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I got a call one night that the fiber was lit up on my street and placed an order on the spot. I'm getting Digital Voice (VOiP), IPTV, and Data - 25m/15m. 5 days later the installer showed up, cut down the copper, put up aerial fiber, and hooked up everything. I get a call at 9:25am that the fellow will be out here (one guy) to do everything. He shows up at 9:45am since traffic was good. He's based about 20 miles away to the north. Everything is going to go off of coaxial. ONT / Power will be inside. I showed him the ropes he said it isn't going to be too bad. Now the fun starts. Verizon isn't even good to Verizon. None of us could see the fiber drop. He went to the back alley then lit up a cigarette. Can't see anything. He picks up his cell and is on hold for like 15 minutes. Apparently the initial fiber lay is about 200 feet too short so he's going to have to go back to his depot, pick up a terminal, a line truck, and then extend the fiber, install a terminal, THEN he can tear down the copper. Estimated time to completion - 7 hours. This is turning really, really bad. So after he comes back he clips the copper, runs the fiber, runs everything. Now the configuration part... yeah not so much. The HD box and one standard was DOA so he got another of each and each worked. He said a lot of these are DOA. The Motorola 7100 HD and apparently any Onkyo product = instant green screen because of a parity bit error because "there is no HDMI standard" according to the installer. So you can't quite use HDMI sound. You need to use optical out. He gave me an optical cable and said have fun and peaced out. As of now the IMG is release - 1.6.2, Build 08.58, QIP-7100 PI. I did have to call Verizon tech support because the installer locked me out of my new FiOS router - Actiontec MI424-WR Rev. D (Taiwan). However, I would like to give one last big FU to Comcast. It took 35 minutes to cancel my account. I was transferred 4 times and the last guy who actually claimed to cancel gave me lip for a good 5 - 10 minutes about how it was a bad mistake and tried to FUD Verizon. What an ass. Followup comments:
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it took me about 45 minutes to call up verizon and order their internet, phone, and tv bundle. right now, my plan is around 120 a month for 25/15mb internet, extreme hd package, and basic phone coverage. they included a free dvr and hbo/cinemax package for a couple of months. i ordered 2 verizon cable boxes to have HD for the family (this one included dvr) and living rooms and one with SD for the bedroom. i called last thursday and the tech was scheduled to come in this past saturday between 12-4pm. the technician came around 1pm yesterday afernoon. he was quite curteous and professional and answered any questions i had asked. it took him close to 2 hours to install everything, including my wireless network in which he setup two laptops and a desktop. he was concise in his explaining to me how every thing worked. he did not want to leave until everything was working perfectly (internet, phone, tv package). so far i am happy with my decision to go with verizon fios. i've been testing the internet speeds and they have been tested as advertised. my desktop pc/verizon router tested the speed through dslreports.com at around 26mb download/16 upload on average. the highest average i got was 26mb dl and 26 upload on my laptop that is hardwired. the signal that i am getting on my second laptop, which is on the other side of my home and setup wireless, got around 15mb download/15mb upload. not too shabby considering my old router setup rated the signal poorly and i got no where near those speeds with the same laptop. the wireless signal that i was getting was rated as good. i will add more to this review in the next few weeks... update: so far i have been very very satisfied with Verizon Fios. Only con I have to bring up is this nagging green vertical line on my philips 42" lcd in hd. in only appears to show itself on my hd connection. i have tried 4 different hd cables and the same line appears. I also have tried all the settings on my tv as well as through the top box from Verizon to get rid of the green line. i have read the help forums on this website and on verizon's as it appears the issue will only be resolved if i wait for some kind of new software update. Followup comments:
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Took about two weeks to get it installed - but it works great! I've got the triple play with TV/Net (20 down/5 up)/Phone for about $130 per month. Great value for the money, crystal clear TV and lightning fast connection (over my own router - not the actiontec). Installer guy was top notch, and very easy to work with - even though the install took nearly 5 hours. He showed up on time and stayed after the install for a few minutes to show me how to work the on demand stuff. === The good === SPEED! I get every bit of the 20/5.Low latency -- about 20ms to hit the DC tester on speedtest. TV picture is *much* clearer than cable. === The bad === The actiontec router is worthless and made the service go very slow (or at least it seemed that way). Everything started running better after I bridged the router over to my own device. I eventually got my ONT reprovisioned for ethernet so I could ditch the bridging all together. (The bridge deletes itself if the actiontec loses power.) === The ugly === The bill - while correct in my case - is absolutely horrendous. It is extremely difficult to read, and they throw charges and credits in all over the place. Luckily the net number was correct, but I'll have to watch it for a few more cycles to make sure it stays that way. === The install === Takes about 4-5 hours. If you want to use your own router (non actiontec) - you really should run a CAT5 (standard straight-thru) to the ONT before the install. Basically - the installer will drill a hole in your house and run a wire inside for the battery backup unit. The electrical cable attached to it is about 6-8 ft long, so you need to be relatively close to an outlet. In my case, the main cable drop for house runs outside into a box with a splitter (installed by the cable company). The installer guy just ran a coax cable over to that splitter from the ONT -- and connected that as the "main line" as if it were coming from the cable company. He did a similar thing with the phone. He ran a CAT5 patch cable between the ONT and my old copper box. He obviously disconnected the existing copper (from the ground) and replaced it with the CAT5 to the ONT. *He did not rip out the copper.