G3100 router questions

[pcnerd]

Mom's house has a Actiontec Mwhatever router.

Today, my mom's house had a power failure.

My sister had to reboot the router in order to get internet. It seems that every time that there's a power failure at mom's house, the router has to be rebooted in order to get internet.

I'm thinking about upgrading my Actiontec to the G3100. I wonder if it would need to be rebooted after a power failure.

Do routers have cache or something that stores data so that they need to be rebooted periodically?

[Cang_Household]

All integrated chips have power on resets. So, doesn't coming out of a power outage reboot the router by itself? I believe there's other issue at play here, for instance, have you checked the state of the ONT during power outage and at the moment of the return of power?

Regardless, Actiontec is end of service life and continued operation is a security hazard. Existing wiring to the Actiontec can be duplicated to a new G3100, and nothing needs to be changed.

For your information, G3100 is not the newest router anymore. If you want to invest in a newer router with a  longer term of support by VZ, try CR1000A.

[dexman]

In addition to what Cang_Household said, I would suggest purchasing a UPS for the router and maybe another one for the ONT.

In the event of a commercial power failure, the UPSs would allow for a graceful shutdown of active devices. 🙂

[pcnerd]

I believe that my ONT & router ARE plugged into a UPS. I'm pretty sure that they are.

[pcnerd]

I believe there's other issue at play here, for instance, have you checked the state of the ONT during power outage and at the moment of the return of power?

The ONT is in the master bedroom between the wall & a big dresser. Would I have to open the door & check the lights?

There's a price for the G3100($299.99), but there's no price for the CR100A. Does that mean that I'd have to pay a rental fee every month?

You state that the CR1000A has a longer term of support than the G3100. How long is the term of support for the G3100?

[gs0b]

The G3100 is a few years old, while the CR1000A just went on sale earlier this year.  Verizon supports their routers for many years, so the difference in support between the two is not that great.  For example, the G1100 went on sale in 2014 and is still supported today, although only for security updates.

If the CR1000A is available in your market, you can find it on the "my verizon" web page when you review your internet service options.  It's not yet available for sale on the fios accessories page.

If you want a new Verizon router, I suggest you pick between the $300 G3100 or the $400 CR1000A based on the features.  If you must have WiFi6 (and have devices that support it), the CR1000A is a good choice.  Many people still find the G3100 has plenty of speed and features.

Whatever you do, get rid of the Actiontec.

[pcnerd]

 I was looking around the website the other day & read about DHCP release. Apparently, I have to release the Actiontec before I can install the CR1000A.

What does DHCP release mean?

I read something about going to the router "home page" & releasing the Actiontec.

What would happen if I hooked up the CR1000A & tried to install it without releasing the Actiontec?

So, I'll have 2 routers to return to Verizon, both Actiontec.

[gs0b]

WAN DHCP release hasn't been needed for years.  You can simply unplug the old router and plug in a new one.  You're likely reading a very old post or have found one of the many inaccurate pages out on the internet.

For background, DHCP is the system by which devices request things like IP addresses from the next router in the network.  In this case, the user's router is asking for the public WAN IP address from the router in the Verizon infrastructure.  Verizon used to give out only one WAN IP address at a time, so you had to release the address from the old router before plugging in the new one.  Several years ago, they updated their infrastructure to allow two WAN IP addresses to be allocated at a time, thus the need for a release when changing routers went away.

I suspect they made this change as the only-one-IP address approach led to many support calls from people who didn't release when changing routers.  By switching to two WAN IP addresses, all of those support calls went away.

[pcnerd]

COOL!

Let me see if I have this correct.

I'm not network savvy.

I don't know when I initially got FIOS but it's been a long time. Maybe at the time that I got Fios, 2 IP addresses were allocated to me.

One day I got a new router in the mail that I hadn't ordered. I installed it. I don't remember if I had to release it.  I assume that the 2nd IP address, the "spare", was allocated to me & the 1st IP address was freed so that it could be assigned to someone else. I assume that Fios assigned a 2nd IP address to me when I hooked up the "new" router, my current router. When I upgrade to the CR1000A, I guess that the 2nd IP address, the "spare", assigned to me will be used by the new router & the IP address that was used by my current router will be freed to be assigned to someone else. And I'll get another, "spare", IP address.

I guess!

[gs0b]

WAN IP addresses are leased for two hours on Fios.  If it isn't renewed within that time, it's put back into the pool of available addresses.  It doesn't belong to you anymore, although the system may give it back if you attempt to re-lease within a short period of time after expiration.  The ones you used two years ago have long ago been used and probably re-used.

But that's all additional information that you don't need to understand unless you want to learn networking.  Simply unplug the old router and plugin the new one and it will work.  Done.