your router admin login page.
9. Go through the standard setup procedure to get connected.  However, on the step where you are prompted for a network name for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz network, make sure that the name is the same for both networks.  Also, make sure the name is not the same SSID as your existing network.

Update the network from 192.168.0.x to 10.0.0.x (optional)

1. I needed to switch the network from 192.168.0.x to 10.0.0.x.  If you don’t want to do this, then skip this part.
2. Access the G1100 admin interface at https://192.168.0.1
3. Go to My Network -> Network Connections -> Network (Home/Office) Properties
4. Click Settings.
5. I updated the IPv4 address to: 10.0.0.1
6. Click Apply.  At this point, you will lose your connection to the router.  Wait about a minute for your laptop to reconnect to the network.  (You can use ipconfig /renew to force a reconnection).
7. After a minute or so, access the admin interface at: https://10.0.0.1

Activate the TV Plus:

1. Take each of the boxes that you received from Verizon and write down the MAC address from each device. (It's on the bottom of the box)
2. Take the Coax cable and plug it into the ONT box.
3. Connect the other end to the splitter that you received (in the port marked ’In’)
4. Connect a Coax cable to the VMS4100atv from the splitter.
5. Connect another Coax cable from the G1100 to the splitter.
6. Plug in the VMS4100atv.
7. At each TV, take the TV Stream box, connect it with an HDMI cable and plug it in.
8. Follow the Fios Stream TV activation steps.  This may take a while to complete and you may need to restart the Stream boxes a few times.  Test it to make sure that everything is working.  Also, check the Verizon Fios app to make sure that everything is working and you can see the channels.  I hope you know how to connect to the WiFi using the settings that you configured in the previous steps.
9. Log back into the G1100.
10. Click on My Network.
11. Click Show More.  Take a picture or copy the information about each device that’s connected to the router.  VMS4100ATV-Coax, VMS4100ATV-Eth, Stream-TV, any other Stream devices (not your laptop).
12. With the list above, you will need to add these to your own router’s DHCP reserved list in a later step.
13. Click Port Forwarding -> Take a picture or copy down every port forward.  You will need to configure these later on your own router.
14. Click on Port Triggering -> Take a picture or copy down the entries.  You will need these to configure on your own router later.

Set the G1100 to bridge mode

1. From the G1100 admin console, click on Wireless Settings.
2. Under Basic Security Settings, turn off the 2.4 GHz and 5GHz wireless networks.
3. Click on Advanced Security Settings.
4. Click on 2.4 GHz SSID - Click Disable.  Do the same for 5 GHz.
5. Click My Network -> Network Connections -> Network (Home/Office) -> Edit.
6. Click Settings.
7. For the IPv4 address, enter an IP address that you will designate on your own router to reserve an address for the G1100 on your own router.  For example, in my case, it might be: 10.0.0.5 (any 10.0.0.x address is good - just not 10.0.0.1 or any other existing device.).
8. Uncheck the boxes next to 5.0GHz and 2.4GHz.
9. Change the IPv4 Address Distribution to Disabled.
10. Once you click Apply here, you will be putting the G1100 in bridge mode and will no longer have access to the Internet.  If something gets messed up later, you can also just hard reset the router (using the paperclip) and start over.
11. Let the router restart.
12. Unplug all of the Verizon devices.

Setup your own router

1. Unplug the Ethernet cable from your ONT Ethernet port at the G1100 and plug it into your own router’s WAN port.
2. Connect your own router to the G1100 by plugging an Ethernet cable in between one of the open network ports on your own router and the G1100 LAN ports.  NOTE:  Do NOT use your G1100 WAN port for anything once you’re in bridge mode.
3. Start up your own router but leave the G1100 and all of the Verizon boxes off.
4. In your router, access your DHCP settings.  For TP-Link, this was under Advanced -> Network -> DHCP Server.
5. For each device from the G1100 Port Forwarding (step 14 from activating the TV Plus), add an entry to reserve an IP that was the same as the G1100 by entering the MAC address of your device and the IP address from the Port Forwarding table.  You should have the MAC address from Step 1 under Activate the TV Plus. You should have a minimum of 3 entries: two for the VMS4100 and 1 one each STB.
6. On your router, access the Port Forwarding settings.  (TP-Link was NAT Forwarding -> Port Fowarding).
7. Add each setting that you captured from Step 15 under Activate the TV Plus.  You should have an entry for UDP 53145, TCP 35000, TCP 35001 and you can add one for TCP 4567 -> 4567 for your G1100 IP address that you assigned to the router itself.
8. Add an entry for the Port Triggering for each entry you found on the G1100.

