Verizon FIOS ----- vs Cable

On July 12th I posted this in the Cable Vs DSL thread

"Verizon FIOS............ so I said yes and in two weeks I should be able to check it out. One thing I didn't like is they need to switch the POTS lines over.... not happy with that, but we will see. I've got 60days to check it. I'll let you know and no I'm not dumping HS cable. Though, I might drop it down to 4mb service....

15/2 MB pipe"

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Now I thought I'd start a thread about my experience and comparison of both.
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THE INSTALL :

I ordered it the 12th and they set an install date of July, 27th.

Four people arrived at 9am to install the service ....... I was thinking a very good start.

The only problem, which I had to explain to them, was the fiber hadn't been laid to the house yet. So they spent 4 hours apologizing and doing the inside work.

They set a new install date of Aug. 9th because they were not sure when the contractor would lay the fiber. Turns out it was today. It took all day, from 9am to 5:30 PM to run about 350'. So, that's the good news........

The bad news......... just as they were finishing the run about 10' from the house they cut Comcast cable and I lost my Internet connection. So, I had to go tell them what they did. They were sure I was wrong, but I told them it was to coincidental that they are trenching and I lost connection. Sure enough, they got there testers and found the cut.

More bad news......... even though they cut it. They will not fix it ( yes they had the connectors). They said that comcast will charge them if they tamper with their cable. They proceed to tell me that they called Comcast and that it was considered emergency service and they would be out in two hours.

Then they left........

It get worse......... After the two hour window passed I give Comcast a call. Guess what..... Yes, a service call was scheduled..... But, it was for the 15th of August!!! I said, "you can't be serious" two weeks to splice a cable? YEP....


Taking matters in my own hand I get my tools....

Wire cutters, F connectors, 3' RG-6 cable, electrical tape, crimp tool, wire blade....... then get to work.

15 min later, with two new connections I'm done..... tested, then buried. Back on the 'net...

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Next post on the completion and equipment

 

Well you're an early adopter so you'll have to deal with a little hassle. Make someone give you free service for a while for the inconvenience. Let us know how the FIOS is when you get it.

 

I will..........

I'm also keeping Hi speed cable so I'll be able to compare side by side. I also just ordered a new Router with 2 wan inputs that will load balance, so I can use both at the same time. This should get interesting if everything works correctly.

 

I originally posted the DSL vs Cable a couple of weeks ago. I found out that my only option will be DSL...turns out that neither Comcast or Cablevision are in the new location where I am moving. I think I will be ok with the DSL...a couple of coworkers have it and they seem happy with it, and I know they both use the internet to log into the office. I will have to wait and see before I can give a good analysis between the two. Only thing I do know is that DSL is less expensive...hopefully the quality is not lesser than cable too.

 

They don't call it the bleeding edge for nothing.

When Verizon was diggin up our neighborhood last winter, I asked one of the crew what it was for, and they told me about fiber to the residence. I didn't think anything of it at the time.

I was on the phone with Verizon DSL customer service and just happened to ask about the FIOS, and they told me the cost, only $5/month more than my std. DSL! For the increase in bandwidth, I jumped on it.

Never saw the guy run the line to the house, just happened when they said it would. One guy showed up to wire the house, and was joined by another team later. Took about four hours, ran the line right to my office. The only problem was getting a switch flipped at some station, but that happened quickly.

Love the service. Has only hicupped one time, and the speed is as advertised. My parents have cable, and I can notice a slight difference when I'm on their network. I even have a VoIP phone and fax line set up on my FIOS line, and get no problems like I had on std. DSL.

My two cents.

 

Install:

Called last night to move up the install date now that fiber is run. They said, that dept. was closed but call in the AM and it could be done no problem.

Called this AM and the lady who answered cust. svc. contacted the scheduling dept.. Now the scheduling Dept. wont reschedule because the Wiring Dept. hasn't confirmed the work was done. When she called the Wiring Dept..... Busy. She said she'll call me back today whe she gets through.

Equipment Purchase:

10/100 16-Port VPN Router
Medium JPG for RV016

* A high-reliability Internet connection-sharing router and 16-port switch for small business
* Features up to 7 Internet ports for load balancing and connection redundancy
* Securely connects up to 50 remote office or traveling users to your office network via VPN
* Advanced SPI firewall protects your PCs from most known Internet attacks
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Update:

Router installed and working with Comcast Cable. I had to upgrade the firmware twice and change the mpu settings, but over all speed is good. The console management is pretty good.

Couldn't get an install date for FIOS any sooner then the 9th.
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Comcast:

After four missed appointments someone actually showed up today to fix the cut. So I "would" have been w/o cable and internet access for over a week had I not been able to splice my own cables.

Verizon comes Tuesday to finish.

 

15/2
You are a god.

I'm trying to find if it's avaliable in my house.

 

Wait til I test it first...........

It should be 15/2 & 5/700k Load balanced. (In theory)

 

Even @ 5/700k you are still a god

I'm at 5/384kbps. I couldn't give a rats about the download (anything above 2mbps is cool with me) but the upload is just too crappy. I deal with a lot of big files between my friends and I and I would love to have a 1.54mbps upload or higher!

 

Rob, how far is Southlake Texas from Sugar Land texas?

 

Oops i guess I was thinking of another city then.
Yeah Sugar Land is SouthWest Houston basically.

Four hours. Yeah, that's no where near the telco....

 

Verizon is vascillating on whether FIOS is available here -- and I'm close enough to throw rocks at the C.O.

But I notice the significance that FIOS is not being offered for telecommuter or business installs yet -- no SLA: Verizon isn't guaranteeing up-time on the links.

An untried technology supported by Verizon's billing center? (Run away! Run away!)

But comcast isn't offering business grade service either.

So even if COVAD can only get half the speed I signed up for over these 50 year old verizon wires, it's the best I'm gonna get for now.

 

Relax, they have a 60 trial period. I've had Comcast for years and I don't recall having it drop for more then 1/2 hour (twice a yr. / ave.). So, for residential service (and even most business service) that's not a big deal.


--------- More to follow --------------

Verizon should be here to complete connections in a couple of hrs.

 

But it takes business class to get a static ip or subnet -- and business class comes with a SLA, too. (Makes sense, I guess -- line dropouts can raise havoc with dynamic routing.)

So until the local vendors have enough faith in themselves to provide business grade service, I have to stick with the service that does permit static IP for my DIY servers.

 

The techs showed up at 4:30PM and spent until about 8:45PM installing it. Rerunning the fiber because it was done incorrectly. After all is said and done this is the result.

I will watch for drops etc. and continue to tweek it but not to shabby.

As for web servers : all my domains are hosted in a secure 24hr data ctr... I wouldn't host at home.
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Do you get access to newsgroups?

 

I don't know......

I don't see why not....

Why?

I thought you could access newsgroups via the web. No?

 

Heh, no I meant like alt.binaries.*

Usually ISP provided newsgroups cap out your connections.

So with FIOS you have no SLA?
I'm very interested in your dropouts and what not.
Are you going to setup MRTG w. RRDTOOL or something?

 

Neither Cable or Fios have SLAs. I will monitor by using it. I'm not hosting a site here so I don't have much concern about undetected drops. If Fios goes out I'll switch to Cable and vis-versa. So far so good...... No drops detected and speed up in the 15mb dl range.