CenturyLink → [Prism TV] Centurylink FTTH/Prism

Does anyone here have FTTH w/ prism? I noticed the Calix 722GE ONT has HPNA built in, just wanted to know if anyone had photos of their setup, or recommendations at the least. Would also like to know if it goes fiber from the street --> Calix ONT --> Fiber to Cat6 ---> router of your choice, or if it requires a centurylink router inside the home.

thanks

Don't have pics handy, but in the Omaha area where they've had FTTN for years, they are upgrading everyone to FTTH.

We have a 711GE ONT.

Fiber to the node -> fiber from the node to the ONT on the house -> Cat6 from the eth port on the ONT into the house -> Century Link provided "gateway" router (C2000T)

The gateway/router has ethernet or dual DSL in (we're ethernet) and a 4 port LAN switch, HPNA coax port and wireless on board. There are also two VoIP out jacks but in our area they are using the tip/ring out on the ONT.

We have 5 TVs, so the HPNA is connected to the DVR set top box and one other. They snipped the F connectors off the coax and put new ones on, and replaced the splitter.

Other three set top boxes are running wireless, but not to the built in on the gateway. They add an external access point (Cisco VEN401-NA) which is plugged into one of the LAN ports and the wireless boxes associate to it.

I ended up disabling the wifi on the gateway and turning my Ruckus AP back on, has better coverage around the house. I also have my own PFSense router in place between theirs and my network, since I have a number of OpenVPN and IPSec tunnels for work. Tried DMZ'ing my router in the CL box, but that seems to confuse the CL box, causing it to reboot every 5 minutes or so. Family wasn't happy with TV freezing for two minutes each time it does that, so I've had to do port forwarding instead. That seems to be happier.

Has been two weeks since cut over (ONT and stuff has been in place since March, took months to get around to trenching the fiber.

40x5 connection, and the Prism TV above and beyond that. They are capping Prism streams to four at a time for now.

great answers, exactly what I am looking for.

so you are able to get the 4HD streams, PLUS the 40x5 without any issues? I think because the products are so new that the sales dept have been a little confused as to prism + internet.. as in the past... the prism + data has been 2HD streams and 10mb internet over copper, the latest thing has been that even though the plan was 10mb, that it would allow you to flex up to 20-25mbps depending on how many streams were going in the house.

I am finally getting fiber, and I have seen the calix ONT like you are talking about (and attached) at neighboring houses to mine.

I think the biggest question is, how are you enjoying your service.... any glitches on the prism?

THANK YOU SIR!

They are upgrading you to fiber? What's the occasion? Rolling out FTTH isn't something Centurylink does very often. You are very lucky.

Keep in mind Omaha is a trial market. The products offered there will not be available everywhere that has FTTH, at least not initially. Although there are reports in this forum that Centurylink is offering speeds up to 100Mbps now for some of their FTTH customers outside of Omaha.

in Phoenix, you can order pair bonded VDSL2 up to 100/12. it's a manual order but can easily be done.

I have only 80/40 max available at my house, and had that for a few days. I ended up settling with the 40x5 since it's more than sufficent for my needs.

i would love to hear more feedback from users on speeds higher than 40, but i honestly don't see it... i have a feeling that it's highly unavailable.

Lucky you!

What is the cost of the 80/40?

We're getting 40x5 internet, the 4 Prism streams is in addition to that. I was told by the tech that if we were in a neighborhood that didn't have fiber to the node yet, that the top available internet speed (not sure what that was) would be decreased as Prism streams were in use. A limitation of the bonded DSL's total throughput to the house.

I figured they would be doing VLAN's or something internally on the network to keep internet and Prism traffic separate, but that isn't the case. The set top boxes are all intermingled with the computers, iDevices, etc normally, but after the installer left, I put my PFSense box in between their gateway and my network for VPN purposes.

I would guess that the way it looks now they are basically giving wide open access on the fiber, and rate limiting the connection in/out to the world to the 40x5. Since we are in the fiber area, supposedly, we can get up to 1 gig to the house.

The gateway they provided tends to reboot once in a while. I'm keeping an eye on it. We had a dud DVR out of the box at time of install.

Only other issue I'm having is my ipsec tunnels through their gateway. They will establish and stay up, but once you start pushing any more than pings and http requests through them they stop passing traffic. I tried DMZing the PFSense, but that caused the gateway to go brain dead and reboot every 5-10 minutes. I've tried protocol forwarding ipsec to the PFSense, which allows the tunnels to pass traffic a bit longer, but still eventually collapses.

OpenVPN traffic is ok.

