OT: New Router is faster!

[paredown]

I had a fairly recent generation router fall into my hands--it was the TMobile rebranded Asus RT-AC68U, that if you fiddle with a bit, you can turn it back into an Asus...

To make it work, I had to turn the stock FIOS router into a transparent bridge, and then use the Asus to connect to the interwebs, as well as provide wireless etc in the house. (FIOS router just acts as a dumb passthrough with a COAX connection).

The Asus is not even the latest gen, and it provides a noticeable improvement in speed and response.

Plus I got to revisit my past, using hex editors, hash checkers and telnet to hack the Tmobile firmware.

[Tickdoc]

Originally Posted by paredown

I had a fairly recent generation router fall into my hands--it was the TMobile rebranded Asus RT-AC68U, that if you fiddle with a bit, you can turn it back into an Asus...

To make it work, I had to turn the stock FIOS router into a transparent bridge, and then use the Asus to connect to the interwebs, as well as provide wireless etc in the house. (FIOS router just acts as a dumb passthrough with a COAX connection).

The Asus is not even the latest gen, and it provides a noticeable improvement in speed and response.

Plus I got to revisit my past, using hex editors, hash checkers and telnet to hack the Tmobile firmware.

It's funny, you said router and my brain pictured this:



so as I was reading, nothing was making sense.

Damn I'm getting old.

[batman1425]

I replaced our ancient netgear (cira 2007) last year with a latest and greatest night hawk. Incredible difference across the board - range, reliability, speed, multi device handling and streaming. Don't know what took me so long...

[rustychisel]

Damn, you shame me. I've got a new router in the box and really should put it into service (but I'm afraid over our archaic delivery system it will be no better; oh, and I also didn't understand a word you wrote).

Sigh

[charliedid]

What?

[gasman]

Huh ? I only understood 3 words in your post.

[weisan]

Let me re-phrase it for the non-technical folks...

Get a new router from Costco every 2-3 years and you will be fine.

[charliedid]

Originally Posted by weisan

Let me re-phrase it for the non-technical folks...

Get a new router from Costco every 2-3 years and you will be fine.

Thanks! :-)

[zmudshark]

Originally Posted by weisan

Let me re-phrase it for the non-technical folks...

Get a new router from Costco every 2-3 years and you will be fine.

I love Costco, but Amazon was cheaper.

[eddief]

for bullnose on pine shelving?

[MattTuck]

I was briefly looking at a new router a few weeks ago, and stumbled across a site (can't remember it now) that was focused all on the security aspects of routers.

Jeeze, let's just say the number of vulnerabilities that some of these devices have is scary. Without a doubt, new devices are faster, but one plus to older devices is that (if they are patched with latest firmware) they're hopefully less likely to be a security threat.

Edit: Here's the site. https://routersecurity.org/

[cribbit]

Those tmobile routers were like $30 or something stupid, they were dumping stock. Excellent pickup.

Gotta hardwire everything you can though.

[wc1934]

Originally Posted by paredown

I had a fairly recent generation router fall into my hands--it was the TMobile rebranded Asus RT-AC68U, that if you fiddle with a bit, you can turn it back into an Asus...

To make it work, I had to turn the stock FIOS router into a transparent bridge, and then use the Asus to connect to the interwebs, as well as provide wireless etc in the house. (FIOS router just acts as a dumb passthrough with a COAX connection).

The Asus is not even the latest gen, and it provides a noticeable improvement in speed and response.

Plus I got to revisit my past, using hex editors, hash checkers and telnet to hack the Tmobile firmware.

Dumb question - are routers specific to the system or can you get any generic router. I have fios and noticed one of the lights on the cable board was orange - all the rest are green. Verizon state that i needed a new router - over 100 bucks but that i had to purchase a specific one that was only sold by them, that I could not go to best buy/walmart etc and purchase one.
I have not done anything - light is still orange yet my computer doesnt seem to be effected - any thoughts?

[jwd]

https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/08/re...erecirc_recent

[paredown]

Originally Posted by wc1934

Dumb question - are routers specific to the system or can you get any generic router. I have fios and noticed one of the lights on the cable board was orange - all the rest are green. Verizon state that i needed a new router - over 100 bucks but that i had to purchase a specific one that was only sold by them, that I could not go to best buy/walmart etc and purchase one.
I have not done anything - light is still orange yet my computer doesnt seem to be effected - any thoughts?

With some provisos, routers other than those provided by FIOS can be used with their service. I have my old one still connected, since the main FIOS connection for most people is coax, and I needed it to convert coax to ethernet for the rest of what I'm doing (it does nothing else now, just pass through). Once I get ethernet pulled from their outside connection to inside the house, I will stop using their device altogether.

One problem is that FIOS help desk will not provide any information on how to set up an alternate router, so you need to rely on people a lot smarter about this stuff--my go-to for years has been the forums at DSL Reports:
http://www.dslreports.com/forums/all

If you have already have ethernet/RJ45 into the house, swapping is trivial. If you need to do what I did, here's the script that I used to convert the FIOS Actiontec into a dumb pass-through:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Simpli...orkBridge.aspx
When done, you plug a network cable into the Actiontec, plug that into the WAN port on the new router, and it will connect to the FIOS network. (Critical: You have to make sure that you release the FIOS IP on the old router before firing up the new one).

Connecting to the outside world (getting the IP from FIOS) seems fairly uncomplicated (no special authentication) so long as you get the connections right. And AFAIK, their newer ONTs (box on outside where they terminate the fiber) have both a coax and an rj45/ethernet jack, and you can request an ethernet connection rather than the coax--but of course you would be responsible (I think) for providing any internal wiring.

One complication though--and for this you need to read the forums--some of the FIOS features for the set top boxes require the use of their router/coax connections, so by putting your own router in place may kill those features (Video on demand, guide updates etc) but I am not an expert on this part, nor do I care, since we are Internet only, having scrapped the 'Triple Play'.