It has begun....

[djkilla]

What a surprise! I woke up this morning (Tuesday April 12) and see orange pine cones all the way down my side of the street. I take a look and see workers digging frantically in front of each home. I noticed the foreman in charge and thought I'd ask what all the comotion is about. Turns out, Temple Terrace is getting Verizon phiber optic installed. 8O

Since a few of you out there have already received this, are there any promotional offers to get you to sign-up for internet access with Verizon phiber optic? What's the next speed up that they offer from my current 5mb Road Runner service? Cost/price?

**If there's a link for this info, I would very much appreciate it!

-D j K i l l a-

[DSquare]

Let them know if they start here in Tarpon Springs I will personally make coffee and donuts each morning for them. :P

[CANDY76MAN]

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/channels/Fios/HighSpeedInternetForHome.asp?promotion_code=&variant=


you can get 15/2 service for 45 or 50 bucks a month....that's what I'm going for when they light up Valrico.

[Floyd]

As mentioned in an earlier post, they installed the FIOS system in my neightborhood over the past several months. I got a letter from Verizon to notify me of the availability of the service, but I guess they didn't get a very good relsponse. Tonight, UPS delivered an express envelope containing a two-page memo advertising the FIOS service. They again mentioned the "qualifing" calling package several times without any furthur explanation of what that is.
There are three levels of service:
5Mbps/2Mbps for 39.95/34.95 w/calling pkg
15Mbps/2Mbps for 49.95/44.95 w/calling pkg
30Mbps/5Mbps for 199.95/179.95 w/calling pkg

I ordered regular DSL for 29/mo, since I don't plan on using any fast services like their movie-on-demand or TV services. They are throwing in a free wired/wiredless modem router and two network cards.

[djkilla]

Thanks everyone for the links and comments. I checked my bill for BHN and noticed that I'm currently paying around $32.95 a month for Road Runner. After comparing this to the prices of Verizon, it makes me wonder if this will be worth the jump. Verizon's cost for 5mb service seems a lot higher than what I'm receiving now for the same through BHN. Hopefully, competition or promotions will make both 5mb and 15mb access inviting to make the jump in the near future. Till then, it's a waiting game to see what pans out. Thanks again for the replys to my post!

-D j K i l l a-

[pilotbob]

Thanks everyone for the links and comments. I checked my bill for BHN and noticed that I'm currently paying around $32.95 a month for Road Runner. After comparing this to the prices of Verizon, it makes me wonder if this will be worth the jump. Verizon's cost for 5mb service seems a lot higher than what I'm receiving now for the same through BHN. Hopefully, competition or promotions will make both 5mb and 15mb access inviting to make the jump in the near future. Till then, it's a waiting game to see what pans out. Thanks again for the replys to my post!

-D j K i l l a-

How long have you had RR? I think the $29.99 a month is a 6 month special for new customers. That's what I am on now also, my bill also shows $32.95 a month. (I assume the extra $3 is taxes or something.)

I think the regular price is $44.95, maybe $42 with digital cable as a bundle.

BOb

[CactusJack]

Thanks everyone for the links and comments. I checked my bill for BHN and noticed that I'm currently paying around $32.95 a month for Road Runner. After comparing this to the prices of Verizon, it makes me wonder if this will be worth the jump. Verizon's cost for 5mb service seems a lot higher than what I'm receiving now for the same through BHN. Hopefully, competition or promotions will make both 5mb and 15mb access inviting to make the jump in the near future. Till then, it's a waiting game to see what pans out. Thanks again for the replys to my post!

-D j K i l l a-

How long have you had RR? I think the $29.99 a month is a 6 month special for new customers. That's what I am on now also, my bill also shows $32.95 a month. (I assume the extra $3 is taxes or something.)

I think the regular price is $44.95, maybe $42 with digital cable as a bundle.

BOb
In Pinellas, at least, it's $44.95 even with digital cable service. I don't know of any discounts, other than for new subscribers.

Jack

[djkilla]

????? That's strange! I've had Road Runner since it's been offered (many years) and had cable since the 1980's. The only thing I have is the digital tier on two TV's (one of them is my Sony HDTV). I did pick-up the latest promotion which includes the SA8300 (Not HD) DVR and all the premium movie channels for $6.95 a month (Promotion ends in June) but that's it. No VOIP, other tiers or anything else. Perhaps I got a customer support rep which either made a mistake or really hooked me up! Makes me wonder now since everyone else is paying more?!

-D j K i l l a-

[CANDY76MAN]

the base plans downloads are comparable but the fios upload bandwidth is far superior to rr...128 kbps vs 2 mbps....plus the latency over fios should be much better than rr but thats yet to be seen....if you game online or like to run a web, ftp, or game server then the fios is much better for basicly the same price and from what I understand verizon will officially allow servers to be run on your connection.....you can get away with it on rr but they could shut you down if they wanted too.

[amheck]

A have a friend who recently had FIOS installed. But...he has his own web server and Verizon said he had to get on the $99/month plan before they would unblock port 80. So after a 2 day install, he cancelled the service and went back to RR.

FWIW.....

