PinkFloydEffect
Regular Contributor
I have been a long term customer of several ISPs, first it was 56kbps phone line dial-up, then it was 768kbps phone line DSL, then we switched over to the 6mbps coax broadband provided by the cable company...which had a speed increase several times over the contract to 12mbps, then 20mbps, then 30mbps, then 50mbps, then 90mbps and at the end we were seeing speeds upwards of 120mbps down but the 12mbps upload cap remained throughout the entire experience with the cable company. I understood how that worked, bringing the network into the house over coax TV cable then the cable modem/gateway/firewall/router/switch/AP unit made the conversion to an Ethernet LAN, and sometimes phone lines too.
Well now we have switched to a full duplex 150mbps+ fiber ISP, which I find very interesting the way the older systems/networks lie within each other let me explain. I first saw this happen with the cable company when they started providing phone services with their TV and internet packages. The cable modem had a breakout for a traditional RJ11 phone line, which was then just patched/tied into the existing Cat3 phone network grid. I am starting to see the trouble cable companies are running into with bandwidth caps likely what happened with phone line provided internet. Coax TV cable was only originally designed to carry a one way signal to your TV, and possibly some feedback data. Then the smart DVR style cable boxes started appearing which allowed you to order pay per view shows and such backwards through the coax network which was the beginning of the upload traffic split. Then the cable companies started providing phone and internet services...not sure which came first or if they appeared simultaneously. This along with HDTV doubled the coax networks bandwidth demand, now requiring a much wider upload tunnel for internet and voice services. If you notice they keep raising the download bandwidth but the upload speeds have stayed consistently low through this entire experience, not only are upload speeds not as necessary for residential needs but I think they are running out of coax bandwidth...and now we are introducing cable TV 4K streams. The coax cable companies imo are in for a crash eventually, they can not just keep tacking on services forever.
This is where the latest network technology has started being implemented, fiber. Which has enough bandwidth to allow full duplex internet speeds, cable TV, and phone voice services with plenty of room for expansion. Just like the cable company the fiber hardware also has an RJ11 breakout for patching into your existing Cat3 phone network. The next addition we see now is the same thing being repeated with the coax cable TV network, with a coax breakout for patching into your existing RG6 cable TV network splitter. So cable carried two networks, and fiber now carries 3 networks.
I am still trying to understand how the fiber hardware is broken up within my home, the modem and gateway now seem to be in separate devices? I have the fiber line running directly into my garage with their DMARK box on the inside of my garage for security reasons. This is where the fiber line is terminated into three outputs, one is coax, one is RJ45 Ethernet, and the other are two RJ11 for Cat3 phone lines. I think they are calling this an ONT (optical network terminal). Aside from my garage box/unit I have what I thought was my cable modem/gateway/firewall/router/switch/AP unit in my office. This is where I am learning the differences, the model is ARRIS NVG468MQ and it is what I thought it was however I am not sure this has a modem included the way cable TV coax units do. It has both a coax connection and an Ethernet WAN. I disconnected the coax waiting for the LAN to drop internet but it never did, so I logged into the gateway and realized its link type is "ONT WAN" so it is using the Ethernet running between my garage ONT and office gateway. This made me question the need for a coax connection to the gateway and from some research it appears it is used backwards for anything on the coax network such as cable TV boxes to access the internet for ordering apps or shows, etc? Makes sense since none of my set top boxes have WiFi or an Ethernet connection.
So technically it sounds like my modem/gateway is part of the ONT (with the Ethernet output) however that Ethernet connection is unsecured until it reaches my office which is where the router and firewall are (along with switch and AP). This is one of the reasons I did not want the ONT DMARK box located on the outside of my house in a cheesy box that anyone can tap the Ethernet from. I read you can install a switch between the ONT and router/firewall tapping the network in an extreme case. Anyhow what I thought was a Cat3 phone line running from the gateway to the garage was actually the cheapest Ethernet cable I have seen in my life...this is my main internet connection so I will certainly be replacing that with some shielded solid copper Cat6 line ASAP!
