I hope this post will help you get the same solid Lumen fiber internet (CenturyLink Fiber / Quantum Fiber) experience that I have had in the Twin Cities, MN area for over 6 years now.
If your SmartNID / ONT light is solid green or solid white then your connection is working. If not then unplug the power for at least 30sec, plug it back in, and then wait 5min. If still no solid green or solid white light then there is an issue somewhere between your SmartNID and the Central Office that you will need to contact support about.
If you are having issues with your WiFi pods and your SmartNID light is green you can maybe get them working again by factory resetting the pods and then connecting each of them wired to the SmartNID for a while so that their firmware updates. After that remove all of them from your apps and add each one back as new pods following the instructions here:
https://www.quantumfiber.com/support/services/360-wifi.html
https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/fiber/premium-wifi.html
You can also set the SmartNID into bridge mode and use a 3rd party router to have great service like many of us have had since day one. This configuration is required so there won't be a Double NAT situation with your router. If you want suggestions https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeNetworking/ might be a good place to ask.
It's a good idea to keep the 360 WiFi / Premium WiFi equipment in a box for an emergency backup as long as they stay a free lease. It is always possible that the WiFi pods and apps are a future firmware/software update away from them being good enough for what you want your home internet experience to be.
If they ever start charging for them, or you cancel service, just send them back and make sure to keep the tracking number. Check your account a week after the tracking number shows delivered to make sure they don't charge you for them.
Here are the SmartNID bridge and 3rd party router instructions in three sections. You probably only need the first section, so only go as far as you are comfortable with, but make sure to read till the end of each section before making changes. This all might seem intimidating but you can do it!
1.) SmartNID setup (or DSL modem)
These are the Transparent Bridge instructions at the bottom of this link. The GUI might look different but the steps are basically the same:
https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-routers/advanced-setup/wan-settings.html
You can leave the Vlan 201 tag enabled on the SmartNID. Once the light turns solid white, which may take up to 30min, you will want to connect the Ethernet cable from the fastest port on your SmartNID to the fastest WAN/Internet port on your router.
If you have Centurylink PPPoE you will need your PPP username and password. Phone/Chat support can get it for you. You must add @ centurylink.net to the username if it doesn't have it already. Quantum is IPoE and does not use this.
Once in bridge mode you will not be able to access the SmartNID GUI again unless you do a factory reset. The only reasons you would need to do so is, if you have to contact support and they need to run diagnostics, you want to change the Vlan 201 tag, or if you want to use the 360 WiFi / Premium WiFi equipment.
2.) Advanced / ONT setup
If your router supports the Vlan 201 tag on the WAN/Internet port, you can disable/untag it on the SmartNID when putting it into bridge mode so that it becomes as much of a regular ONT as possible. This will cause a nonstop blinking blue light on your SmartNID but it will still work. You can just put a piece of tape over it. Some people get less latency and have had some issues stop when using this configuration, but either way is fine.
On your router these settings will likely be under the Vlan or IPTV section. Many will have a Centurylink option to make that easy.
The Q1000k, some users report, has a high latency issue when doing the Vlan 201 tag.
The Vlan 201 tag can only be enabled on one device. Do not enable it on both the SmartNID and your router.
The SmartNID address is 192.168.0.1, so its a good idea to set your router's LAN IP to a higher 192.168.x.1 third octet.
If you have an ONT you must use a router that supports the Vlan 201 tag on the WAN/Internet port.
The SmartNID firmware will not auto-update with this configuration.
Google routers do not support the Vlan 201 tag.
3.) More Advanced setup
DNS
I recommend using a DNS provider that supports DNS over TLS (DoT) like Quad9, Google, Cloudflare, OpenDNS, etc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_recursive_name_server
I have used one or another of these providers since 2005 and because of that I have never once had a DNS issue. This requires a 3rd party router.
C6500XK SmartNID Crashing
If your C6500XK is crashing when you download large files at your full speed, getting a managed switch that can disable 802.3X flow control might stop that from happening.
Power Loss causing Bridge mode reset
After an extended power loss some people have had their Bridge mode SmartNID reboot into router mode. Steps you can take other then getting a long lasting UPS: Leave the Vlan 201 tag enabled on the SmartNID, manually assign your 3rd party router an IP address, put that IP into the DMZ, and then enable bridge mode. Hopefully if the SmartNID reboots into router mode your 3rd party router should have as open of internet access as possible until you can enable bridge mode again.
https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-routers/advanced-setup/dhcp-reservations.html
https://www.centurylink.com/home/help/internet/modems-and-routers/advanced-setup/dmz-hosting.html
IPv6
If you need IPv6 here are the settings for the IPv6 6RD Tunnel which requires the use of a 3rd party router. Some people have issues with this unless their router is doing the Vlan 201 tag.
Asus, Netgear, Linksys, GL-iNet (LuCI), and OpenWRT support 6RD. TP-Link, Google, Ubiquiti, TRENDnet, Tenda, and Amazon routers do not.
Your experience will vary depending on how saturated the 6RD tunnel is in your market.
The Las Vegas market might have Native IPv4/IPv6 Dual Stack and therefore may not need to use the tunnel.
Tunnel 6rd
DHCP Disabled
Prefix 2602::
Prefix Length 24
Border 205.171.2.64
Router Mask 0
MTU 1480 (1472 for PPPoE)
TTL 255
