I think there are two basic ordering options for at least the pilot program: #1 you get a basic ONT that provides 4 gb ethernet ports that can only be partially configured; #2 you get an ONT that includes WiFi and some level of management. As I’ve ordered option #1 I’ll be providing my own WiFi capabilities and won’t be able to comment on how the network operators will handle their managed ONT’s.

By far the easiest way to add WiFi is to buy a relatively cheap (less than $100, for example the TP-Link AC1200, $29 at Amazon) WiFi router.

For the network newbies, here’s some background. In the past this cheap router would plug its “internet” port into the modem supplied by your ISP, like Spectrum or AT&T. It would then obtain an IP address from the ISP automatically via DHCP. The other hardwire “ethernet” ports along with the WiFi would have a different IP address that would be used by all your local devices to access the internet.

As an example, with a typical default configuration, you plug the internet cable into the modem. Within a minute or so your router obtains its internet address, i.e.199.88.100.63. The local lan site of the router is configured to have an IP address of 192.168.1.1. You plug in your DHCP-enabled (in Windows, they say “obtain the address automatically”) computer. It obtains a local address, say 192.168.1.100, that allows your computer to talk to the router. Most computers and printers allow you to manually set their IP address, like 192.168.1.5. For WiFi there is usually a WiFi name (the SSID) pre-configured but most people want to change it to something meaningful, along with a password and encryption.

That cheap WiFi router can plug into the back of the ONT in place of the ISP’s modem and operate pretty much the same way. Personally, I’d manually configure the “internet address” to something like 192.168.1.2, but DHCP should work too. On the local side you’d have to redefine the address to something like 192.168.2.1. And unless you are fairly knowledgeable about networks you should then probably plug most/all of your stuff into the back end of the router. Below is a downloadable printable etc picture that may help make more sense of this.

If none of this makes sense to you, do not despair. Contact any nerdy teenager and they will likely be able to help. It isn’t much different from a normal router configuration that most of us have done at some point in the past, except that now your internet connection is going into the ONT and you cannot use the same IP addresses as the ONT uses.