Questions about Ignite Service and Setup

[DrMike]

Hi all,

I realize there are many, many threads about Ignite TV/Internet etc so forgive me for starting yet another one, but I had some very specific questions that I'd prefer answered in one place as opposed to me searching for weeks piecemeal.  Hope that's OK.

I have all my services with Rogers and am finally considering the "upgrade" to Ignite. My current setup is

• Rogers Home Phone (usual features),
• legacy VIP TV package no longer offered (I have been clutching that one never wanting to let it go) with a NextBox 3.0 PVR on my main TV and a Nextbox 2 on another, and
• my Internet is the 250/300 Mbps (using the Hitron CGN).

I currently use the Rogers Modem in Bridge mode - bridged to an ASUS RT-AC68U router.

I have very few problems overall with this setup - other than the price keeps climbing....

I am exploring making the jump to an Ignite bundle - Premier TV option, either 500 Mbps or 1 Gigabit Internet, and Ignite home phone. I can get a "deal" from Rogers that will make the proposed bundle cheaper per month than current and enough less to make it a good economical consideration.

So here are the questions:

1. I know that everyone has a different experience with Ignite, but most of the "reviews" I see date back quite a while so I wondered what has been the experience of people who have switched RECENTLY, as in, is the Ignite service  really ready for prime time? Will I have buyer's remorse or is the technology sufficiently polished that it will be a positive experience?

2. My house is on 3 floors, but main usage will be on main floor and upstairs bedroom. Only my wife and I for the most part (esp in covid times) and therefore not running more than a few devices at a time. Not uncommon to have 1 or 2 TVs, 2 phones, 2 or 3 computers (running Zoom for example) and a tablet running at same time. I was thinking go for the top line 1 Gigabit speed but Rogers sales person said 500 should be plenty. Opinions? I don't think the price differential between them is much, so if only $10/month for example, why not go 1 GB? 

3. Is it really true that if there are dead zones that Rogers will provide free, on request, Mesh pods to boost signal?

4. I can't find out much info on the Arris XB6 (I assume that is the modem?). I know that I will have to plug my cordless phone base into it directly, but I think I read it has only 2 ethernet ports? True?

5. Right now I am using an RT-AC68U. I bought that way back when I wanted to do some more specific router settings (like static IP routing ) than the Rogers modem allowed. At the moment I use NONE of those features on the RT-68U, but it does give me reliable 2.4 and 5.0 WiFi networks. Once I start using the XB6, would it still be advantageous to use it in bridge mode and use the RT-AC68U or is the XB6 a sufficiently good modem to be used all by itself?

6. What would I gain vs what would I lose by using the RT-AC68U (i.e., bridge mode) vs the XB6 standalone in Gateway mode?

7. Is WiFi coverage likely to be the same, different, better or worse for the XB6 alone vs the RT-AC68U?

8. Rogers website has to be one of the most confusing ones I see for trying to compare Ignite TV channel packages. Can anyone point me to a page where I can actually download a chart that compares side by side the channels in the Ignite "Premier" channel package vs the Ignite "Popular" channel package? 

9. For better or worse, my wife and I still like a "landline". The current Rogers home phone is a VOIP-based as far as I understand, and uses a separate modem to convert the cable signal so that I can plug in my cordless phone into a phone jack on the wall. The Ignite Home phone is strictly WiFi as I understand. Will I see any improvement, or more likely, any deterioration of phone audio? 

Many thanks to all in advance!

***Edited Labels***

[DrMike]

Status Update:

Wanted to thank all of you for your help, wisdom and advice, especially but not only @-G- , @Gdkitty , @Datalink etc. Thought since I got so much feedback I should close the loop a bit.

Setup of the modem was pretty uneventful. I did it via the 10.0.0.1 admin page. I took my ASUS router out of the middle of the setup and essentially swapped modems. Got my advertised DL speeds right out of the gate.

It was pretty clear that the migration to my new hardware was recognized soon after the modem was online, since my home phone lost its dial tone, and my TV set lost its connection to the NextBox. At some point I called Rogers to make sure that the migration had been OK from the ACCOUNT standpoint and that was a waste of 30 minutes on hold because that already happened automatically on the account even though I was told I would have to call and make the push from one package to the other. Oh well....Big Brother really *is* watching 🙂

Took @Gdkitty 's advice and did not try to move my cordless phone base to the modem but rather just plugged a telephone cable from an empty jack into the modem's TEL port and the home phone is fine since all jacks are inter-connected.

So far, 2 of 3 TV's are up and running and we are learning the ropes of the new guide, new remote etc. Had one odd glitch though. After pairing  the family room (main) TV box with the remote, I went up to the bedroom to set up the bedroom TV. The BR is right above the Family Room, but when I tried to pair remote 2 with Box 2 upstairs, it tried over and over to pair with TV Box 1 downstairs. Even though I was holding remote 2 about 1 inch from Box 2, it still wanted to find Box 1 a whole floor underneath! We turned off TV 1 and then I was able to pair TV2 to remote 2. Very odd! 

Lots to get used to in the new guide and new box. Some of it I already like, but much of it will take some time for it to grow on me. Not sure the picture quality (4K TV) is as good as it was with my coax cable, even though WiFi signal strength to main TV is superb. 

I did have a problem with my Phillips Hue hub and in the end I had to do a factory reset on the bridge which wiped out ALL my rooms, lights , scenes etc. I spent more time re-doing the whole smart home light on Hue than anything else. So far all other IoT stuff is fine, but I have yet to rename my 5G band and allow band-steering back on - that may break my LIFX bulb connections but I am curious to see what happens.

I have only one tech question at this point and it concerns the Security levels of the Firewall under IP4. The default security setting was set to "low" security, so I figured I'd be smart and bump it up yo "high" security. All was well until I noticed that ALL night I was unable to connect to my Usenet Provider and thought, hmmm.... that can't be a coincidence. I went back into settings and reducted the security back to to the "low" default and sure enough, connected, browsed and downloaded just fine. 

I tried "medium Security and it still connected and downloaded just fine, but as soon as I went back to "high" security, I was unable to connect at all.

So clearly I do not understand a) what the security levels actually mean in practical terms, but b) why is anything called "LOW" security ever a good default? Anyone care to educate me on why that would be? I thought a major selling point for a a gateway was good internet security....

Anyway, so far so good. A few annoying glitches, but nothing insurmountable. So far!  😆🤞

[wsuhanic]

Hi

Just got ignite tv. I want to use the hardwired ethernet instead of wifi. I have a private network setup. I want to use

my static IP. I went through the menu for the ignite tv and I cannot put in a static ip address. What am I missing

thanks

[-G-]

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@wsuhanic wrote:

Just got ignite tv. I want to use the hardwired ethernet instead of wifi. I have a private network setup. I want to use my static IP. I went through the menu for the ignite tv and I cannot put in a static ip address. What am I missing

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Welcome to the Community!

Are you asking how to configure an Ignite TV set-top box with a static IP address?  The short answer is that you cannot, at least not through the UI.  The Xi6 STB obtains its network configuration dynamically, so the best that you can do is configure a static lease in your DHCP server.  The Ignite set-top box was also meant to be connected directly to the Ignite XB6 gateway, and Rogers will not be able to provide you with support in any other configuration, and that is also why the set-top box does not have any network configuration options other than allowing you to connect to a different WiFi network.