# Bolt and network topology with FIOS



## danjb (Mar 17, 2016)

I bit the bullet and ordered a Bolt plus some minis to replace my FIOS "quantum TV" dvr and satellite boxes. I have a cablecard coming from Verizon.

What's the best way to connect the Tivo boxes to the network? If I have wired gigabit ethernet throughout the house at all the STB/TV locations, is that sufficient and the best? Or is there some special interaction/connection needed between the coax that will be connected to the Bolt for TV, and the wired ethernet connection?

I have an older Verizon Actiontec router as my primary connection to the internet. It has the FIOS coax connected to it so it sees the MOCA network the Verizon STB's are on, so I can control them from the Verizon web site. It also has the FIOS ethernet connection coming into its upstream WAN port.

However, my primary internal LAN is run via an Asus RT-AC66U with Asuswrt custom firmware. The upstream WAN port of this router is plugged into one of the LAN ports on the Actiontec router. This arrangement lets me run a high quality router with a lot of features and good wireless networking for my home network, but preserve whatever MOCA bridging or special features Verizon needs to enable their web site to access their STB's. But, it also means I have two networks in the house, one being the FIOS network with the STB's, and one being the rest of my house with all the wired ethernet ports.

I guess I could eliminate the Actiontec router since I'm getting rid of the Verizon STB's, and I may end up doing that. But for now, I'd like to disrupt things as little as possible. Can I connect the Bolt/Mini's to the internal RT-AC66U network and have them work fine since they will see each other and the internet? Or will there be some issue because the coax being connected for TV is on a different network? Does the coax even matter if I am using wired ethernet?

PS: Yes, I know this dual router arrangement breaks UPnP, but I am ok with that. I would prefer to manually port forward on both routers rather than rely on UPnP so I know what holes are in the network. Most things that require forwarded ports and use UPnP let you set things up manually. Hopefully the Bolt will be similar.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Either coax/ethernet option will work as long as they're all on the same network. There's no real noticeable performance difference. The coax won't matter if everything is connected to the ethernet network.

You could very easily unify and streamline things by removing the Actiontec and using the Bolt to create the moca network if you prefer to use coax for any of the Minis. Gigabit has plenty of bandwidth but some folks like to offload the Tivo traffic onto the coax.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Since you already have the wiring for fios, just connect the bolt and minis into it. The moca for fios works perfectly.


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## RUBiK (Jan 10, 2002)

I will have a very similar/almost identical setup here shortly.

Just ordered Verizon FIOS Internet + TV (cable card only) and chose to use my own existing router (Asus AC-RT68U running Asuswrt-Merlin) to avoid paying $10/mo to rent their Actiontec router (since I have no need for it).

I have an old Actiontec router from 3-4 years ago when I last had Verizon FIOS in case I need to plug that in for any reason but I don't expect to ever have to.

I have gigabit ethernet wired to every room so I plan to use that for my Bolt (or Roamio Pro, still TBD, trying to decide which to buy) and two Minis and not bother with any moca/coax.

Are you paying $10/mo for the Actiontec router or have you had FIOS for a long enough time to be grandfathered into not having to pay for it?

I guess that'd be the only deciding factor for me if I were in your shoes... if it doesn't cost anything extra to keep it, I guess you can but otherwise, save the money, IMO.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

If you do a bunch of transfers to PC or TiVos then make sure to use the GigE connection. The MoCA connection is much slower for transfers. With GigE the Bolts can see up to 500Mb/s transfer rates.(Bolt to Bolt as reported in the transfer history)

If you only stream TiVo to TiVo then you won't notice any difference between using MoCA and GigE.

But there is definitely a performance difference between the two with transfers.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

aaronwt said:


> If you do a bunch of transfers to PC or TiVos then make sure to use the GigE connection. The MoCA connection is much slower for transfers. With GigE the Bolts can see up to 500Mb/s transfer rates.(Bolt to Bolt as reported in the transfer history)
> 
> If you only stream TiVo to TiVo then you won't notice any difference between using MoCA and GigE.
> 
> But there is definitely a performance difference between the two with transfers.


interesting.

are you saying that the TiVo Roamio does not perform up to MoCa 2.0 rates?

what speed are you getting via MoCa 2.0?

what are you using to hand off the IP from MoCa 2.0 to your PC - as I seem to recall you said you had the FiOS Routers in the closet.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> interesting.
> 
> are you saying that the TiVo Roamio does not perform up to MoCa 2.0 rates?
> 
> ...


I don't use my Actiontec routers. The MoCA test was between the Bolts. With nothing else on the MocA network.(My normal MoCA network is with my Minis and an Actiontec MoCA 1.1 Birdge with GigE ports)

The MoCA speeds between Bolts were around 20% slower than the GigE. I saw PHY rates of around 640Mb/s with slower transfer rates than GigE.

EDIT: I just did another test to see if anything changed. I set up the two Bolts on their own MoCA 2.0 network. I saw rates listed of 636Mb/s and 640Mb/s.
I had one tuner recording on each Bolt and I put the other three tuners on vacant channels so they wouldn't be buffering. With the MoCA 2.0 connection I got around 330 Mb/s transfer rates. As reported by the transfer history.

Then I put both Bolts back on GigE with the same tuner conditions. The transfer speed showed 404Mb/s with the GigE connection.

To get the 500Mb/s transfer rates I previously saw, I had no recordings and both Bolts in standby so there was no tuner buffering.

But with these speeds its only going to affect transfer rates. Streaming is so much slower so there is no difference between MoCA and GigE for just streaming to Minis or between TiVos.


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## danjb (Mar 17, 2016)

RUBiK said:


> Are you paying $10/mo for the Actiontec router or have you had FIOS for a long enough time to be grandfathered into not having to pay for it?


I am fortunate enough to be grandfathered in, having had FIOS for at least 10 years. They've swapped out the router at least once in that time, but it's not on my bill thankfully!

It sounds like just connecting to the wired ethernet is the way to go, thanks very much for all the advice! I had just worried when I saw folks referencing MOCA and the ONT, and thought some special access to those by the cablecard using Tivo was required.


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