When I monitor my network devices within the gateway configuration page I have 3 types of connections, WiFi, Ethernet, and MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance?). The three MoCA coax devices I see are something I want answers on...I assume they are something such as set top boxes or the ONT itself? Two say unknown, and the other says "host-4" and I do have two coax set top boxes in the house so the two "unknown" may be those...the unknown connections do have a MAC and IP so I should be able to confirm that in the set top boxes about info section.
Well now we have switched to a full duplex 150mbps+ fiber ISP, which I find very interesting the way the older systems/networks lie within each other let me explain. I first saw this happen with the cable company when they started providing phone services with their TV and internet packages. The cable modem had a breakout for a traditional RJ11 phone line, which was then just patched/tied into the existing Cat3 phone network grid. I am starting to see the trouble cable companies are running into with bandwidth caps likely what happened with phone line provided internet. Coax TV cable was only originally designed to carry a one way signal to your TV, and possibly some feedback data. Then the smart DVR style cable boxes started appearing which allowed you to order pay per view shows and such backwards through the coax network which was the beginning of the upload traffic split. Then the cable companies started providing phone and internet services...not sure which came first or if they appeared simultaneously. This along with HDTV doubled the coax networks bandwidth demand, now requiring a much wider upload tunnel for internet and voice services. If you notice they keep raising the download bandwidth but the upload speeds have stayed consistently low through this entire experience, not only are upload speeds not as necessary for residential needs but I think they are running out of coax bandwidth...and now we are introducing cable TV 4K streams. The coax cable companies imo are in for a crash eventually, they can not just keep tacking on services forever.
This is where the latest network technology has started being implemented, fiber. Which has enough bandwidth to allow full duplex internet speeds, cable TV, and phone voice services with plenty of room for expansion. Just like the cable company the fiber hardware also has an RJ11 breakout for patching into your existing Cat3 phone network. The next addition we see now is the same thing being repeated with the coax cable TV network, with a coax breakout for patching into your existing RG6 cable TV network splitter. So cable carried two networks, and fiber now carries 3 networks.
I am still trying to understand how the fiber hardware is broken up within my home, the modem and gateway now seem to be in separate devices? I have the fiber line running directly into my garage with their DMARK box on the inside of my garage for security reasons. This is where the fiber line is terminated into three outputs, one is coax, one is RJ45 Ethernet, and the other are two RJ11 for Cat3 phone lines. I think they are calling this an ONT (optical network terminal). Aside from my garage box/unit I have what I thought was my cable modem/gateway/firewall/router/switch/AP unit in my office. This is where I am learning the differences, the model is ARRIS NVG468MQ and it is what I thought it was however I am not sure this has a modem included the way cable TV coax units do. It has both a coax connection and an Ethernet WAN. I disconnected the coax waiting for the LAN to drop internet but it never did, so I logged into the gateway and realized its link type is "ONT WAN" so it is using the Ethernet running between my garage ONT and office gateway. This made me question the need for a coax connection to the gateway and from some research it appears it is used backwards for anything on the coax network such as cable TV boxes to access the internet for ordering apps or shows, etc? Makes sense since none of my set top boxes have WiFi or an Ethernet connection.
So technically it sounds like my modem/gateway is part of the ONT (with the Ethernet output) however that Ethernet connection is unsecured until it reaches my office which is where the router and firewall are (along with switch and AP). This is one of the reasons I did not want the ONT DMARK box located on the outside of my house in a cheesy box that anyone can tap the Ethernet from. I read you can install a switch between the ONT and router/firewall tapping the network in an extreme case. Anyhow what I thought was a Cat3 phone line running from the gateway to the garage was actually the cheapest Ethernet cable I have seen in my life...this is my main internet connection so I will certainly be replacing that with some shielded solid copper Cat6 line ASAP!
When I monitor my network devices within the gateway configuration page I have 3 types of connections, WiFi, Ethernet, and MoCA (Multimedia over Coax Alliance?). The three MoCA coax devices I see are something I want answers on...I assume they are something such as set top boxes or the ONT itself? Two say unknown, and the other says "host-4" and I do have two coax set top boxes in the house so the two "unknown" may be those...the unknown connections do have a MAC and IP so I should be able to confirm that in the set top boxes about info section.