* It would have been difficult for him to do that - as it is in a piece of PVC pipe. === The horrendous Actiontec === 1: You think it does static IP leases, but they expire every 24 hours -- I think that makes them dynamic! 2: You think it will work well because it looks slick on the outside, don't be fooled. 3: It can be updated by VZ at any time -- as they can push firmware to it as they see fit 4: The menu system it uses makes it hard to navigate, the stuff you want to change is often buried deep in some hidden menu === TV/Phone === No change on the phones for me. Except, I now hear the databurst for call waiting on one of my phones (just one.) Not sure what's up with that... The TV is amazing. No, they don't have a bazillion HD channels, but they have quite a few. The on demand content is excellent -- a lot of it is free. The only downside is that the regular HD box (non DVR) freezes up for about 10 seconds on occasion. Not really sure why that happens. === Other tips === 1. Use DDWRT on your router and give your STBs static IPs and priority QoS to improve VOD quality. 2: Enable the DNS cache on DDWRT, it seems like Verizon's DNSs are slow. === Updates === 1/13/09 : Everything still running well. Rebundled my package to 20/5 with more HD boxes and channels at a lower price. 11/20/09 : Everything is good here, switched out some of my STBs to high def, including the MR-DVR. The DVR hard disk space is pretty small - but it works ok. Speed is OK, I can't quite get 20/5 exactly - usually a little less (~17/4.5) - not real sure why that is. Followup comments:
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DLink 624 Router Followup comments:
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Contacted Advanced advocacy on Thursday, called back to be advised FIOS could be installed on the following Monday. Was called 3 times to confirm date and time of installation. After the installation, received several more calls checking on the quality of the job and if we were happy with the service. Overall experience was very good. After I got through the marketing people who kept telling me that they did not know when FIOS would be available. I was truly amazing, that one phone call to the high level got FIOS installed the following Monday. Router is an Actiontec, much like the ADSL router, so I was familiar with configuring it. Followup comments:
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$37.37 as part of a triple-play bundle. Wireless is useless on the router that came with my original order 3 years ago. Took a full business day for the bandwidth change to process. Ping time is far too high. I live about 1 mile from Philadelphia, yet traceroute shows over 8 msec RTT between my home router & first Verizon equipment in Philadelphia. Love the bandwidth & reliability. Downloaded 187 MByte Macintosh software update in 100 seconds. Photos upload in no time. Followup comments:
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As I said, order process was fine online. Getting them to come to the scheduled date was entirely different. The first date they misplaced the order or some other BS. Needless to say I wasted a day waiting for them to come here. Second day, I wasn't as hopeful either. They missed the 1pm-5pm window as well. Whatever. We got a call from the night manager who saw that it got overlooked. I was pretty much about to yell at them, but we rescheduled again for Tuesday and they showed up on time. For the hassle of rescheduling, I was surprised and glad at the competent techs we got to do the install. I was debating for the week prior whether to have them do Ethernet or coax, but ultimately we plan on getting FiOS TV when it becomes available, so the coax setup will be easier. All in all the install took about 3 hours. I would recommend the experience to anyone. 11/2009 We added Verizon FIOS TV shortly after receiving the internet. We just stuck with the basic Essentials package. It is still far more than we had coming from the Comcast basic package. Overall its been smooth sailing this year. Followup comments:
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New contract until 11/2010 25/15 FIOS Internet Freedom Essentials Package w/exteme HD FIOS premier/extreme TV with movies package. 2 STB, 1 HDDVR, 1HD BOX So far router has been running flawless. Model MI424WR Had to tether Wireless for 14.99 discount. I have contacted Customer Service several times in the past months and have waited no more then 10 minutes and they answered or fixed my issues. so they are even getting better on CS which was by far their worst issue. Followup comments:
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Updated 11 November 2007 - Changed the channel on the Actiontech router (from the default) and now getting a GREAT signal throughout the house. Verizon coming back out this week to install TV and upgrade internet to 15/2 service. Cost of service is $128 (includes $99 for "Triple Play" package, $12.99 for HD DVR box, $4.99 for SD box, and all taxes and fees). Looking forward to the TV service and removing the dish from the deck! Updated 7 December 2007 - Still running strong - FiOS is great! Updated 28 March 2009 - Service is still running great after about 1 1/2 years. No problems to date. Updated 12 April 2009 - Upgraded service to 20/5 and HD Extreme Package for same current price. Term extended about 6 months Updated 15 November 2009 - Still running strong with no problems to date. Tried for speed upgrade to 25/15, but price would go up. Happy with 20/5. Followup comments:
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Verizon FIOS
(163)
(150)
(171)
(109)
Pittsburgh,Allegheny,PA
$131 per month (12 month contract)
about 5 days
"Installer was good, far better than Comcast in ever regard"
"7700 on 1.6.2 firmware broke HDMI - need to wait a month"
"Bye Comcast. Hope to never see you again"
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