Fire it up

1. Plug in the VMS4100ATV by itself and let it start up to get connected.  You can confirm by checking the network connections on your router.  You should see that the VMS4100-Coax and VMS4100-Eth are using the same IP address as on the G1100.
2. Next, plug in the Fios TV Plus boxes.  This part will not work.  The reason is because the box was configured to use your WiFi from the G1100 which you are not going to use.
3. Using the remote, press the Home button to get to the Home Screen and navigate to the Settings (the cog wheel).
4. Go to Network Status -> Network Setup.
5. From here, you want to connect to your own router’s 5GHz network (if you have the SSIDs split).
6. After updating your network settings, you should have a connection to Fios TV.  Enjoy!

Tl;dr

Connect your G1100 directly from the WAN port to ONT for Ethernet.  Connect the ONT Coax to the splitter and split to the VMS4100ATV and G1100 Coax.  Use the same SSIDs for the 2.4 and 5 networks.  Copy down all of your settings.  Turn on the Stream TV boxes, connect to G1100 and activate.  Put G1100 into bridge mode.  Turn everything off.  Connect ONT Ethernet to your own router WAN.  Run Ethernet from own router to LAN port on G1100.  Update own router DHCP, port forwarding and port triggering to same settings as G1100.  Turn on G1100.  Turn on VMS4100ATV.  Turn on Stream TV boxes.  Update the network settings to the new router 5GHz endpoint.

Final note:  If the connection to your WiFi is not good, buy the Stream TV MoCA adapter and connect via Ethernet.

Please let me know if I’ve missed anything and I can update the instructions.  One thing that I haven't resolved yet is getting the DVR working in the Fios app with the new boxes.  I had it working with the old VMS1100.  If I get it working, I'll post it here.

[eric_b2 · Accepted solution]

If you start out with using WiFi but switch to using the MoCA adapter, be sure to configure the MoCA adapter with the same IP address that the Stream box had since the Stream box will no longer be connected.  To do that, just:

1. Unplug the Stream box from power.
2. Take note of the new MoCA adapter's MAC address (it should be on the bottom of the MoCA adapter).
3. Go into your router's DHCP / IP address assignment (sorry, this is specific to your router so I can't provide any instructions).
4. Note the static IP address that you had assigned to the Stream box.
5. Delete that reserved IP entry that had the MAC address from the Stream box.
6. Add a new static / reserved IP entry with the MoCA adapter's MAC address and the IP address from Step 4.
7. Plug in the MoCA adapter and only plug in the Ethernet OR Coax connection near your TV.  Do not use both!
8. Let the MoCA adapter start up and get connected.  If you want to check it, you can look at your router's connected devices to verify that it's there with the same IP address as the Stream box used to have.
9. Plug the USB-C cable out from the MoCA adapter into the power input of the Stream box.
10. Now, you should have a reliable connection through your ethernet or Coax cable from the Stream box.

[eric_b2 · Accepted solution]

If you start out with using WiFi but switch to using the MoCA adapter, be sure to configure the MoCA adapter with the same IP address that the Stream box had since the Stream box will no longer be connected.  To do that, just:

1. Unplug the Stream box from power.
2. Take note of the new MoCA adapter's MAC address (it should be on the bottom of the MoCA adapter).
3. Go into your router's DHCP / IP address assignment (sorry, this is specific to your router so I can't provide any instructions).
4. Note the static IP address that you had assigned to the Stream box.
5. Delete that reserved IP entry that had the MAC address from the Stream box.
6. Add a new static / reserved IP entry with the MoCA adapter's MAC address and the IP address from Step 4.
7. Plug in the MoCA adapter and only plug in the Ethernet OR Coax connection near your TV.  Do not use both!
8. Let the MoCA adapter start up and get connected.  If you want to check it, you can look at your router's connected devices to verify that it's there with the same IP address as the Stream box used to have.
9. Plug the USB-C cable out from the MoCA adapter into the power input of the Stream box.
10. Now, you should have a reliable connection through your ethernet or Coax cable from the Stream box.

[eric_b2 · Accepted solution]

One quick note about the Fios mobile (iPhone) app.  With all of the proper port forwards in place (from the instructions above), the “My Stuff” (DVR) is now working.  It started working after I returned the old VMS and it was removed from my account.  Even while using VPN  from outside my home, it works great.