Poll: Ditch Verizon DSL in favor of @Home?

[PCAddict]

I am becoming displeased with my Verizon DSL access. I am getting lots of lags and timeouts. My download speed is only 1/2 of what it should be according to their own tests. I have done all of the steps suggested via their online troubleshooting. A user on these forums who works for them told me that Verizon's backbone is overloaded and they seem to be taking their sweet time in terms of addressing the issue.

My local cable company is going to be assimilated by Comcast in the next month or so. I am seriously considering switching to @Home.

Should I do this, or stick with the DSL?

 

[flippinfleck]

Okay, just a few cents from me to you. I was fed up w/the service that I was getting from Verizon. I had a choice, drop it and get cable or stick it out. I chose to stick it out. I ordered [had them ship it to me for nothing] the external Speedstream modem and crossed my fingers. After a month of not getting my modem, I finally got it. It wasn't all good right away. I waited some more. Finally, Verizon got a clue in my area. I haven't been down in over three months *knocking on wood*. I think its more of a prefference issue here. What area do you live in? How long have you had DSL? What you can do is order the cable, try it out, and if you like it more than the DSL then stick w/the cable. Peace

 

[beer]

Here's my Verizon story:

I signed up for Verizon DSL just about two months after it rolled out in my area. I was given a Fujistu Speedport modem (this one had a bulky AC/DC adapter, and slowly blinking lights). It worked fine but as the months progressed the modem would lose connections, resync, and ocasionally it would be slow for no reason, even though the Verizon tech hotline reported no problems.

About two months ago, I noticed that when I lost sync (which sometimes happened) it would take 30+ minutes to resync where it should only be taking 30 seconds. I called Verizon, they dispatched a tech the next day, and gave me a new modem. This modem is slightly different - for one, the LEDs blink faster and are brighter, and the AC Adapter has been moved off the plug itself and down a little on the cable, kind of resembling a laptop.

Since they replaced my modem I have never had any of these problems. And my pings dropped 50%!

 

[PCAddict]

I have the Efficient Networks 3060 internal PCI modem. They just came out with new drivers that apparently address some kind of performance issue. I've got them installed, but they made no difference. However, Verizon says that they are making a change to the network at the end of January that will require these new drivers to be used. Maybe I will wait and see if that makes a difference.

I've had my DSL since this past April. I am in the Philly suburbs. I am about 10K feet from the CO.

Do you think changing the modem would be of help?

 

[WoundedWallet]

I live in LA and heard the same story about Verizon's upgrade in January. Hope it happens, butI doubt it.

Anyway, my advice is to stick with DSL but ditch Verizon as your ISP. You will get better treatment from a smaller ISP, plus their circuit may not be as crowded as Verizon's.

Check other options, it's not just Verizon or @home.

 

[PCAddict]

I considered switching to another ISP, but I know a few people in my area who are having issues with their ISP trying to blame everything on Verizon and vice-versa. I'm hesitant to put myself in a position where everyone's going to be continually passing the buck.

 

[randomlinh]

i say stick it out a little. going cable will probably bring you a bunch of headache as well.

 

[Vegito]

I had my Verizon dsl for 1 year, the last 3 month of it i only get about double a 56k dial up.. slow, really slow.

Switch to cable modem and got 36x faster on test to LA and up to 50x within the same state test. At night it does get slow downs but it's still about 16x faster than the 56k dial up..

It really depends on your area...

 

[fergiboy]

Usually when cable companies are first introduced in an area their service is pretty good. You will notice a slow down after a couple of months.
-Proud User of @home, yeah right.

 

[gbrux]

Here, perhaps it would be helpful if posters here disclosed your geographical areas. I'm in northern Virginia, near Dulles Internal Airport and AOL's headquaters.

I've had Verizon's ADSL for more than a year, and I've been generally pleased with the service. I don't recall more than three consequetive days service outage since I'v had it, and that was last month. Often, its two to three hours, and that's no more than twice a month. From what I've read, Verizon's and other DSL provider's service is not uniform in every area; it may be good here, and bad there.

I have been paying $39.95 month for the the 640 kb/s download, 90 kb/s upload, speed, but the true performance is about 80% of that even during the best of times. 80% performance is typical, and I don't know anyone has gotten much more than 80%, regardless of location or line quality. External DSL modems are better and more flexible vis a vis operating systems, networking, and internet connection sharing. Internal PCI modems and USB modems tie you down to Windows operating systems generally.

Go to www.dslreports.com for all the stuff you would want to about this and other aspects of DSL.

Good news. Later this month (Jan. 2001) or early Feb., Verizon will upgrade the speeds, in my case to 768/128 kb/s. Also, I've heard that the price of the 1.5 mb/s service will be reduced from the current price of $99.95 per month.

Here's what I'm waiting for: Earthlink has been selling 1.5 mb/s download, 368 kb/s upload service through Covad for $39 or $49 per month in some places. However, Covad has not setup at my central office yet.

If Covad moves in, I'm going to change to a DSL provider that uses Covad's equipment, and to do the home web server thing big time.

 

[PCAddict]

Thanks for the replies. I am going to call them when I have some free time to wait on hold and pitch a bitch. I want them to give me an external modem instead of this POS internal PCI one that I have.

 

[gbrux]

One additional note: there is only one tweak that makes any difference with the speed of ADSL, and that is to set the Receive Window properly in your Window's registry.

Go to www.dlsreports.com and click on the "Tools" link on the homepage. This is great stuff. You can test your connection speed, there is an online tweak tester and downloads that will do all your registry tweaks for you, and it can test your connection for security leaks in your firewall, if you have a firewall.

If you get 80% of the speed that you are paying for (or the speed Verizons says your line qualifies for), then you are doing just fine.

Again, I highly recommend the external DSL modem (I have a Westell), do the RWIN (receive window) tweak, and get the latest PPPoE software for your setup, if that's applicable. I've used Verizon's iteration of WinPoET, and generally it has performed OK. Beyond that, all other problems can then be blamed on Verizon.

 

[PCAddict]

Thanks, gbrux. I plan on calling them when I have some free time to bitch. I want them to give me an external modem. They can have this POS Efficient 3060 back.