[PLUG] Frontier FiOS questions

[John Meissen]

jhg at jhmg.net said:
> Do they bring fiber all the way to the modem or is there
>    an interface outside that converts to coax for the internal
>    connections?

There's a network termination box that terminates the fiber. It's typically on 
the outside of the house or in the garage - it needs access to power, either 
through the wall, or preferably in the garage, where they can mount a UPS. In 
my case the garage is on the direct opposite part of the house from the drop, 
so we just punched through the wall and put the UPS inside, in the corner 
nearest the drop.

> Can you run the modem in bridge mode? I have my own Linux
>    iptables-based firewall/router and my own wireless AP
>    and would prefer that the modem be a passive device.
>    While Comcast doesn't "officially" support bridge mode they
>    allow full access to the modem config and it works fine
>    in bridge mode. 

They typically run coax to their router, but ethernet cable is an option. 
There's nothing special about their router, other than it has a COAX input as 
an option. If you make them run ethernet you should be able to swap it out for 
your own router/linux box.

Configuring the Linux box to handshake correctly (especially if it's DHCP) 
could take some work and cooperation with their techs. I leave that exercise to 
you.