Verizon FIOS Broadband & Linux?
 

Hello,

Broadband is finally coming down our road, and it's going to be Verizon FIOS. Their website says it requires Windoze or Mac, but a quick Google indicated that people are using it with Linux. Verizon provides a wireless router, so I should just be able to slap wireless cards in my Linux boxes, configure the settings, and connect, right? (Currently using CentOS 4.0. My laptop already has a Belkin wireless card which I use with a Wiflyer wireless modem.)

Can anyone using Verizon FIOS tell me about their experiences with Linux? Was it difficult to configure? What type of encryption does the router use? What do you tell the technician when he/she comes to install it and all your PCs are running Linux? (My laptop is actually a dual-boot, so I guess I could let them get it working on that.) Anyone using it with CentOS 4.0? Any tips, advice, horror stories greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The router is just a standard D-Link wireless router. It has WEP at least (I opted for the non-wireless router though so I can't tell you specifically). There is nothing special about connecting though Verizon FIOS. You don't even have to use their router, any broadband router will do, or even just plug your computer in directly. When the Techs come, they will generally take care of all the wiring first and then check to make sure the connection works properly. If you don't have a computer they will probably have a laptop to check it with. They are only trained to set it up on Windows and Mac so if you use Linux they'll probaly give you a sheet with all the relevent connection information (and some tips on tweaking the TCP/IP settings to get the best preformance) and ask you to set it up yourself. I was (luckily) in one of the very first neighborhoods and got it as soon as it became availible. It took me a couple tries to find a server for speed-testing that could handle the through-put. About half of the servers I tried said my speeds were too high for them to give a reliable reading, others only listed me at about 10Mbit (because the connection was capped or being passed though a slower switch en-route).