[Kendo]

My FiOS installation is scheduled for Friday up here in Pasco County. Since I currently have the Verizon Freedom plan, the 15MB service is costing me $44.95, the same as RR. The best RR download speed I ever received (using CNET's bandwidth meter) was 1.9MB and it's been as slow as 70K when the kids are downloading music and playing games on-line. Last week my friend had DSL installed down in Pinellas and we tested it at 2.2MB, not bad for $29.95 and certainly a better value than RR. Which has been my gripe all along.

They told us the install could take up to four hours. I'll post my FiOS bandwidth from CNET when I get a chance next week.

We are all pretty luckly, the Tampa Bay area is one of three metro areas that now has FiOS (www.verizonfios.com). The other areas are Dallas and DC. Coming soon will be lower NY state, Boston, Philly and Southern Cal. I also heard from someone I know that they will be starting FiOS installations in parts of Northern NJ later this year.

[bdraw]

The thing to consider when using those bandwidth tests is that that the results are the bandwidth of the slowest link between you in the server. Back in the dial up days this was always your connection, but now with the speed of broadband sometimes the slowest link is not yours. I just did a bandwidth test on cnet and it reported 200k, I did 10 others test found here http://www.toast.net/performance/ and the lowest I got was 2000k. I did 10 different ones all were different, 6pm is the worst time to test since the Internet is most congested in the evening.

RR is a good value at $44.95/mo FIOS is much better but like you said it isn't available in most areas. Verizon is a great deal if you already have a home phone with them and are satisfied with 2Mb/s.

[bubblehd647]

I am now up on FiOS. I selected the 15M/2M package. The installer was here most of the day. He did a good job but I can see that Verizon is going to have to improve the installation process. It was a good thing I already had a structured wiring panel in my utility room because the installer told me they are not supposed to go in the attic.

I did have to let him install the free D-Link wired router. Which was swapped back out with my Linksys wireless router 2 minutes after he left.

BTW, they are using PPPoE user authentication for FiOS.

Using the Verizon FTTP speedtest tool I am getting 14.75Mb downloads. Testing at some off network sites, my downloads range from 2Mbps to 12Mbps, which is pretty good. :)

[pilotbob]

...because the installer told me they are not supposed to go in the attic.


Yea, right. That would be terrible.

So, what did they do? Do the run a wire to your computer or does the modem hook up to the phone line? How does it work?

BOb

[bubblehd647]

They ran a Cat5 cable from the ONT (the device they mount on the side of your house) to my utility room patch panel. I have all my network connections homed there. This cable plugs into the WAN port on my router.

What you get is a 100Mb Ethernet connection directly from the ONT.

[Kendo]

My install is scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) and yesterday a couple techs ran two fiber lines from the drop to the side of my house. Right now it's just hanging off the existing Verizon box. I'm sure this will cut a little time off the install. I have CAT5 structured wiring homed to a panel in my laundry room so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle to complete this. Verizon said it would take four hours...

When they start offering TV services early next year, I wonder if they'll have to use CAT5 to the boxes or use the existing coax? How many people have a CAT5 jack next to a TV? Actually I put ONE in my family room when I built the house to be used for a future Directv unit or computer network that's never going to happen now.

I'll keep everyone posted on how the install goes...

[tampahank]

Temple Terrace is about finished, I'm guessing. While I technically live in Tampa, if I lived on the other side of Harney Road, I'd be in south Temple Terrace.. and those guys were in my neighborhood for the past week or so in different areas. I'll give 'em credit, they've cleaned up their act (from all the horror stories I've read in the paper), they did the job along the road quick and cleaned up nicely (just a small ~ 1 ft trench dug, and in some areas they even sliced up sod to put over it).

I'm definately interested in seeing how their efforts go. Competition is a good thing. Just like spell checkers.

[bubblehd647]

When they start offering TV services early next year, I wonder if they'll have to use CAT5 to the boxes or use the existing coax? How many people have a CAT5 jack next to a TV? Actually I put ONE in my family room when I built the house to be used for a future Directv unit or computer network that's never going to happen now.



Based on the presentations I have seen, the video service will use the existing coax in your house.

[Kendo]

The Verizon Installer arrived shortly after 9am and mounted the ONT (Optical Network Terminal) box on the side of my house. Of the two cables run from the drop only one was fiber, the other was copper, the tech stated they run the copper so they can find the optical underground... makes sense. It appears that the fiber already had connectors installed on both ends from a couple days ago. Next he installed the power supply and battery backup in my garage. You might want to make sure in advance that you have an available power outlet for this. After the ONT was powered up he was on the phone trying to get it activated. From my point of view all I saw was the fail light blinking. After the unit was active Verizon had to move my phone from the copper POTS line to the fiber. The whole process of activating the unit and moving the phone line took quite a bit of time. The tech even left for lunch and came back and I still didn't have dial tone. These two steps consumed quite a bit of time. After my dial tone was moved he ran a CAT5 from the ONT around the outside of my house into the room containing my router. Rather than dump my current wireless investment (and the time and effort into securing it) I went with the basic D-Link router they provide for free and replaced the cable modem with it. After that was up and running we went through the software install, email…etc.

