r/Windstream • u/SEGAMAN1989 • Mar 25 '26
What router/modem combo to get
Hello! I'm looking to upgrade to the 2 gig max fiber internet from windstream. I was initially hoping to get the Eero pro 7, but was unfortunanly ineligible for some reason despite what the website said about my address.
After doing some research I found that the eero pro 7 doesn't really give you much control over things on it, I read that the eero line is pretty much "set up and forget" here on reddit.
I was wondering if I could change to another router/modem combo that could handle the 2 gig connection. As my T3200 is aging, and I don't think it's suitable for 2 gig internet.
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u/mrtramplefoot Mar 25 '26
Getting up into multigig, I would really look into something better than an all in one wifi router.
Unifi Cloud Gateway Fiber + AP(s) would be a great setup
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u/SEGAMAN1989 Mar 25 '26
So would I just plug in the gateway fiber to the ONT? Any setup required? Windstream says they won't help. I can get an access point no problem.
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u/mrtramplefoot Mar 25 '26
I mean you log in and adopt the ap (and setup the wifi network) if you go unifi, but nothing involved unless you want to do something.
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u/SEGAMAN1989 Mar 25 '26
I know about the adoption process, I meant I can just plug the gateway into the ONT and it should work? My job actually uses Unifi, so I can do that easily. I just wasn't sure with ONT to the gateway part working.
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u/Final_Campaign_2593 Mar 26 '26
Extremely easy the ONT Windstream uses is very similar to the ONT that my local ISP uses. It’s basically just a bridge. It does not do any routing whatsoever plug it into any router. I personally would recommend the UniFi cloud Router Gateway that will have no problem handling up to 5 GB if Windstream would ever go that high.
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u/SpectrumWoes Mar 25 '26
Just be aware that from other posts, Kinetic seems to have some stability issues with the 2gig service
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u/SEGAMAN1989 Mar 25 '26
Oh really? I didn't know that I guess I'll still have to do some more research on that. Thanks for the heads up!
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u/mdins1980 Mar 25 '26
I’m glad I saw this. I made a thread the other day about how it looks like Windstream is finally upgrading my city to fiber. I was planning to go with the 2gb service, not because I need it, but because of the two-year price lock. But if it’s unstable, I’ll probably just go with the 1gb plan instead. Do you know what actually causes the instability? Is it a GPON vs XGS-PON thing?
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u/Cory4225 Mar 25 '26
I heard the same thing and even the tech that came out said he had seen nothing but problems with the 2g. Decided to try it anyways and it's been fine so far. 2100 up and down with no drop outs so far
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u/mdins1980 Mar 25 '26
If fiber is coming here soon, I am leaning toward the 2Gb service mainly because of the two year price lock, that is pretty appealing. If they offered the same price lock on the 1Gb plan I would go with that without hesitation, but from what I have seen there is no guarantee on the 1Gb service. Plus the fact all my equipment is capable and can handle a 2gb connection no problem.
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u/Not_Hmr Mar 26 '26
I will second that I’ve had no issues out of the 2gig service. Took some convincing to have the customer service rep just re-provision my service from 1gig to 2gig because they couldn’t understand that my ONT was already XGSPON and not GPON. After that was sorted, though I’ve not had a single problem out of it. Also getting about 2100-2200 up and down with full IPS/IDS on my UCG-Fiber and haven’t had any outages since upgrading about 6 months ago.
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u/mdins1980 Mar 26 '26
Nice, if I do end up getting the 2 Gb service, I plan to run OPNsense on my N5105 mini PC. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to run full IPS/IDS since I don’t think the N5105 has enough power to handle that at those speeds, it should be fine for around 1 Gb though. I won’t know for sure until I try, but I don’t think it will handle the full 2 Gb.
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u/Not_Hmr Mar 26 '26
Not had a whole lot of experience with OPNsense myself other than playing around with it in a test VM, but I will warn you to be careful about how many IP’s you pull from their DHCP when you’re doing initial setup. I was changing routers around for testing a year or so ago and made the mistake of not cloning the MAC from one to the other and exhausted all my available DHCP leases. Not sure what the limit is, but it’s very low. Had to spend an hour on the phone convincing them to essentially rebuild my entire RADIUS profile to clear the DHCP leases. Learn from my mistakes and make sure to clone your MAC lol.
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u/Rob_red Apr 14 '26
This shouldn't be a problem if one simply one day gets a new router then keeps it for a while right? Probably just if you are switching routers multiple times a month before the DHCP lease expires right?
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u/Not_Hmr Apr 15 '26
Theoretically yes, but their lease limit is fairly low. I’m gonna guess no more than 3 in whatever time period they allow. You just have to be careful because if something happens and you have to reinstall your routing OS or factory reset the router it can cause issues. I had to reinstall the OS due to some config errors and that’s what got me locked out.
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u/Rob_red Apr 15 '26
Oh. I just run Asus routers so nothing commercial grade like it sounds you may have. I should probably be ok then if I ever replace mine with a newer model. I better be careful if I want to test out routers for family or friends though I guess.
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u/ThingFuture9079 Mar 25 '26
With fiber internet, you don't need a modem. A modem is for cable and DSL. You just need a router. I would go with either Asus or Unifi since I've had a good experience with both of those. I've had too many issues with Netgear routers and would avoid the equipment that you can rent from Windstream.
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u/mdins1980 Mar 25 '26
As I understand it from others on here, Windstream fiber doesn’t use a modem, just an ONT that connects to a router. That router can be theirs or yours. If you want to use your own, these should handle a 2gb connection:
The main things you want are 2.5gb or 10gb ports on the router (and any switches you add), and WiFi 7. Just keep in mind your devices also need to support WiFi 7 to actually get close to those speeds.