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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk routers unable to connect to FiOS Internet
We use Verizon FiOS for our business Internet and have static IP addresses. Our current router is the R6700. We want to upgrade to a newer router. Short story is after trying TWO different Netge...
For the ONT, are you using one of the Alcatel-Lucent 7342 style ONTs from Verizon?
If so, try using the same WAN port MAC address as the R6700 router and see if it allows you to connect. if it does, then it means that your model is also having one of the annoying behaviors where if you swap to a different router, it refuses to allow you to connect to the internet unless you use the same MAC address unless you literally power the ONT off for a few minutes.
I am unsure if their other models experience this, but I know a few users who experienced it after they moved from older BPON units to the GPON ones where a number of years ago, was the Alcatel-Lucent units.
Razor512 The ONT on the outside of our building appears to be an Alcatel-Lucent O-821 M-E. I am 95% certain this was the original hardware installed back in the early 2010s when FiOS was first available for our location. I did a quick Google search on this model and saw some hits from dslreports about other FiOS customers getting this replaced for one reason or another, but nothing specifically said with my exact issue (or at least from what I could understand). I saw some users comment about Ethernet 1 and Ethernet 2 ports on the A-L hardware. The cable is only plugged into Ethernet 1 on our box. I don't know if this makes a difference.
So from what I understand, this specific ONT must not like newer routers?
One possibility is that the Gigabit Ethernet link is not coming up between the ONT and the router. for a test, try adding a low cost non-managed GbE in the data path.
The other possibility is that the routers don't like static addressses configured on the WAN/Internet port. In my experience, the ISP do assign the fixed IP address by DHCP anyway.
If they are assigning a static IP via DHCP, try releasng the DHCP lease (on the connection status page in the advanced tab) on the old router. While it may not seem like much, on the older Alcatel units it allows for a swapping of a router without powercycling the ONT.
Whie the Fios network overall doesn't care about the MAC address, some of the ONTs they used many years ago had weird issues like that, especialy the ones with multiple WAN interfaces such as the MoCA and Ethernet, or dual Ethernet port ones. It is overall a strange issue with some of the units.
Wanted to also add that while I have a slightly different model of ONT, for the first 2 or so years of service after I had my unit switched over from MoCA to Ethernet as the actiontec router that Verizon provided was horrible (ping times gradually increased with uptime until you restarted the router.
After the switchover, I hav to release the DHCP each time I wanted to swap routers otherwise the new one while it would achieve a 1000Mbps PHY rate, it would never get an IP addressafter some time, it eventually stopped that behavior (I guess verizon likely pushed out a firmware update to fix that)
Though some of my friends with the service still have the issue and they simply release the DHCP or unplug the ONT (disconnecting the battery as well) when they are getting ready to upgrade to a new router, and the only thing I noticed in common is the 7342 series of the ones still having the issue.
Razor512 I don't get any option to release DHCP on the R6700. It just shows a popup window with the connection info and then a button that says "close" to close the window. I am 95% confident that the RAX48 also showed the same thing (I haven't plugged it back in yet since we still need Internet during work hours). The menus are cosmetically different, but the layout and options to click are the same.
All the static IP info was manually entered under Advancecd > Setup > Internet Setup. The R6700 is currently set up as a DHCP server for local traffic like wired computers and wireless devices. Same steps that have been done with the RAX45 and RAX48.
I have not yet gotten around to doing the MAC address trick. I know I did that prior to contacting Verizon. I will try it again though.
We do have a FiOS tech coming on Wednesday. I think the original plan was to replace the ethernet wire from the ONT into our location. I did suggest the theory about the ONT. They didn't seem to think that is the issue. All I know is that there is something going on that isn't allowing the devices to talk to each other.
Razor512 The issue has been resolved with a Verizon tech on-site! We were able to get internet with the Verizon router, but he troubleshooted that there was something suspicious about the connection. It had to do with the RJ45 plug on the Ethernet wire from the ONT to the router. The plug was from the original installation back in the early 2010s when FiOS was first available at our location. He cut the existing plug andmade a new one for us. We then plugged it into the RAX48 and it now has internet!
I have no clue how the R6700 still was able to detect internet if the RJ45 plug was degraded in some way. Either way, this has now been fixed!
