Selecting Your Wi-Fi Equipment

If you choose to opt out of Sonic's Worry Free WiFi which takes care of equipment selection and management, then this article can help you select and purchase your own WiFi equipment so you're ready for install day.

Sonic's Fiber Internet Service is one of the fastest internet services available in America. To make sure you're taking full advantage of the speeds on all connected devices in your home, you'll need to ensure the router, more accurately known as a Residential Gateway (RG), is not limiting the speeds for your home network. Sonic allows its customers the option and flexibility to use any RG that they wish to use. This article will go over all that is necessary to ensure your RG is compatible with our service, provides the best performance on all devices, and offer basic steps on how to get your RG up and running.

Checking Compatibility

The first step is to ensure your device is able to communicate at the appropriate speeds so you are getting the best performance from your Fiber service. While we cannot recommend a specific brand or model as there are many great options out there to choose from, we do want to make sure the option you pick is the best fit for your service. Typically, most modern WiFi-capable routers should be compatible with our service; however, it is important to verify compatibility on a device specific basis. While using older equipment may work, there is a high chance you can end up limiting your performance by using an RG that is unable to communicate at the proper speeds.

•  Ensure your RG is not meant for DSL or COAX services, as those are not compatible with Sonic Fiber. An RG that has an Ethernet port labeled "WAN" should work.
•  Ensure your RG is capable of multi-gig speeds (1Gig - 10Gig depending on your service type), as there are many RGs that can be limited to less than 1gbps and will act as a bottleneck for your services.
  •  Consult the user manual or manufacturer's website to determine the device specifications and speed capabilities.
•  Use a minimum of a Cat6 Ethernet cable to ensure it's able to transfer multi-gig speeds.

What Sonic Provides

First, let us explain what we will provide on install day. To ensure you are able to seamlessly use the internet, we provide the following to all new customers, regardless of their WiFi Preferences:

•  One gigabit capable (1g or 10g depending on location) Sonic ONT (Optical Network Terminal) installed on the wall of your home.
  •  The ONT acts as a Fiber modem.
•  One public IPv4 address and a /56 IPv6 delegated prefix via DHCPv4 and DHCPv6.
  •  For more information about the settings needed to obtain an IPv6 address, see the below "IPV6 Settings" section.
• An RJ45 Ethernet hand-off port capable of multi-gig speeds (1Gig - 10Gig depending on your location and service type).
  •  For 1gig services, there may only be one RJ45 hand-off port available.
    
    

Setting Up Your New Equipment

With a wide variety of routers available, providing a comprehensive walk-through or “step-by-step” guide for configuring every RG is challenging. Fortunately, most routers are plug-and-play and don't require much setup. However, please be aware that some devices may require manually entering the necessary settings through an app or web-based portal to finalize the setup. For specific instructions on configuring your router settings for the first time, we recommend checking the user manual provided with your device.

• Connect the RG to the Fiber-Optic ONT via the RJ45 hand-off port using an Ethernet cable. This port is usually labeled Internet or WAN on your router, or may be represented with a Globe symbol.
  •  Make sure to use a capable Ethernet cable between the ONT and RG (e.g. a Cat6 for the best performance).
•  Make sure DHCP is enabled to obtain an IP automatically.
  •  Certain RGs may refer to this setting as just "Dynamic IP" rather than using the full DHCP acronym.
• A WiFi network name (SSID) and password is configured.

IPv6 Settings

You'll want to check the following settings on your RG to ensure it is able to communicate with Sonic and receive an IPv6 address via DHCPv6. This is only required if you wish to utilize IPv6 functionality.

• IPv6 and DHCPv6 is enabled.
• The router is set to obtain both a /128 IA_NA Global Unicast Address and /56 delegated prefix.
• "Forced DHCP RELEASE" on reload is disabled.
• SLAAC is disabled.

Additional Information

• Sonic’s IPv4 DNS servers: 50.0.1.1, 50.0.2.2
• Sonic’s IPv6 DNS servers: 2001:5a8::11, 2001:5a8::33
• For more details on expected speeds on 10 Gig see this article.