Connecting My Own Router to ONT for FTTH

[darkharbour]

I recently switched to Rogers Ignite as my house had access to the FTTH service. The tech came and installed a NOKIA XS-010X-Q and then a Ignite WiFi Gateway (Gen 2), and everything is working fine but I want to use my existing mesh router because it has better wifi coverage and allows me to use ethernet from a satellite node in my basement for some home automation equipment running via a Raspberry Pi. I also don't like how the Homeconnect app doesn't give me any control over the Gateway at all, there seems to be very little configuration accessible to the user and that can be frustrating at best.

What I'm wondering is if there is any reason that I cannot just run the ethernet cable from the ONT to my existing router, and remove the Ignite WiFi Gateway entirely and return it to Rogers to save the $10/month? I don't use Ignite TV, phone, or any other Rogers home services, and I tested it yesterday and the connection seemed to work fine without the gateway plugged in. Will it continue to work fine or will it eventually trigger an issue if the Gateway doesn't communicate back to Rogers? 

Just looking for advice here, I've never been with Rogers before so I'm not sure how their system works.

[-G- · Accepted solution]

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@darkharbour wrote:

I recently switched to Rogers Ignite as my house had access to the FTTH service. The tech came and installed a NOKIA XS-010X-Q and then a Ignite WiFi Gateway (Gen 2)

What I'm wondering is if there is any reason that I cannot just run the ethernet cable from the ONT to my existing router, and remove the Ignite WiFi Gateway entirely and return it to Rogers to save the $10/month? I don't use Ignite TV, phone, or any other Rogers home services, and I tested it yesterday and the connection seemed to work fine without the gateway plugged in. Will it continue to work fine or will it eventually trigger an issue if the Gateway doesn't communicate back to Rogers? 

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Rogers provides the Ignite Gateway as part of their Internet service, so it is not really an option even though the "rental" fee is shown as a separate line item on your bill.

If you are purely a Rogers Internet customer, there's no reason why you cannot disconnect the Ignite Gateway and connect your own router/firewall/Wi-Fi mesh system directly to the ONT and run on your own network gear.  However, if you should ever require technical support, Rogers may insist that you to revert back to a standard "as-installed" configuration for troubleshooting and leave the Ignite Gateway in place until the problem gets resolved.

[RDL76]

I just had the service installed today and was wondering the same thing. Is it really just as easy as plugging the ethernet cable from the Nokia modem into your own router and setting it up from there?

[Datalink]

@RDL76 yes, its that easy, but, there are a few caveats to keep in mind.  If your post has been moved to this thread, take a read from the top of the thread.  And, have a look at the following post:

https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Internet/How-to-disable-Rogers-Ignite-Wifi-Hub-remote-manageme...

Its probably worth reading thru that thread as well.  

There is a much longer thread in the forum as well, but, if you read thru the above threads, that should answer most of your questions.

[RDL76]

I'm hoping someone with a networking background can point me in the right direction. For the past two months, I've had my TPlink BE800 plugged directly into the ONT modem and it's worked flawlessly. It was really too good to be true. Speeds were exactly as advertised, the internet was stable and all was well. Beginning two days ago the internet connection started cutting out for the first time ever. I would unplug the modem and plug it back in only to have the internet drop every 20 to 30 minutes or so. After the third time I contacted tech support and the internet dropped again while waiting in the cue. Once I finally spoke to a real person, he took me through every diagnostic saying everything looked normal on his end and then 5 minutes after ending the call, it dropped again. I had a hunch that plugging in the Ignite gateway would fix the problem and it did. I tried my previous configuration again yesterday only to have the internet cut out within a couple of minutes.

Any idea why I'm being forced to use the Ignite Gateway now to maintain a stable connection? Did Rogers sneak in a new security policy about this a couple of days ago? If everyone else is still able to bypass the ignite gateway then there has to be some kind of issue with my third party router.

[-G-]

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@RDL76 wrote:
Any idea why I'm being forced to use the Ignite Gateway now to maintain a stable connection? Did Rogers sneak in a new security policy about this a couple of days ago? If everyone else is still able to bypass the ignite gateway then there has to be some kind of issue with my third party router.

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So far, you are the first person that I have seen report such a problem here.  I don't think that Rogers would be forcing FTTH customers to use the Ignite Gateway.  Furthermore, Rogers also explicitly supports other devices connecting to the ONT (alongside the Ignite Gateway, through a switch) with their 8 Gig service.  If I had to guess, your router may be experiencing stability issues due to a firmware update.  However, we would have to see if any other customers start reporting problems with their connectivity before we start to suspect any shenanigans on Rogers' part.

[Jayzz]

I'll soon have fibre at my rural home and looking forward to saying goodbye to my 5mbs wireless service! My home is sprawling and I have a mesh system to provide wifi coverage. I'm planning to drop my satellite TV service and get Ignite TV as well as internet. I only have one TV so can I connect the TV via Ethernet directly to the Ignite gateway, disable wifi on the gateway and set up my own router - mesh wifi?

[-G-]

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@Jayzz wrote:

I'll soon have fibre at my rural home and looking forward to saying goodbye to my 5mbs wireless service! My home is sprawling and I have a mesh system to provide wifi coverage. I'm planning to drop my satellite TV service and get Ignite TV as well as internet.

I only have one TV so can I connect the TV via Ethernet directly to the Ignite gateway

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Yes, that will work.

[and] disable wifi on the gateway and set up my own router - mesh wifi?

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Yes.  What mesh Wi-Fi system do you have and how fast is the WAN port on the primary node?

Unless they are doing something differently now, as part of the standard Rogers installation, a tech will install a  Nokia XS-010X-Q ONT and will connect the WAN-Ethernet port of an XB7 or XB8 Ignite Gateway to the ONT.  That will only leave Gigabit Ethernet ports remaining on the Gateway for connecting devices.

One option would be for you to put your Wi-Fi mesh into Bridge/AP mode and connect it directly to the Ignite Gateway.

I don't have a FTTH service, so I cannot test this, but I believe that Rogers will allow you to connect a multi-gigabit LAN switch to the 10 GigE port of the ONT.  You can then connect both the Ignite Gateway and your own router to the switch and they should both work independently of one another.

One other thing to consider: The Ignite Gateway provides some helper services for Ignite TV but unless you also subscribe to Rogers Home Phone or to Rogers' home security offering, it is not essential to have the Ignite Gateway connected or sucking power. In that case, forget the multi-gig LAN switch that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.  Start by doing a standard, Rogers-supported installation.  One you confirm that Ignite TV is working, disconnect the Ignite Gateway, connect your own router directly to the ONT, and you can then connect your Ignite set-top box to your own router by Ethernet or Wi-Fi.

[Jayzz]

Great! Thanks. No plans to have home phone or security. My router-mesh system is TP-Link Archer C80 w/IPv6  and RE300 mesh.

[Datalink]

Now that's an interesting question, can you connect a multi-gigabit LAN switch to the 10 GigE port of the ONT and then connect both the Ignite Gateway and your own router.  Will you end up with two devices up and running, with their own independent IPv4 and IPv6 addresses?  An interesting question indeed...

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@Jayzz wrote:

Great! Thanks. No plans to have home phone or security. My router-mesh system is TP-Link Archer C80 w/IPv6  and RE300 mesh.

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Yeah, that should be fine.  Ignite TV is delivered over unicast streams, so there is no need to configure multicast, IGMP proxies, or any or the stuff required to pass multicast traffic through your firewall.

The only "problem" with Ignite TV is that the set-top boxes were meant to connect to an Ignite Gateway by Wi-Fi.  I have Ignite (cable) Internet and run on my own network gear with my Ignite Gateway in Bridge Mode.  Every so often, the set-top box will try to connect to the Ignite Gateway via a special Wi-Fi connection to make sure that it is connected by Wi-Fi to whatever Wi-Fi network name and passphrase is configured on the Ignite Gateway.  I ran into a problem with an Ethernet-connected set-top box where the TV service stuttered because the set-top box could not connect to Wi-Fi using the credentials that it obtained from the ignite Gateway because that Wi-Fi network was inactive.  (The stuttering occurred because the Ethernet connected set-top box kept trying to connect to a non-existent Wi-Fi network over and over again in vain.)  I don't know what will happen if the Ignite Gateway gets powered down and disconnected and the set-top box has no way to contact it.  You may need to run in a rather ugly config where the Ignite Gateway remains active, with its Wi-Fi disabled, and configure your in-home Wi-Fi with the same network name and passphrase as you have configured in the Ignite Gateway.

[Datalink]

Fwiw, I have seen posts from other Rogers fibre customers who removed the modem and connected the ONT directly to their router, without any impact on the set top box performance.  Maybe they just didn't notice the same issue with the set top box???  Don't know.

Only way to find out is to run without the modem and see what happens.  If push comes to shove, reset the set top box with the router in place instead of the modem and see what happens.  

[-G-]

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@Datalink wrote:

Fwiw, I have seen posts from other Rogers fibre customers who removed the modem and connected the ONT directly to their router, without any impact on the set top box performance.  Maybe they just didn't notice the same issue with the set top box???  Don't know.

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I heard the same. As I said, the Ignite STB and Gateway were meant to work together and weird things can happen if you run in an unsupported configuration with third-party hardware.  Some Ignite STB software builds are also more temperamental than others.

One other thing: if there is another Ignite Gateway in Wi-Fi range, an Ignite STB can still reach the LnF service on a neighbour's gateway and obtain the "correct" Wi-Fi credentials indirectly.  (The Ignite Gateways are cloud-managed so all the config info is mirrored in the cloud, and the STB and gateway serial numbers are all registered with the account, so it can pull config information for an offline gateway that way.)