After my wife and I got fed up with constant price increases with our current cable provider, and having heard great things about the new less expensive and supposedly faster fiber optic service Verizon offered in our area we decided to take a chance and have it installed.
Luckily we own a townhouse and mid 2006 Verizon asked our association if it was ok to run all of our units with the conduit necessary to run the fiber, to which everyone agreed, thus having this step out of the way saved a bit of time.
My initial concerns were that I wouldn?t want my existing infrastructure taken down as I had everything up and running; also I had heard Verizon was installing one of two router options, either a D Link or an Actiontec. The D link reportedly had issues with wireless coverage which wasn?t good as my configuration is all housed in my basement, but everything which referenced the D Link option was old and thus I don?t believe they use that any longer.
However upon looking into this aspect a bit deeper it appeared that not only was my router not able to support the throughput necessary to get optimum performance, but also Verizon for the most part mandates that if you want to be ?supported? you have to use the router they supply as it allows them to automatically push upgrades and check status, thus any personally purchased router, while it might work (So long as it supports PPPOE and is fast enough) will make it so they won?t help you should a problem arise.
I also learned that my router, the Linksys WRT54G, was able to be modified to be able to support the system via third party firmware, however seeing as how I have had a few connection issues in the past with my Cisco ABG cards, and the issues surrounding their support I decided to give the Verizon router a try.
Unfortunately I was unable to be home for the install however my wife took the day and updated me as to the progress. I had left a sheet with two instructions for the techs, the first was don?t install any software on my computers, and if they had to I had a spare laptop they could use to initialize the service, I have had issues like this with Comcast in the past when they loaded all this garbage on my system, and the second was to please not install the box on my basement TV which has a receiver and sound system hooked up to it. The techs according to my wife were more than accommodating and did exactly as I asked.
The installation began at 9am and ended at 1:44, however as I said if you need the conduit run it will take longer, and also for older homes they offer to rewire your house for the most part and that takes time which is why they quote a standard install period of six hours, our place is relatively new and we didn?t need much work.
The first component they install is the ONT, or the Optical Network Terminal, this is what the fiber comes into and then gets split off into coax and telecom. for my house they did this inside however I have heard of them doing it outside as well. Here is a picture of mine, also on the board they used you will see two power units, the left one has a battery and remote monitoring capability, and the right one is a power adapter, from what I have read they prefer this to go directly into an outlet but with my setup they had no choice it had to go into a strip. I guess for better or worse they left my "Monster" coax splitter, actually that is the one monster product that I think is ok all things considered and wasn't insanely expensive like their speaker cable, but the ONT outs to coax which goes to your TVs and then in my case the router through the splitter.
ONT
The next thing they did was connect my phone lines into the ONT, they were a real mess before being just twisted together and I actually am glad they put that little black punch down block in there. Here is an image.
Phone Lines
The rest is pretty mundane so here are the images?
The router hardware
Router Front
The front is pretty boring
Here is the back...
Router Back
You can see the big Verizon warning sticker as well as four hardwired connections, a coax connection, and then a lan connection as I guess some installs use cat5 out of the ont instead of coax.
Here is the cable Box, we have a DVR upstairs and the nice thing about this service is that you can watch recorded shows on any system with a box, or so I am told as I haven't tried it yet. The bad is that in order to get a complete channel list you need a box, if you don't have one on a TV then you will only get very basic local channels on that set, which is alot different from cable where you will at least get the basic cable channels. Extra boxes are $5 a month.
TV Box front
Just your standard motorola box...
TV Box rear
You get alot of options with the back, and they gave me a gold plated generic HDMI cable which I am using temporarily but will most likely get upgraded.
Here is the menu/guide, I found it to be a much better layout than Comcast.
