Networking without a modem

[Memer2424]

So if I had a Ubiquiti router that has sfp is it possible to plug a fiber connection directly to the router?

[Skiiwee29]

Should work as long as the required SFP is supported with the router. 

[Lurick]

Generally, no. The ISP will have an ONT box in the middle and possibly a mandatory router since they'll control the settings such as speed and whatnot and they won't let you touch that stuff.

[Memer2424]

Ok thanks for the info.

[GilmourD]

That depends on your provider and its equipment.

 

Do you have direct access to the ONT? [waits for you to ask if the fiber itself can be plugged into the Ubiquiti router] No, it can't. You need an an Optical Network Terminal to terminate the fiber in the building. At that point, some of them only have coax out but a lot of them do have Ethernet. 

 

Your big problem is what's going to perform DHCP functions. My personal setup is a FIOS router with the WiFi turned off and two Ubiquiti Unifi AC Lites connected to that for DHCP functions. At my job we have the commercial ONT with copper out to the Cisco firewall and two of our domain controllers perform DHCP (one fails over to the other).

[Donut417]

10 hours ago, Memer2424 said:

So if I had a Ubiquiti router that has sfp is it possible to plug a fiber connection directly to the router?

Depends on ISP. Verizon for example will convert it to copper at the home via an ONT. Comcast does the same, but their converter also has an SFP port on it, so you should be able to do their full 2 Gbps on one interface or you can do 2 separate 1 Gbps connections. Id call the ISP and see what they can do. 

[ltguy]

I know a lot of people dont use the verizon provided router and just use the rj45 port on the ont straight to their own router, which I would highly recommend. There isn't really much information on the web about bypassing the ont and plugging the fiber straight into a fiber router. I saw one post on a verizon forum where someone asked and got one response saying they couldn't because the ont seperates the signal or something, but i generally take all advice/justifications from isp's with a grain of salt. If you have the equipment I think it's definitely worth trying it out and reporting back. I think this is the way the industry as a whole needs to go, fiber to the personal router, so I'm for tinkering and researching what it will take to get this done, or what roadblocks currently prevent it.