Prism is fine, unless the gateway reboots. The whole house DVR is a plus for sure. Their on demand has a bit to be desired, at least for the network TV stuff. Seems to be only NBC and their affiliated networks. Haven't tried paying for any on demand movies, have it locked out for now so the kids don't run up the bill

Getting an multi-HD stream IPTV product with very high download rate and a solid upload rate is the dream that we all have, myself included. I find it hard pressed to beat what I have with TWC and DTV but I disgress. Your dreams of fiber to the prem in your area are pretty slim unless you live in some ritzo neighborhood.

I agree.

I have an order in for Centurylink business fiber (10x10) to my home for a webserver farm. At the same time I was trying to negotiate the residential department to put a 2nd ONT on the house for res PRISM services.

I live off a main street... and the fiber that runs in front of our house, feeds a neighborhood a block away that has FTTH. You know what, the residential managers refuse to do the install. That and I had to find this out via my sales rep for the business fiber install. The residential FTTH team refuses to call me and explain why I cannot get the services.

If you don't live in this FTTP neighborhood why do you presume that CTL would provide you with FTTP? Especially if they would effectively have to build infrastructure to accommodate you? Also, I know folks in business sales and 10x10 is an ethernet circuit, not fiber. Did they advise you of that? Final thoughts are residential and business accounts can't be combined with CTL nor would they be with any other ISP. Why would it be different for you?

I have a 10x10 FIBER circuit coming in. Was offered speeds up to 1Gbps. It's specified on my contract as fiber. The orange and white fiber poles are in front of our house.

When did I make a statement that said I wanted both accounts combined? I want my business circuit seperate than my residential. Since trenching is involved, I wanted to kill 2 birds with stones, and have CL take out my copper NID and replace with an ONT for residential. Obviously this is a WILD AND CRAZY idea for centurylink, and for it's forum readers

the neighborhood I specified a block from my house... is one of the "ritzo" neighborhoods w/ the FTTH. cherry picking at it's finest!

Does CL use calix ont's for all nationwide prism installations?

With promo it came to $75 i think, that was good for a year. I ended up getting the 40/5 for $35/mo and it more that suits what i need it for.

The 80/40 tested at 76/38 regularly so i cannot say i would have any complaints if i kept it, but i'm hardly ever home to use what i have now and the only reason i have 40/5 is so i can reliably stream my SlingBox in HD to my cell phone when i'm not home.

and DanielHolt, have you tried calling order support directly? they can generally get things pushed through that other departments will not. Also, once the fiber install is already on the house, cant they just use that for the residential account? I do not see why they could not do it, but that's just me.

Not only am I getting fiber to my home under a business account, but the engineer who came out said the smallest fiber cable they have that will run from the street to my house 100ft is a 24 strand armored fiber bundle... do you guys understand why i might be upset that i cant use one of these strands for a residential account as well? I mean I'm willing to commit to the whole enchalada triple play + my business line. The local management think I'm stupid and will ignore this, but I am going over their head on it... say a small management group in monroe, la that oversees the whole entire network. the fiber in front of my house is DEDICATED for FTTH, they say they can't offer me a residential fiber account, but my neigbors can get it, and IM BEING FORCED TO PAY INTO A BUSINESS ACCOUNT???? CMON!!! I'm not in a business park, I am in a neighborhood.

Sorry guys, /rant over I am still happy to get the biz fiber, but I think they should be a little more flexible on the residential as well. I know some of you out there can't even get 1.5mb.... I had these same problems trying to run prism over copper, it crapped out almost everyday, 8 truck rolls in 2 months. cmon.

Brad152,

I live in Phoenix (Laveen). You mentioned that CL will let you order pair bonded VDSL2? I've called in to see if I can get faster speeds, but they keep telling me I'm capped at 12 Mbps because I have Prism tv. The upload speed is what bothers me the most... uploading pictures can be slow.

Thanks

Call order support, they can push the order through for you. Just call normal CS and ask to be transferred, they will generally do it as order support will have to create a manual order to have it installed.

It'll be $59 for a tech to come out and configure the install, but they should be able to get you at least 40/5 through pair bonding (or at least 20/5 when prism is running)

Thanks for the information. I just called them and they claimed that they couldn't do pair bonding in my area. Does that sound right? Does anyone know if century link Internet is required for Prism TV? Thanks

PM Me and i'll give you the CL order support number that can push it through. Your profile does not allow me to send you one for some reason.

We do not have any validation that you work for Centurylink, so I will post this caveat until we do. Anyone who gives personal information to a poster here who has not been officially confirmed does so at his or her own risk.

As for the poster's profile not allowing you to send a PM, the poster is posting anonymously and that is why you are unable to send the PM.

I never said i work for CL (I'm a cell phone technician, actually) i am just stating i have the number for order support directly. I just do not want to post it publicly so CenturyLink does not change it.

I got the number after fighting with numerous people within century link about my bad service (i have several posts on here about it)

Thanks for the clarification.