Guide
The only gripe I have so far is with the router, when they set it up they give you 64 bit WEP encryption which isn't a big deal, but I found the menu interfaces to be a bit too user friendly and somewhat clunky, often changes to the router took a long time to process and the menu's advanced options were cumbersome. But eventually I got it configured with my meager 64bit key, mac filtering and eventually I will kill the SSID broadcast. And for some reason getting my wireless HP 6980 printer online was a bear, just didn't want to configure the first four or five times but eventually the router picked it up.
Here are shots of the login and the main screen...also I didn't like the "Shop Actiontek" or "Shop" music links from within the router setup, nitpicky stuff but I felt it was somewhat cheesy
Router Login Screen
Router Navigation Screen
So far I have only run one speed test on the system, found over at CNet, probabily not the best one but here is the link:
http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html
Using this on my wired desktop (as I think there are too many limitations on wireless for a test of this type) my speed fluctuated a little, here are the results of four concurrent speed tests I ran...
Speed Test
Earlier in the night I was getting consistently closer to 3000.
So, while it has only been a few hours with the service so far I am pleased, the install looked good by me in terms of how they mounted everything and they did everything (or didn't in my case) that I asked. The speed so far seems better than what I had with broadband, and I opted for the less expensive version, they do offer a faster package which supposdly is quite impressive. And from a cost standpoint, it isn't a massive savings when compared to cable, but the savings along with the added performance were enough to make us jump ship. I haven't looked into file storage or web hosting yet however I am guessing they must have something.
I will add the one unfortunate thing was when my wife called Comcast to discontinue our service, when asked why they were downright rude, they tried to use scare tactics saying that this new service isn't tested and it is offered from Verizon so you know the quality will be horrible, and that if you cancel the service in under a year you could be subject to heavy fines. Basically trying to put the fear in her so that she would decide to stay with them, they made it a point to mention that you have a 30 day window with FIOS to back out and they strongly suggested she consider it. Not really what I think of with customer service, my wife explained that we had tried to work with them in the past and that we were long time customers, but we always felt as if customers like us were the ones who were being punished with higher fees and rates where new people got amazing deals, they didn't care which was evident in what they tried to pull with my wife.
Hope this was helpful and if anyone has any questions or wants updates as to how it works over the long haul
Luckily we own a townhouse and mid 2006 Verizon asked our association if it was ok to run all of our units with the conduit necessary to run the fiber, to which everyone agreed, thus having this step out of the way saved a bit of time.
My initial concerns were that I wouldn?t want my existing infrastructure taken down as I had everything up and running; also I had heard Verizon was installing one of two router options, either a D Link or an Actiontec. The D link reportedly had issues with wireless coverage which wasn?t good as my configuration is all housed in my basement, but everything which referenced the D Link option was old and thus I don?t believe they use that any longer.
However upon looking into this aspect a bit deeper it appeared that not only was my router not able to support the throughput necessary to get optimum performance, but also Verizon for the most part mandates that if you want to be ?supported? you have to use the router they supply as it allows them to automatically push upgrades and check status, thus any personally purchased router, while it might work (So long as it supports PPPOE and is fast enough) will make it so they won?t help you should a problem arise.
I also learned that my router, the Linksys WRT54G, was able to be modified to be able to support the system via third party firmware, however seeing as how I have had a few connection issues in the past with my Cisco ABG cards, and the issues surrounding their support I decided to give the Verizon router a try.
Unfortunately I was unable to be home for the install however my wife took the day and updated me as to the progress. I had left a sheet with two instructions for the techs, the first was don?t install any software on my computers, and if they had to I had a spare laptop they could use to initialize the service, I have had issues like this with Comcast in the past when they loaded all this garbage on my system, and the second was to please not install the box on my basement TV which has a receiver and sound system hooked up to it. The techs according to my wife were more than accommodating and did exactly as I asked.
The installation began at 9am and ended at 1:44, however as I said if you need the conduit run it will take longer, and also for older homes they offer to rewire your house for the most part and that takes time which is why they quote a standard install period of six hours, our place is relatively new and we didn?t need much work.
