Contemplating the switch to FiOS from Comcast

[MidnightBlue]

At my home, I currently am using Comcast for broadband and cable TV. I rent two 160GB Motorola HD DVRs and one SD receiver along with a cable modem. I have an existing wireless network using a Linksys WRT54G router. Attached to the router are a PC, a printer, a Sonos ZonePlayer, and a 250GB NAS. All of the other devices (Sonos ZonePlayers, PCs, Wii, etc.) are wireless. My WRT54G has a specific IP address in order to connect to my company's Exchange server. I currently use Verizon for phone service only and have two lines at the house.

The Verizon bundles seem very appealling from a pricing perspective, but I have some concerns:

1. I hate the idea of disrupting my home network by having to replace the router. Worried about getting everything working again (SSID, passphrase, IP address, etc.). Can the Verizon router easily be configured like my Linksys so it plug and play with my existing devices?

2. I have three young children and we use Comcast On Demand every single day as it has a great libary of kids cartoons and shows. I can't seem to find an online resource that details Verizon's On Demand library.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. 

[jws74]

right this minute, under 'All kids' with FiOS on demand, I see:

* Boomerang

* Discovery Kids

* Disney

* Inspiration Kids

* Lifeskool Kids Club

* Nickelodeon

* PBS KIDS Sprout

* Smithsonian Kids

* Kids Unlimited

* En Espanol

Each of these have several shows/options under them.

[CharlesH]

Your network situation is a little tricky. In order for your TV service to get the guide, VOD, and widgets, our Verizon Actiontech router needs to remain on the network and it needs to be your gateway or first device on your home network, then you could piggyback another router and continue business as usual. As far as connecting to exchange server using an IP address you assigned to your router, I have no experience with that nor does it make sense to me...but I'm sure you can do that with our router as well. You will be able to keep all your SSID/WEP information assuming you piggyback your router off of ours.

[Carl]

I had to do some quick rework with my existing Buffalo wireless access points, and it wasn't much of a problem. I just diabled the DHCP server and the routing from the main Buffalo router (and had to chage the static IP on a printer). I now choose to let the Verizon Westell do the routing and DHCP serving.

Actually, I didn't HAVE to do anythign at all really. I initially have my Buffalo Wireless Router's WAN port connected to the LAN side of the Westell. The routing worked fine. The only thing I couldn't get to work was passing the media manager across the Buffalo firewall. So, I just decided to flatten the network and diasble the DHCP Server and routing on the Buffalo, and then plugged a LAN port of the Buffalo into a LAN port on the Westell. 

[jsilvius]

You'll have to make some changes to your network. The STBs for Verizon need the actiontech router to get guide info. I have heard that if you have cat5 run to your cable boxes you can get rid of the Verizon router and just get info directly from the ONT, but I can't verify it. I had the same setup as you and while the internet speed seems good most of the time, I get a lot of dropped packets and lag time here and there and tech support tells me that everything is ok on their end.  I've been told that you by Verizon techs that they don't even like the router.

I enjoy the internet and FiOS when it works correctly, but it is a pain when it doesn't.