This was the tech’s first solo install, it took about 7 hours from start to finish including his lunch break. Verizon said it would take 4. Glad I didn’t just take the morning off from work! The activation and migration must have taken 2 hours.

The ONT box has four RJ11 outputs for POTS lines, a single 10/100 CAT5 and a single coax output for future TV. Looks like they can just un-screw the coax from the Bright House box, move it a foot to the right, connect it up and you’ll have FiOS TV in your home.

The installer also mentioned I have my own circuit from my home to the Verizon office (like DSL) it’s not shared.

[Kendo]

I’m sure this is going to generate a lot of traffic in the forum: The tech told me Verizon is in court right now trying to overturn exclusive agreements BH has signed with HOA’s like mine providing them with cheaper bulk rate service. They stipulate that no other company can offer cable TV service in my community, keeping Verizon from offering TV services. So much for competition… this has got to be illegal. Until that gets overturned they can’t offer TV, only high-speed internet. Doesn’t that just drive you mad!?!?! I think it’s time to write the FCC.

Because of this they are shifting efforts from Pasco County to areas of Hillsborough that don’t have these agreements. He said they’ll probably be working back in Pasco late this year or early next year when they expect to start up the TV side. Pinellas wasn’t even mentioned.

[Kendo]

Keep in mind I have the 15/2meg service.

The first speed test was around 8meg down using the Java based test from the National Science Foundation located at http://ciseweb100.cise-nsf.gov:7123

We downloaded and ran DRTCP021 from DSL reports to fine tune our connection. This utility lets you set window size and MTU among other settings.

The settings Verizon recommends (and I used) are the following:

Tcp Receive Window: 307824
Window Scaling: Yes
Time Stamping: Yes
Selective Acks: Yes
MTU for the current NIC should be 1492.

After making these modifications and rebooting it indicated between 14.4 and 14.92 meg down about 1.4 meg up on my wired connection! The downloads were truly remarkable, with uploads a little less than advertised, yet pretty darn good. The fiber latency is so low the internet is only 3ms away on my wired PC, 5ms on wireless. That’s not the local Verizon gateway, its Verizon’s Internet gateway tampafl.verizon-gni.net. Which is less than half of RR.

I ran a few speed tests on my p4 before and after to make a comparison. Prior to running them I ran Spybot, Ad-aware and Pest Patrol (plus an AV scan) to make sure my system was clean. For consistency, all numbers are KB per second (Kbps) and conducted during late night or morning hours. Your results may vary.

http://test.tampabay.rr.com RR: 20 to 72 FiOS: 393 to 787 .
Cnet’s Bandwidth test RR: 47 to 340 FiOS: 1376 to 2028
Bandwidthplace.com RR: 243 to 344 FiOS: 3100 to 3300
Beelinebandwidthtest.com RR 208 to 340 FiOS: 1152 to 1156

The following tests are run from toast.net, “BDraw” brought them to my attention (Thanks!)

ADDR RR: 73 to 221 FiOS: 1706 to 1817
Nibble RR: 248 to 274 FiOS: 2433 to 2564
On-Line Solutions 244 to 307 FiOS 1873 to 2851
On-Speed UK RR: 243 to 244 FiOS 1630 to 1798
Lunar Pages RR: 243 to 244 FiOS: 2380 to 2508
Host Rocket RR: 231 to 243 FiOS: 999 to 2547
Pow Web RR: 103 to 241 FiOS: 539 to 1591
Open Hosting UK RR: 188 to 244 FiOS: 1614 to 1662
4-Web Space RR: 258 to 327 FiOS: 3348 to 3893
Cable Bahamas RR: 136 to 281 FiOS: 922 to 3412
Space Port USA RR: 242 to 234 FiOS: 1182 to 1490

And after looking at these tests, if I wanted to host a web site, I’d go with 4-Web in Dallas… Wow!

Everyone who has a high speed connection might want to check out DRTCP021 it might enable you to squeeze additional performance out of an exsisting connection.

[CANDY76MAN]

hey kendo....what do you have to do to get online...with the pppoe crap i mean?...login and pass?...does it require you to have something running in the sys tray all the time when your connected or anything like that?

I've heard that people don't like pppoe is why i ask.

thanks

[pilotbob]

After the unit was active Verizon had to move my phone from the copper POTS line to the fiber.

So,

Does this mean you are using there VOiP service now? Or, are you still on traditional phone service through Verizon? Does the phone service price/offering change once you are on a fiber feed?

BOb

[bubblehd647]

Candy76man - The PPPoE username and password are stored in the router. You don't have to do anything special like login. It will mean having to update the routers stored password if you change your e-mail password.

pilotbob - Verizon is running POTS on the fiber. They do have a VoIP service (VoiceWing) that is separate.

[Kendo]

Bubble pretty much answered your questions and correctly may I add.

I'm really happy with it, the performance, the quality. They need to roll it out to more areas.

I heard when video arrives next year the interface on the set top box will be very similar to Windows XP Media Center Edition.

[D.Vinly]

Barry is tapping away furiously at his keyboard, and were hoping all will be done by turkey day.

I cant wait for ya all too see it He has done a really good job