The first component they install is the ONT, or the Optical Network Terminal, this is what the fiber comes into and then gets split off into coax and telecom. for my house they did this inside however I have heard of them doing it outside as well. Here is a picture of mine, also on the board they used you will see two power units, the left one has a battery and remote monitoring capability, and the right one is a power adapter, from what I have read they prefer this to go directly into an outlet but with my setup they had no choice it had to go into a strip. I guess for better or worse they left my "Monster" coax splitter, actually that is the one monster product that I think is ok all things considered and wasn't insanely expensive like their speaker cable, but the ONT outs to coax which goes to your TVs and then in my case the router through the splitter.
ONT
The next thing they did was connect my phone lines into the ONT, they were a real mess before being just twisted together and I actually am glad they put that little black punch down block in there. Here is an image.
Phone Lines
The rest is pretty mundane so here are the images?
The router hardware
Router Front
The front is pretty boring
Here is the back...
Router Back
You can see the big Verizon warning sticker as well as four hardwired connections, a coax connection, and then a lan connection as I guess some installs use cat5 out of the ont instead of coax.
Here is the cable Box, we have a DVR upstairs and the nice thing about this service is that you can watch recorded shows on any system with a box, or so I am told as I haven't tried it yet. The bad is that in order to get a complete channel list you need a box, if you don't have one on a TV then you will only get very basic local channels on that set, which is alot different from cable where you will at least get the basic cable channels. Extra boxes are $5 a month.
TV Box front
Just your standard motorola box...
TV Box rear
You get alot of options with the back, and they gave me a gold plated generic HDMI cable which I am using temporarily but will most likely get upgraded.
Here is the menu/guide, I found it to be a much better layout than Comcast.
Guide
The only gripe I have so far is with the router, when they set it up they give you 64 bit WEP encryption which isn't a big deal, but I found the menu interfaces to be a bit too user friendly and somewhat clunky, often changes to the router took a long time to process and the menu's advanced options were cumbersome. But eventually I got it configured with my meager 64bit key, mac filtering and eventually I will kill the SSID broadcast. And for some reason getting my wireless HP 6980 printer online was a bear, just didn't want to configure the first four or five times but eventually the router picked it up.
Here are shots of the login and the main screen...also I didn't like the "Shop Actiontek" or "Shop" music links from within the router setup, nitpicky stuff but I felt it was somewhat cheesy
Router Login Screen
Router Navigation Screen
So far I have only run one speed test on the system, found over at CNet, probabily not the best one but here is the link:
http://reviews.cnet.com/7004-7254_7-0.html
Using this on my wired desktop (as I think there are too many limitations on wireless for a test of this type) my speed fluctuated a little, here are the results of four concurrent speed tests I ran...
Speed Test
Earlier in the night I was getting consistently closer to 3000.
So, while it has only been a few hours with the service so far I am pleased, the install looked good by me in terms of how they mounted everything and they did everything (or didn't in my case) that I asked. The speed so far seems better than what I had with broadband, and I opted for the less expensive version, they do offer a faster package which supposdly is quite impressive. And from a cost standpoint, it isn't a massive savings when compared to cable, but the savings along with the added performance were enough to make us jump ship. I haven't looked into file storage or web hosting yet however I am guessing they must have something.
I will add the one unfortunate thing was when my wife called Comcast to discontinue our service, when asked why they were downright rude, they tried to use scare tactics saying that this new service isn't tested and it is offered from Verizon so you know the quality will be horrible, and that if you cancel the service in under a year you could be subject to heavy fines. Basically trying to put the fear in her so that she would decide to stay with them, they made it a point to mention that you have a 30 day window with FIOS to back out and they strongly suggested she consider it. Not really what I think of with customer service, my wife explained that we had tried to work with them in the past and that we were long time customers, but we always felt as if customers like us were the ones who were being punished with higher fees and rates where new people got amazing deals, they didn't care which was evident in what they tried to pull with my wife.
Hope this was helpful and if anyone has any questions or wants updates as to how it works over the long haul
