I live in Hollis NH and had TDS's new gigabit service installed yesterday. The installer was professional and accommodating. I have 3 TVs and one office were the router was placed to service a pair of computers that do not have wireless. The installer proposed that he run a CAT5 wire from the ONT to the Actiontec T2200H modem/router in the office and then drive all 3 TVs wirelessly from there via a dedicated Cisco WAP. I preferred to keep 2 of the set top boxes wired and he obliged. The wiring was a little messy. 1 cat5 from ONT to router in the office on the 2nd floor and then then wires from the router to the 2 TVs both located on the first floor.
As far as I can tell, EVERYTHING needs to be behind the modem. I tried putting a switch in front of the router and wiring the set top boxes directly to the ONT, but that did not work. I've read before (perhaps in dslreports) that you HAD to wire the set top boxes directly to the ONT. That does not appear to be correct, at least not here in Hollis.
The modem router is 802.11 a/b/g/n capable, but NOT ac. Stupid for a gigabit network because I can't get much more then a 150 Mb/s (up & down) using wireless at the moment (over dual band N). I am sure part of that is me being on a learning curve with wireless N mode and perhaps router setup will improve it. When connecting the laptop visa USB 3.0 + gigabit Ethernet adapter, I consistently see 770 Mb/s down and 388 Mb/s up when testing against speedtest.net in Springfield Vt. Ha! Imagine that.. having to live with ONLY 150Mb/s wirelesslly. Still, it bugs my inner systems engineer that I can't get close to what I should be able to. Well.. off to learn more about wireless N mode and/or shop for a cheap wireless AC WAP.
I've only played with IPTV for a day, but so far its been rock solid. The only bug I've found is that movie thumbnail images don't consistently display in the VOD menu. Its supposed to look like the Netflix interface, but you see blank boxes where you should see pics making it almost unusable.
Overall video quality is excellent and the single shared DVR seems to work fine. The user interface is, well, different that what I've used in the past (charter) and feels a little clunky... but as I play with it more i'm finding more efficient ways to browse and am becoming a little more familiar with the channel lineup.
Overall, I am pleased the price and performance of the new setup and would recommend it. If you are primarily a wireless user, I think the 300 Mb service would offer almost indistinguishable service at a few bucks per month less unless you are fond of running network speed tests
I'll try to follow up after a few weeks of using it.
-Bernie Velivis
Hollis NH