Re: [Declude.JunkMail] Way OT: Future Broadband - Verizon Business Fios Service

[Darin Cox]

I agree.  I had FiOS installed a month ago and am totally loving the 2Mbps upload.  I didn't have a need for static IPs, though they do offer them in my area, and I stayed with 5Mbps down since I was keeping cable for network redundancy.  Couldn't argue with the price as $35/month includes phone service as well, for which we were already paying $25/month.  So, for $10 more/month we get higher upload speeds than cable.   Our installer was great as well.  He spent extra time helping me run cable from one side of the house to the other, providing extra cable and a double jack for me to drop a line down to another part of the house as well.   Speaking of redundancy, I picked up a LinkSys RV042 Dual WAN VPN Router for $150.  Loving it.  Works flawlessly for combining the two internet feeds, and with dynamic DNS updates I can VPN to home if needed. Darin.     ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Doherty To: Declude.JunkMail@declude.com Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 11:53 PM Subject: [Declude.JunkMail] Way OT: Future Broadband - Verizon Business Fios Service FWIW-   I signed up for Verizon's Business Fios (fiber optic broadband) service a couple of weeks ago, and they installed it last week.   <rant> Now let me start by saying that if I can buy the equivalent service for ANYTHING from anybody BUT Verizon, I do it. Overall, their customer service stinks. I was an early adopter of Vonage, just to get away from Verizon's phone service. And my company was a victim of Verizon's hideous network design in hurricane Floyd, during which I never lost connectivity but I could not move a packet because their billing center drowned. </rant>   So when the consumer Fios advertising blurb arrived a couple of months ago, announcing megabits of connectivity for under $100/month, I was skeptical. I reviewed the TOS and found that they specifically prohibit servers of any kind, and will not provide static IPs. That killed the service for me, because I run a couple of backup servers at home and I need the static IPs. There were other problems, but the no-server and no-fixed IP policies were deal breakers. I called and asked about a business grade service, and was told on no uncertain terms that business Fios was a concept, but it was at least three years away from implementation.   But a friend of mine down the street called around and found a Verizon person who was empowered to create Fios business accounts. I called her and got a static block of five IPs with 15mbps download and 2mbps upload. Straight pipe, no port blocking, no SMTP "you gotta host with us" BS.   <rave> The order process was very easy, and the order taker was great. She wanted to be sure she understood what I needed, and she needed to be sure that there was a good match between my needs and their offering.   The installer was gracious from the start to the end, even to the point of asking me for a brush so he could clean the snow off his shoes before he entered the house. I could not ask for a better installer. He spent four hours setting up the physical stuff, but he had only done non-business installs before. Not surprising, since they are still not promoting Fios as a  business service. I spent two minutes setting up the router for a static IP, another two showing him how to do it, and about ten to fifteen minutes explaining the difference between dynamic and static IPs and the like. (The installer's lack of experience was the only negative I can point to, and I expected it since Fios is primarily a home service.)   I am not easily impressed, but I have only one word to describe this service: WOW!    I am getting 15+mbps consistently from test sites. My VPN to the data center runs almost as fast as my LAN here at home. My backup mail server is running without a hitch, as is my backup DNS. I have had zero downtime since the service was installed, unlike my Covad DSL service which had downtime several times a week. </rave>   Anyway, sorry for the length of this, but I thought it would be interesting to all to see where the telcos are going for broadband. Their future clearly is fiber, and so far it looks really, really good, at least at Verizon.   -Dave Doherty  Skywaves, Inc.