FIOS Router

Thu May 27 14:21:01 UTC 2010

I'm doing some research for a group that has a 100Mb FIOS Internet
connection at their site. I was surprised to learn that Verizon
supplied them with the same Actiontec router that they provided me
with on my 10Mb connection at home. Needless to say the Actiontec
router is not up to the task of moving all of that traffic (they are
using about 80Mb now and sometimes max out their connection). Verizon
has been good about replacing the router multiple time when they
finally fail, however  having to power-cycle the router multiple times
per day is not acceptable.

What I would like to do is set them up with a router/firewall that is
capable of handling their current bandwidth needs as well as their
anticipated future growth. My concern is terminating the FIOS
connection from the ONT directly to something like a Cisco 3900
(Output from the ONT is CAT5 terminating to RJ-45). I have been
searching around the Internet and found one discussion where someone
claims to have been able to accomplish just this using a Cisco 871
router. Based on the loose discussions that I have read it seems that
the FIOS connection configuration can vary from area to area.

I am also aware that we can configure the Actiontec router as a
bridge, but I would much rather remove it altogether particularly with
the amount of traffic this group is moving.

Has anyone been able to accomplish this or something similar with any
hardware other then the router Verizon provides? Any insight on
Verizon's official stance on this would be helpful. If there is
someone from Verizon out there that can contact me about the technical
aspects of doing this, that would be much appreciated as well.

- Chris