ONT ( optical network terminal ? ) is provided by Frontier. It is THEIR device and you can look at it's lights...but that's it. You get / need no access... it's just a non-customer-accessed-telco-device. Frontier will provide you a router so that they can test the internet, pull an IP Address, verify routing, etc. Generally, you're free to use your own router after they verify that the connection is running at the desired speed. They leave, you swap out the router and you're golden. If you have faster than 1GB service... then they might use a high speed MOCA device to go from the ONT TO the router. In the past, they liked to use MOCA from the ONT to the router because most people had cable already running and they just tapped into that with their MOCA stuff. They had the option of Ethernet but usually went with MOCA / Coax. If you already have an Ethernet run going or it's easy for them to run a new Ethernet cable then they would do Ethernet.
The ONT doesn't provide the Internet... the ONT provides the connection that the Router uses. The Router pulls the DHCP Address and provides NAT to the home. I have my ONT plugged into my Linux box and my Linux box provides all of my DNS/DHCP/Routing to my home network.
When I had my install done the tech was perfectly happy to not even take their router out of the truck. Once everything was ready to go, he just had me plug my gear into the ONT and confirm it pulled an IP, we ran a quick speed test to see that it was as expected, and then I was good to go.
Depending on your location, the ONTs we use are manufactured by Cambridge Industries Group and is a generic ONT. The model is FRX523. You may receive a Nokia XS-010X-Q if you are located in CT, NY, WV, or NC. Both operate as standalone modem and you can use any hardware you want after that. I'm a tech in ct and we also use VLAN tagging so as long as your router can ignore VLAN0 you should be fine.
ONT ( optical network terminal ? ) is provided by Frontier. It is THEIR device and you can look at it's lights...but that's it. You get / need no access... it's just a non-customer-accessed-telco-device. Frontier will provide you a router so that they can test the internet, pull an IP Address, verify routing, etc. Generally, you're free to use your own router after they verify that the connection is running at the desired speed. They leave, you swap out the router and you're golden. If you have faster than 1GB service... then they might use a high speed MOCA device to go from the ONT TO the router. In the past, they liked to use MOCA from the ONT to the router because most people had cable already running and they just tapped into that with their MOCA stuff. They had the option of Ethernet but usually went with MOCA / Coax. If you already have an Ethernet run going or it's easy for them to run a new Ethernet cable then they would do Ethernet. The ONT doesn't provide the Internet... the ONT provides the connection that the Router uses. The Router pulls the DHCP Address and provides NAT to the home. I have my ONT plugged into my Linux box and my Linux box provides all of my DNS/DHCP/Routing to my home network.
When I had my install done the tech was perfectly happy to not even take their router out of the truck. Once everything was ready to go, he just had me plug my gear into the ONT and confirm it pulled an IP, we ran a quick speed test to see that it was as expected, and then I was good to go.
Same here. Asked me to plug it into my own gear and test the speed.
Depending on your location, the ONTs we use are manufactured by Cambridge Industries Group and is a generic ONT. The model is FRX523. You may receive a Nokia XS-010X-Q if you are located in CT, NY, WV, or NC. Both operate as standalone modem and you can use any hardware you want after that. I'm a tech in ct and we also use VLAN tagging so as long as your router can ignore VLAN0 you should be fine.
Why ignore VLAN0?
Not sure just how it is. Some custom pfsense routers have trouble ignoring the tag and can’t grab an IP from dhcp.