OT-Verizon FIOS high speed internet?

[Blastinbob]

Verizon layed the lines over a month ago in my neighborhood and now their new fiberoptic service is available to my home. Does anybody here have the service yet and are there drawbacks?
15 Mbps/ 2Mbps for the same price as my 3 Mbps high speed cable sounds like a no-brainer as long as it's reliable.

[zap]

We've been using Fios for close to a year now. No problems.

Our phone land lines are still on good old copper. If Verizon is your local phone service provider, they may insist on connecting your phone line to fios.

[wwtsui]

...and so far, so good. Verizon was/is our phone company, so yes, our phone service now runs over FIOS as well. Two things that weren't obvious to me before they showed up for the installation:

1. If your phone provider is Verizon, then you will end up with a 4 or 6 hour battery backup for the interface between fiber optic and the copper phone wire in your house -- in other words, during a power outage, you'll only have phone service as long as that battery lasts.

2. You'll need an Ethernet run from where the phone service comes in to the house to wherever you want the router/switch/hub for your home network (if applicable). Depending on where your phone service comes in and what else you're trying to hook up wired vs. wireless, this may or may not be a problem. For us, the phone service comes into the basement, and the switch/router is on the second floor; luckily, we were able to run Ethernet cable between the two. The alternative would have been to put the wireless access point in the basement and run everything wireless (which would largely render the increased speed moot).

Hope this helps.

[Ray]

We switched from DSL to FIOS a few months ago. No problems. We have the router in the basement and run one computer off of the direct line and the other two wireless (teenagers, a work computer, my wife's laptop - a freakin' network in the house). We're limited by the throughput of the wireless network, but I saw an improvement nonetheless. Fast enough for good quality cycling tv video and multiple downloads going on simultaneously. I should hook up the higher speed stuff in the basement and see how much faster the direct line is. It's been 100% reliable so far, not that we had many problems with the DSL.

-Ray

[cydewaze]

Been in FIOS a month. Switched from 3mbit DSL. The FIOS is faster and cheaper. Very happy so far.

[nobrakes]

We switched from DSL to Fios 6 months ago-the price includes our landline over the fiber. We have had great service, with very consistant internet speed-something that slowed down on our DSL during peak usage times.
Very happy with Fios-waiting for Verizon to offer TV now, as we've cancelled our Dish Network service, due to their poor service.

[Tom Kellogg]

As many of you know, we can only get dial up at a maximum of 28.8k. Anyway, the big new development going in about 400 meters away will be fully fiber fed. Verizon has told us that we won't be able to get fiber ... for ever. We can't get DSL because Verizon does not want to upgrade the switches in town even though the big green box in town is fiber fed. Cable here is a rip and it is only for downloads anyway. I am stuck with either the dial-up or I can now get wireless high speed. They claim that it is up to 4Mbps. At 59.95 per month it is very steep. What am I to do? This dial-up is killing me! Any suggestions?

On another note, if I get the wireless high speed, is there a way to create a wifi network with it? There really isn't a way to do it through a router since the wireless device is really just a wireless modem on a pci card. Thoughts?

[Ray]

What am I to do? This dial-up is killing me! Any suggestions?

On another note, if I get the wireless high speed, is there a way to create a wifi network with it? There really isn't a way to do it through a router since the wireless device is really just a wireless modem on a pci card. Thoughts?
Move to the city - the benefits are endless. I'll trade you my place for yours :cool:

-Ray

[Bradford]

, if I get the wireless high speed, is there a way to create a wifi network with it? There really isn't a way to do it through a router since the wireless device is really just a wireless modem on a pci card. Thoughts?

You can get fixed wireless, which is different from a wireless modem on a pci card. I have the wireless modem (from Verizon) because a travel so much. It really isn't that much better than dial up, but that is pretty good if you are in an airport or hotel.

If you are looking for a solution for your home, fixed wireless gives you good connection speed and comes into the house with a modem, just like DSL without the cord. You should be able to set up wifi with fixed wireless.

I have a friend with fixed wireless and he says it is just like broadband. Prices vary widely based on location. The good news is that it is probably available where you are, the bad news is that it is probably expensive.

[stevep]

i have had fios for a year. works well. one notable exception. verizon seems to block a number of people i do business with in europe. they get reject messages and i have to use an msn address to get email.
inconvenient for sure, because i get no notification that a message is blocked... so i may find out months later or not at all.
the service and installation was premium. they put the cable underground and a technician spent one whole day in the house to get the thing running
for free.

[Too Tall]

Got a nice neighbor?
http://www.wifi-plus.com/pages/8/index.htm

What about "naked dsl"? Qwest offers call “stand alone” dsl. It requires a phone line however there is no number, dialtone etc. associated.

[cydewaze]

What about "naked dsl"? Qwest offers call “stand alone” dsl. It requires a phone line however there is no number, dialtone etc. associated.
I think most of these services just resell the local phone company's DSL service. So if you can't get DSL through your phone co, you can't get it from anyone.

[LegendRider]

As many of you know, we can only get dial up at a maximum of 28.8k. Anyway, the big new development going in about 400 meters away will be fully fiber fed. Verizon has told us that we won't be able to get fiber ... for ever. We can't get DSL because Verizon does not want to upgrade the switches in town even though the big green box in town is fiber fed. Cable here is a rip and it is only for downloads anyway. I am stuck with either the dial-up or I can now get wireless high speed. They claim that it is up to 4Mbps. At 59.95 per month it is very steep. What am I to do? This dial-up is killing me! Any suggestions?

On another note, if I get the wireless high speed, is there a way to create a wifi network with it? There really isn't a way to do it through a router since the wireless device is really just a wireless modem on a pci card. Thoughts?

Are you ruling out cable altogether? Who is your provider and what do they charge? Is the upload speed that crucial? I have cable that gives me 6Mbps download, but only 400kbps upload - but, it's not really a problem. I pay $42.95 per month since I also get cable TV from them' otherwise, it would be about $10 per month more.

[Tom Kellogg]

Are you ruling out cable altogether? Who is your provider and what do they charge? Is the upload speed that crucial? I have cable that gives me 6Mbps download, but only 400kbps upload - but, it's not really a problem. I pay $42.95 per month since I also get cable TV from them' otherwise, it would be about $10 per month more.

The only cable provider in our area charges 49.95 mo. IN ADDITION to our TV cable service. It is non-duplex as well. we need to use our phone line for uploads. I think that in fact we could go with a non-duplex system, but at that price, forget it. We can get wireless highspeed from Verizon now, but their wireless modems can't be used like a router in that you can only use one in one computer at a time. If I had a way of adding a router to my computer (with the wireless modem) so that I could share the modem with the other computer, I would go for it, even at 59.95 mo. UGH.

It may come down to "tagging onto" a neighbor's connection. I REALLY don't want to do that. It ain't right. Maybe just more patience ...

[mls]

Fios is a real good product . I think the speeds start at 10 mbps down
load and 2 mbps up . You can also get 20/5 or 30/5 for more $ . Verizon
comes installs everything gives you a router that you can use up to 4
hard wired computers on and a bunch wirerless . The back up battery
lasts 6hrs of constant talking not just 6hrs . The speed is constant and
does not vary like the cable companys does . The phone is real phone not
voice over ip like the cable companys and you can get up to 4 lines if
needed on 1 glass fiber drop . That said the cable companys data works good 2nd only to the fios and is better than dsl . dls or digital subscriber
line works over your current phone line and probably tops out at 3.5 mbps
so its not as good the above but alot better than dial up.