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Ignite TV - Home Phone & Own Router Questions

dassub
I plan to stick around

My parents are looking at switching to Ignite TV/Internet/Home phone, but were told that the home phone works differently than their existing non-Ignite Rogers Home Phone.

 

Their current setup has their modem in bridge mode, and a separate router (I have forwarding rules and prefer they have their own hardware).

 

Does the new modem support bridge mode, while also keeping the phone jack functional?  Also, does the phone jack support the existing phones and wiring as-is?  They were told you need different phone hardware..  I'm not sure how true that is.

 

I would plan on the new router being placed where the current phone setup is in the basement power panel, so all existing phone jacks continue to work.  Then, I'd run CAT6 upstairs to the separate router.

 

Any thoughts?

 

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4 REPLIES 4

Re: Ignite TV - Home Phone & Own Router Questions

dassub
I plan to stick around

The second question is so something I'm curious about, if the existing phone jacks will function if plugged into the new modem from the central basement location. Thank you.

Re: Ignite TV - Home Phone & Own Router Questions

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@dassub wrote:

My parents are looking at switching to Ignite TV/Internet/Home phone, but were told that the home phone works differently than their existing non-Ignite Rogers Home Phone.


Ignite Home Phone is different from Rogers Home Phone in that it is a different service with different features and uses different hardware.

 

Their current setup has their modem in bridge mode, and a separate router (I have forwarding rules and prefer they have their own hardware).

 

Does the new modem support bridge mode, while also keeping the phone jack functional?


I don't see any problem with that, provided that you, yourself, can support this configuration on your own.

 

The Ignite Home Phone service works perfectly fine with the Ignite XB6 gateway in bridge mode.

 

Also, does the phone jack support the existing phones and wiring as-is?  They were told you need different phone hardware..  I'm not sure how true that is.


Ignite Home Phone is a normal analog home phone service.  You can connect it to your in-home telephone wiring like any other phone service and keep using your existing telephones.

 

It works with my home alarm system.  I have not tested whether or not fax machines or modems will work.  Be sure to ask Rogers whether Ignite Home Phone will support whatever devices you have connected.

 

I would plan on the new router being placed where the current phone setup is in the basement power panel, so all existing phone jacks continue to work.  Then, I'd run CAT6 upstairs to the separate router.

That's similar to my setup.  My Ignite XB6 gateway is located in my basement next to my power panel.  The "TEL 1" jack on the XB6 is connected to my in-home telephone wiring.  The XB6 is in bridge mode.  I have a wired router/firewall located there as well that connects to the XB6 and to my in-home LAN.  I use business-grade access points for WiFi connectivity.  I have all of that connected to a UPS; the XB6 gateway does not have a battery backup and Rogers also cannot guarantee that any of the Ignite services will continue to work during a power outage.

 

Any thoughts?


Running Ignite TV on your own network gear with the XB6 in bridge mode is technically possible but not officially supported.  For more information, please check out the following thread: https://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Ignite-TV/Using-the-Ignite-TV-Modem-Gateway-in-Bridge-Mode/td-...

 

Make sure that you get Ignite TV working with a standard Rogers-supported configuration before transitioning to any of your own equipment.  If you should ever run into any technical issues and require any support from Rogers, you will have to put your Ignite modem back into gateway mode and connect your Ignite set-top boxes directly to the XB6 gateway.

 

Also, keep in mind that if you should run into any interoperability issues or any other technical problems, you will have to sort those out for yourself.  Your in-home network must also be absolutely stable.  If it's not, I can guarantee that Ignite TV will be glitchy.

Re: Ignite TV - Home Phone & Own Router Questions

dassub
I plan to stick around

Your reply is very thorough, I appreciate it.  I was unaware that the gateway actually hosts the TV boxes.  From your referenced post:

 

> You router will also have to provide network connectivity for your Ignite TV set-top boxes.

 

1. Is this still the case if the set-top boxes are using coax connections?  Or are all new set-top boxes using Wifi only?

 

2. If so, it sounds like I would prefer to keep the gateway on, connect the set-top boxes to the gateway's Wifi, and then run my ethernet cable to the own router upstairs and have my usual devices connected to my own router.  I believe this would work, unless it creates a double NAT (which still might end up working fine anyway).

 

Very interesting stuff.  I don't have Ignite services at my house, so I'm eager to learn how to have theirs set up properly.

Re: Ignite TV - Home Phone & Own Router Questions

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@dassub wrote:

Your reply is very thorough, I appreciate it.  I was unaware that the gateway actually hosts the TV boxes. 


I'm not sure what you mean by "host"; The Ignite gateway is a Wi-Fi enabled cable modem; it doesn't have any integrated cable tuners for TV.  The XB6 gateway also has integrated telephony hardware.  It also has special support for Ignite TV (that facilitates the connection of set-top boxes) and also enables a whole suite of connected-home services, should Rogers ever decide to offer them.  The set-top boxes themselves are just streaming media devices, similar to Apple TV, and the channels are streamed over Ignite Internet using IPv6, very much like streaming a Netflix movie.  Ignite TV does not use any of the legacy Digital TV infrastructure, nor can you use any of the old Digital TV set-top boxes with Ignite TV.

 

From your referenced post:

 

> You router will also have to provide network connectivity for your Ignite TV set-top boxes.

1. Is this still the case if the set-top boxes are using coax connections?  Or are all new set-top boxes using Wifi only?


The Ignite set-top boxes do not have coax connections.  They connect to your home network, typically using WiFi, and they can also connect using wired Ethernet.  With Ignite, the only coax connection will be to the Rogers modem, and that is just for Internet connectivity.  The Ignite set-top boxes interact with back-end servers at Rogers and (if I am not mistaken) currently some back-end servers at Comcast as well.

 

2. If so, it sounds like I would prefer to keep the gateway on, connect the set-top boxes to the gateway's Wifi, and then run my ethernet cable to the own router upstairs and have my usual devices connected to my own router.  I believe this would work, unless it creates a double NAT (which still might end up working fine anyway).


That's up to you.  Ignite TV is an integrated solution, and the configuration that Rogers supports is one where the Ignite modem is in gateway mode.  The whole purpose of using a Rogers-supplied modem, Ignite WiFi Pods (to extend your WiFi connectivity), Ignite set-top boxes, mobile apps, etc. is that they were all designed to work together, have been tested by Rogers, and can be supported by Rogers as an integrated solution.

 

You also mentioned that you have port forwarding configured on your router.  Unfortunately, a number of users have reported issues with port forwarding on the XB6, so you may or may not run into problems depending on the complexity of what you need to set up.

 

Very interesting stuff.  I don't have Ignite services at my house, so I'm eager to learn how to have theirs set up properly.


Rogers has tutorials on how to setup Ignite TV (and information about its MANY features) on their YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RogersCanada

 

Rogers also has the Ignite self-install guides online:

https://www.rogers.com/ignite-bundles/self-install

https://www.rogers.com/support/self-install

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