@Smarty_pants The problem is Rogers requires an Ignite "gateway" to deliver Ignite TV and Ignite Home Phone, and to support value-added services for Ignite Internet, and the XB7 and XB8 gateways are currently the only arrows in their quiver.
Comcast is currently developing their own router for FTTH customers that is due for release sometime in the second half of 2024. Presumably, Rogers will also provide their FTTH customers with the XER10 router when it becomes available.
@Vanana to answer the question you're asking, and it is a very good question, you need to replace the XB7 modem with a router that has a 2.5 Gb/s WAN port to connect to the ONT, and a 2.5 Gb/s LAN port to connect to the pc, or to a multi-gigabit switch if you happen to have more than one device that is capable of connecting at 2.5 Gb/s.
There are a couple of items to consider if you're looking to buy a router:
1. Do you want or need Wifi 6e capability which runs a wifi network in the 6 Mhz band, above and beyond the typical 2.4 and 5 Ghz networks that we all use today. You need to know if you currently have or are planning to buy a Wifi 6e device.
2. Can you find a router with 2.5 Gb/s WAN and LAN ports that fits the budget?
To answer the first question, here's a page from Bestbuy with their lineup of Wifi 6e routers. I have not checked these to determine which routers have 2.5 Gb/s WAN and LAN ports:
For the second question, here's one possibility, an Asus ROG AX-6000 which has 2.5 Gb/s WAN and LAN ports:
I have one of these and I'm quite satisfied with it.
Note that Asus is currently moving several routers to and End Of Life status where they won't be supported beyond this year. It looks like the AX-6000 will be around beyond that as Asus has already released its next generation of firmware for this router and a beta version for the version beyond is out for customer testing:
No pressure but this router is on sale until tomorrow. It appears that it goes on sale every few weeks, so, you may want to wait for the next opportunity, and in the mean time, have a look around to see what else is out there. If you're going to do that, look at the update cycle for the router on its support page and have a look at the forum that is used by the manufacturers customers to see that they say about the router.
Fwiw, Asus routers have a few forums located on the small net builder site:
https://www.snbforums.com/forums/asus-wireless.37/
There are a couple of firmware versions used by Asus customers, stock firmware released by Asus, and Merlin's Asuswrt, which is produced by Montreal based Eric Sauvage (aka Merlin). Merlin's version is based on the Asus stock version, but modified with numerous additional features and enhancements. He has a pretty loyal following among Asus customers, and, fwiw, I've used his firmware versions on many Asus router models.
Within the Small Net Builder site are threads for other manufacturers and their customers, just a matter of looking around. If you have any questions about networking or router settings for example, that site is a good place to pose any questions that you might have.
What services are you running with Rogers, Internet, Ignite TV ??, Home Phone??, home security??
The services that you're running will have an impact on how easy or hard it might be to disconnect the modem and replace it with a router.
Just to note, Rogers only supports its ONT / modem configuration. Rogers won't support an ONT / router configuration, so, if you run into any problems you would need to be able to swap the modem back into place for troubleshooting purposes.
@jazz54634 wrote:
TPLINK BE9300 will work and is under $400. Cat 5e cable is no good as it has a max speed of 1g. You need cat 6 or above.
Actually, 2.5GBASE-T can run on Cat 5e cable for distances up to 100m.
https://www.ieee802.org/3/bz/ngeabt_objectives_802.3WG_approved_0315.pdf
... and I have it working fine on a 30m cable run in my own home.
5GBASE-T can also run on Cat 5e but pushes the limit of the spec so Cat 6 cabling is preferred.
While we're at it, 10GBASE-T can also run on Cat 6 cable but crosstalk becomes a problem beyond 50m. For runs beyond that up to 100m, Cat 6A is required.
Of course, the cable terminations must meet specifications as well.
The problem here, and @-G- can comment on this, is that the modem requires an IP address just to run the set top boxes. The modem uses another IP address for a public WAN address for the customer. So, that ties up two IP addresses.
Rogers has traditionally allowed customers two IP address per modem. That usually works for IPv4, not sure about IPv6. So, given the demand for two IP addresses for the modem, that should mean that what you're suggesting probably won't work. If you tried that configuration, I'd expect a race between the devices to grab the IP addresses. One of those three devices should be out of luck, by that I mean the IP address used by the modem for the set top boxes, the public IP address used by the customer, or the IP address that might be used by a router.
If you didn't have Ignite TV running, this configuration should work without any problems. But then, without Ignite TV running, there would be little point in keeping the modem connected. You would be better off just disconnecting the modem and connecting a router that would give you multi-gig WAN and LAN ports.
I have the following comments:
1. There are very few instances where you will notice a difference between 1 Gbps speeds and say 1.8 Gbps which is possible for a 1.5 Gbps connection. Unless you are downloading huge files, the difference will not be noticeable.
2. The main reason for having these higher speeds is for customers (families) which may have numerous items connected, so that each item can have a higher speed - say 3 items connected at 600 Mbps, instead of 300 per at 1.0 Gbps ...
3. If you have 6E WiFi, you should be able to get 1.8 Gbps via that if you're close enough to the gateway. This will save you the worry and complexity that you have been discussing.
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