Re: [PLUG] Internet connectivity with Verizon MI424-WR router

[George Langford <george@georgesbasement.com>]

On Fri, 26 Dec 2008 John Sladek wrote:

> What area are you in?

NW of Philadelphia - Tredyffrin Township, along the Main Line.

> Are they using Moca for the connection ...

All I know is what I read here:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_FiOS

The ActionTec router is featured in the Wikipedia article;  during
each of the outages I think my set-top boxes continued to function,
but we don't use PPV or On-Demand so have not explored the interactive
stuff.  When the router is working, it "sees" the set-top boxes as
some other PC's on the Wide Bandwidth network.  My Smoothwall hardware
firewall, a wireless laptop, and a wireless PC show up as the local
Ethernet network.

Our FIOS controller & backup power supply sit right in my little
office and help keep it warm both winter & summer.  The TV reception
is phenomenally good, even the standard definition stuff.  When I
employ "quantitative videoscopy" I learn that the actual content on
the many, many channels is about 50% commercials.  I do that by
surfing rapidly from channel to channel. I land on ongoing commercials
in 50% of the channel changes.  Either the FIOS system switches to
a commercial in the new channel whenever I switch, or there really
are commercials on during half of the air time.

> ... and if so is how is the cable between the ONT and the Router?

There's a ten foot coax connecting the router to the output from the
FIOS controller - only two connectors - and the TV service is always
fine, except when individual channels go haywire, like the Bethlehem
public TV station the other night, which displayed as a half-inch
wide horizontal band of gibberish.  That may have been Verizon's fault,
as one other station looked the same - I forget which one. The coax
is split right after the FIOS controller into a TV line and the
line to the router.  Hardly any room for bad connections.

Thanks,
George Langford

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug