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Verizon FIOS question

Discussion in 'General Chat Forum' started by TFam, Jan 4, 2022.

  1. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Hi,
    I currently reside in a townhome in SouthernWalk and have a question about the network wall ports. The house currently has numerous network wall ports in the house. Shouldn't all these network ports be live and working? I am attempting to use a hard wire and not wireless for my tv equipment in the basement, but when I attempted to use the network wall port in my basement... it is not working. I attempted to call Verizon and they informed me to just hard wire whatever I am connecting with a LAN cable to the router. But the router is connected to a different network wall port on a different floor. The tech had no other option but to send a tech, but they were trying to charge me $99 for the visit.
     
  2. kevinq

    kevinq Member

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    Assuming that your configuration is the same as mine:
    • All of the wall ethernet ports are wired to the communications box in the first level of the townhouse.
    • Openband connected their Internet such that the Internet connected to a switch that made each of the wall ethernet ports active with internet. If you wanted wifi, you had to add a wifi router to one of the wall ports.
    • By default, Fios connected to one wall port (not the switch), to which the technician connected the Fios (wifi) router. All you have was the wifi router with its few ethernet ports.
    • During the Fios install, to make the wall ports active, you had to have the technician connect the Fios router back to the switch using one of the router's ethernet ports (I had the router installed in a room with two ethernet ports. One port was used to connect Fios to the router. The second port was used to connect the router to the switch). [You don't need the Fios technician to do this]
     
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  3. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    You may want to check if your fiber optics wall panel in basement (if Van Metre built the townhouse and OpenBand (former cable company) installed the wall panel housing all the IT cable connections) has everything connected to the Verizon fiber optics source cable- if you are tech savvy, you perhaps can check to see if cables are hooked up or not-

    If not, maybe a nearby neighbor who is more tech knowledgeable to help you out?
    Good luck!!!
     
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  4. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    Kevin-

    You said it best!!! Hope it works for the OP!
     
  5. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Thanks everyone! I recall asking the FIOS technician to ensure all the wall ports stay active during the install. (Didn’t think to test at the time… SMH). Yes, I was able to locate the wall panel… and from the looks of it… everything seems connected.

    I no longer use the router Verizon provided and moved onto a google nest mesh router with one access point. I also confirmed that I also have used one of the router’s Ethernet port connected back to the switch.
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2022
  6. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    After checking, did you make any changes and if so, did it work or are you still seeing same issues?
     
  7. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Still having issues… When I checked out the wall panel this is what I see… there is a network board with 5 ports, a net gear switch, and Verizon box. One port from network board is connected to the Verizon box. I assume that port is aligned to the the wall Jack connected to the wireless router. The rest of the 4 ports from the network board is connected to the netgear switch. Only one of the four has a steady light on the switch and the others do not. There is also a random network cable that goes up the wall that is connected to the netgear switch but no light.

    There shouldn’t be any issues using a google nest mesh router instead of the one Verizon provided?
     
  8. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    Why not take a pic and post it here? Since I’m not as much of techie as David is, he may be more of assistance than I could ever be-
     
  9. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    See attached. Port 4 on network board is connected to Verizon box. All other ports are connected to netgear switch (cable connected to port 5 has steady green light on netgear switch and everything else is off). Yellow cord connected to netgear switch goes up the wall.
     

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  10. Excelsior

    Excelsior Southern Walk||IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO||

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    You should check to make sure that Netgear switch or whatever switch you have down below is a gigabit switch. The default was 100 mbps. It looks like your ONT (that big Verizon black box) is sending the data signal to data jack port 4. Find data jack port 4 in your home (it is likely the one that has the cat 5 wire running to your FIOS router). Then go to data jack and make sure there are two data ports. If there are, run a Cat 5 cable out of the back of your FIOS router, stick it in the other data jack and go back to your comms closet and find out if there is another plug for port 4 for data "receive". If there is, take that green wire and then run it to the switch input. That should turn data on for all of your data ports. It might be worth the $99 plus buying a switch from Verizon to set it up. The contract was for one router and did not include custom wiring inside of ones home.
     
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  11. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Thanks, would there be an issue if I am no longer using the Verizon router? I replaced it with a google nest mesh wifi router. The net gear switch in the picture was one that Verizon provided at time of FIOS install. I also can confirm that there are two data ports and both ports are connected to the google router.

    WIFI works great, and just trying to minimize the number of devices connected to wifi.

    I may have to bite the bullet and have Verizon come in… just annoying because I assumed the tech had taken care of it at time of install.
     
  12. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    I'd try it for an hour or two...and if it still doesn't work...then bring the big guns in. Reason I say this is that 99 bucks is equivalent to roughly 2 hours of your time....anything beyond that would be a waste of time and frustration. But you may want to WATCH them do it so you can LEARN from them....I always watch contractors because then I learn something from them (after spending the $$$) that way the next time around, I know what to do. Some people don't want to learn so they don't reap the benefits after spending the $$$. For me, its like taking a class and learning a thing or two!

    Again, good luck! Wish I was a real techie then I could have guided you better.
     
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  13. stevenbdjr

    stevenbdjr Member

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    Your Internet is being run to port 4, which I assume is where your router is, but I'm guessing the LAN side of the router isn't getting back into the switch. I'm not familiar with the Nest Router, but here's approximately what you need to do.

    Bring your Google Nest router down to the wall panel. Unplug the green cable from "port 4", and plug it into the WAN (sometimes labeled Internet) port on your Google router. Then plug an Ethernet cable into the LAN port on your router and into one of the switch ports on the Netgear. That will terminate the Internet connection into your Google router, and then distribute that Internet connection via the local LAN to all of the other ports in your house. You can then plug "port 4" back into the switch to re-enable that wall plate in your house.

    When you're done it should basically look like this:

    Verizon ONT box -> Google Mesh -> Netgear switch -> House ports.
     
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  14. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Thanks everyone on the feedback! I will give it a try later tonight, and will definitely update everyone on this chain the results. Team work makes the Dream work :)

    Question for stevenbdjr... after following the indicated steps you listed... would it be okay for me to put the router back to its original location, or will it need to remain close to the wall panel?
     
  15. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    Yes!

    Thats how my system works. This description explains it very well- as it should flow that way to enable it to work properly. I recall that the technician had to set it up that way after I asked him if he could activate my wall ports since I wanted to be able to use the wired ports instead of wireless all the time. So that set up path is the right one.
     
  16. stevenbdjr

    stevenbdjr Member

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    These steps would require you to keep your router close to panel. You need two wires going through your router, one from the ONT, and the other to the switch. The panel is the easiest place to do that. Since you're using a Google Nest Mesh, you can get other Google Nest Mesh access points for that system and place them throughout your house to distribute wifi better. You can either hard-wire those access points into your wall jacks or let them "bridge" the wireless signal from the router and redistribute it (this is what makes it a mesh system). The former will give you better performance, but the latter is what most people do and is perfectly fine.
     
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  17. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    Thanks for clarifying... I will give it a try later tonight and let everyone know of results. luckily my desk is right next to wall panel so having it remain there should not be an issue.
     
  18. kevinq

    kevinq Member

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    Setting up like stevenbdjr says:

    Verizon ONT box -> Google Mesh -> Netgear switch -> House ports

    will allow you to connect a device such as a printer that will be accessible via wifi or house port since the mesh router is before the switch
     
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  19. TFam

    TFam New Member

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    SUCCESS!!!! Thanks everyone with the virtual IT support :partywave:.
     
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  20. Capricorn1964

    Capricorn1964 Well-Known Member

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    So stoked for you....you've saved $99 bucks....Now you can spend it on beer for those of us who tried to help you! Just kidding! Happy that you guys are squared away! Our neighbors are awesome when it comes to helping out with IT questions. They are the best.
     
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