Metronet buried fiber optic cables.....

[dmclone]

I just ordered 1GB from Metronet. It's coming out in a couple of weeks and I have a few question.

I currently have Google Wi-fi and plan on keeping those throughout the house. I plan on having metronet run the fiber to my basement. It sounds like if you don't get the whole home solution, they just give you one modem. What is the make/model of that modem and does it include wireless. My thought's were that I would just connect the new modem to my current Google Wi-fi via ethernet ports and turn off the wi-fi on the modem if it has it. Any concerns with this setup?

Will they just run a cable above ground and then someone will bury it later? This year?

Anything else I should be aware of before I have them out?

 

[Trice]

When is MetroNet coming to NE Ankeny? We are on Mediacom and since I split out the modem and router into separate devices, (owning both), I have had 0 issues with Mediacom. But if I can get fiber eventually I will switch. Regarding the OP, If you have 20 download now and are getting 40 offered, what they do is "merge" two lines. I was told by a technician that came to set it up that he wouldn't recommend doing that for anyone. So I didn't. I have no idea the issue with it, but it sounds like it just creates problems. Of course this was a few years back.

Here is the map of Metronet construction in Ankeny. Last I recall, the entire town was supposed to be done by around Thanksgiving 2022. Hard to discern a real pattern here in how they progress from one area to another.

 

[Bader]

I just ordered 1GB from Metronet. It's coming out in a couple of weeks and I have a few question.

I currently have Google Wi-fi and plan on keeping those throughout the house. I plan on having metronet run the fiber to my basement. It sounds like if you don't get the whole home solution, they just give you one modem. What is the make/model of that modem and does it include wireless. My thought's were that I would just connect the new modem to my current Google Wi-fi via ethernet ports and turn off the wi-fi on the modem if it has it. Any concerns with this setup?

Will they just run a cable above ground and then someone will bury it later? This year?

Anything else I should be aware of before I have them out?

I don't know what MetroNet does specifically, but you would connect your router directly to the ONT they will place either inside or outside your house. You don't need a modem or router or whole home solution from them, just the ONT they will have to install on or in your home. The box will have an ethernet jack on it you'll plug the WAN port of your router into.

 

[dmclone]

ONT

So is an ONT another name for a modem?

 

[Bader]

So is an ONT another name for a modem?

ONT stands for Optical Network Terminal. Yes, in essence, it does the same thing a modem does, but a fiber(optic) network is light to digital signals instead of analog to digital signals.

 

[dmclone]

Well it's been nearly a month with MetroNet and here are my observations.

Installation couple (Husband/Wife) were great. It took them about 2 hours. She did all the work inside and he handled everything outside. A week later another crew came and buried the cables.

They asked me how I wanted it before they got started. I had them run it through my basement into a A/V room that houses all the things that power my home theater. I had them stop at the modem. I then put in a switch, which will provide a wired connection to all the Home Theater stuff (PS5, AVR, Shield). I then ran ethernet to my main level, which connected to the Eero Pro that they provide for free. I connected that to another switch that provides a wired connection to TV, AVR, and Chromecast for Google TV (I later disconnected this). I then went to best buy and bought another Eero Pro for the upstairs.

With those two eero pro's, I'm getting as good or better coverage than the 4 V1 Google Wifi Mesh pucks and a lot better speed. By buying the Eero 6 puck outright, I won't be paying for the "Whole Home" monthly add on.

I haven't lost connection in a month. It is a pain in the butt to change everything over to the new wi-fi. You forget how many things you have connected (38 for me). Washer/dryer, stove, phones, smart tv's, vacuum, garage doors, etc. The phones and stuff are easy but things like the smart lights seem to love 2.4ghz, which is usually a pain. The nice thing about the Eero devices is that during setup it will disable the 5 ghz signal for 10 minutes so you can configure. Probably the hardest thing for me was a 5+ year old raspberry pi smart display that I had built and had to partially take apart to get the wifi changed.

As far as speed, the best I get are the wired connections and those are 990Down/990Up consistently. With Wi-Fi, I'm seeing around 600down/600up. The worst place in the house is seeing 400down/150up. One of my outside smart lights seems to lose connection about 1/5 nights when they automatically turn on.

My wire management is an embarrassment
Eero pro 6

 

[dmclone]

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do with my PS5. There are few things better than gaming on a 120" 4k screen but the LG 55" OLED/PS5 combo is stunning. I was thinking about just putting it in the basement for the home theater but then running HDMI 30 feet to the LG on the main level. It sounds like a special fiber optic HDMI cable is needed to handle the bandwidth. First world problems. If they would just make a 120" OLED......

 

[Selmak The Tok'Ra]

in our neighborhood this week. Got a flyer from them yesterday offering 200mb for $49.95 a month for one year. Installation free but modem is $15 per month.
Currently getting DSL speed service from Century Link. Paying for 20mp but only getting 7.4 down and 0.7 up into house. $77.95 per month.

Century Link coming out Saturday to see why I am only getting 7.4mb. When I called to get the appt. I was told they would go to 40mp for $50 per month guaranteed for life.

If Century can get problem solved and I will get 40mb any reason to switch to Metronet's fiber optic service?

We have Metronet in Ames and it's great, although I'd recommend looking into wiring your house with ethernet cables if your computers have ethernet ports to take full advantage of the better stability of ethernet connections but the wifi speeds aren't too shabby wither with Metronet IIRC

 

[ScottyP]

We have Metronet in Ames and it's great, although I'd recommend looking into wiring your house with ethernet cables if your computers have ethernet ports to take full advantage of the better stability of ethernet connections but the wifi speeds aren't too shabby wither with Metronet IIRC

what download speed do you have with MetroNet?

 

[Selmak The Tok'Ra]

what download speed do you have with MetroNet?

Currently showing 375.7 mbps download and 351.0 mbps upload.

If it helps, large game downloads off of Steam take quite a bit shorter on Metronet than they ever did when we had Mediacom or Century Link

 

[Remo Gaggi]

I have Century Stink and am looking forward to getting Google Fiber next year in West Des Moines. I'm hoping the guys installing the fiber can get to my house before summer. And without clipping my gas line ...

 

[ScottyP]

Currently showing 375.7 mbps download and 351.0 mbps upload.

If it helps, large game downloads off of Steam take quite a bit shorter on Metronet than they ever did when we had Mediacom or Century Link

are you paying for 500mbps?

 

[VeloClone]

Add me to the list of people who are glad they dumped CL. When we moved in they had a monopoly on the neighborhood. They wired all the lots in the development and the City gave them a monopoly for who knows how long. We had DSL through them for years and with ever increasing frequency we would have a connection but no internet service at the other end of it. When we called in over the years they would go through the same song and dance, asking us to restart our modem spending half an hour on the phone but never fixing the problem. They even made us change out the modem one time. I finally had enough when we had me working from home along with two kids in remote learning. Kids getting dropped from classes because the internet went down for the 3rd time that day is unacceptable. Finally one agent spilled that they have that problem all the time in our area because they have about 2 1/2 times the number of users on our trunk than the system is designed to carry. We now have Xfinity and I'm not enamored but it certainly has been more reliable. We dumped our DirecTV as well at that time and went back to cable.

Short story: Century Link had a monopoly to provide service and was content to just collect checks rather than actually providing service.