FiOS Advantages?

[Aperture]

Hey Everyone,

Back in the summer, Verizon was around my neighborhood installing fiber optic wire as they are bringing FiOS to my area. What I don't understand, though, is what advantages are there? I currently have Comcast and I just ran SpeedTest.net to compare..

My speed looks comparable (If I am reading it right) to that offered by FiOS.. Are there any other advantages besides the speed?

Thanks

 

[MacNut]

Speed boost will alter the result. Make it look higher then it really is.

 

[overanalyzer]

Also, I've had severe problems with sustained upload speeds with Comcast. Our up and down speeds drop to pitiful levels whenever we have any notable uploading, i.e. files to iDisk, FTP to a website, uploading photos via a web browser, etc.

So in addition to speed boost skewing the download speed, the upload speed will likely be far off for larger files as well.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

how much are you paying for the same speed and how good is the upstream side. When I lived in lubbock I had suddenlink with 8Mbs down and 512k up. Now in Dallas I have U-verse with 6-Mbs down and 1 Mbs upstream and having that faster upstream helps out quite a bit.

 

[zioxide]

If you get FiOS you will no longer be paying evil concast money.

Concast is THE worst ISP. ****ers use Sandvine to block certain types of web traffic. So much for network neutrality. And their prices are a huge rip off (at least for me- I pay $62 a month for 4mbit down/384k up because they're the only broadband isp in the area).

**** concast. The day FiOS gets put in to my neighborhood we'll be getting it.

 

[Aperture]

how much are you paying for the same speed and how good is the upstream side. When I lived in lubbock I had suddenlink with 8Mbs down and 512k up. Now in Dallas I have U-verse with 6-Mbs down and 1 Mbs upstream and having that faster upstream helps out quite a bit.

We have all three services bundled together for $150/month. (HSI, Dig. Voice, & Dig. Cable) So that puts the internet at $50.

 

[Nightline]

I would much rather have FIOS than comcast. That whole speedboost thing is a joke, and I download large files at times.

Here is my comcast speed report. I am in Germantown, MD, and this is to the closest link in Frederick,



Then again, here is what they give me going to the west coast.

 

[djejrejk]

In my experience, my FIOS connection was always more stable than Charter/Comcast/RoadRunner. My only complaint was that the wireless router they supplied was terrible. I had it replaced 3 times!

Also, if you order cable from Verizon, HDTV looks much better over fiber as it is not nearly as highly compressed.

 

[Texas04]

You will get that speed with comcast for the first ten to twenty seconds, then you will DROP!

It all depends on what you are doing... FiOS will give you the dedicated speed that downloaders or up-loaders of large content will need, while comcast is for the average everyday user.

Personally, I dropped Comcast because they did not come through on their advertised speed for me. It was most noticeable during iChat video conferences where my video quality would drop horrendously!

I switched to ATT because FiOS is not available for me yet... :-/

 

[ravenvii]

I'm using Comcast only because they had a special deal for people living in this apartment. The deal is for a year, so when it runs out, I'm cutting them off and getting a better deal elsewhere.

 

[Mammoth]

Yeah cable internet blows...

I've been to people's houses where they have cable, and boy does it seem annoying. Sure, they may get the occasional connection at the speed they pay for, but that's only every Titanic-sinking, isn't it? DSL has served me fine, even though Telus has had to replace our router on average once a year. Soon my mom will switch over to another provider, hopefully in the 6Mb range with unlimited bandwidth.

 

[eddietr]

I switched from Cox to FIOS and we've had much lower typical latency and we get the bandwidth we pay for all the time, including peak evening hours.

That was a big difference for us.

I have the MP wired right to their router I can dial up 30 mbps in downloads anytime of day, any day of the week.

 

[Stridder44]

Wo have TimeWarner (which is just as bad as any other cable internet provider). After living with SBC/AT&T DSL for so long I found a new hate for cable internet.

Yeah sure the "6 mbps" could happen for you, but it probably won't. With DSL, we only got something like 3 mbps but at least it was always a constant speed.

 

[Aperture]

Thanks for all the replies! Does anyone know if there is a speed test out there that will test your internet over say.. 5 minutes? That way you could get an accurate reading.

With the router that Verizon gives you, do you have to use it or can you supply your own?

 

[djejrejk]

Thanks for all the replies! Does anyone know if there is a speed test out there that will test your internet over say.. 5 minutes? That way you could get an accurate reading.

With the router that Verizon gives you, do you have to use it or can you supply your own?

You can use your own by turning off wireless access in the router preferences and running an ethernet cable to your router/airport extreme. Its a bit tricky to set up but you will figure it out!

 

[MacNut]

Yeah cable internet blows...

I've been to people's houses where they have cable, and boy does it seem annoying. Sure, they may get the occasional connection at the speed they pay for, but that's only every Titanic-sinking, isn't it? DSL has served me fine, even though Telus has had to replace our router on average once a year. Soon my mom will switch over to another provider, hopefully in the 6Mb range with unlimited bandwidth.

I have never had any issues with my High speed from Cox, it might slow down a few times a month but it is still miles ahead of DSL.

 

[yg17]

Yeah cable internet blows...

I've been to people's houses where they have cable, and boy does it seem annoying. Sure, they may get the occasional connection at the speed they pay for, but that's only every Titanic-sinking, isn't it? DSL has served me fine, even though Telus has had to replace our router on average once a year. Soon my mom will switch over to another provider, hopefully in the 6Mb range with unlimited bandwidth.

I have Charter 5Mbps service at home, and when it works, I get close to 5mbps, usually somewhere above 4.5 or so, typically in the 4.7-4.9 range. I can't complain about that, and I don't think any DSL connection will actually meet what's advertised, they all fall a bit short. And I know that just about everyone in our neighborhood who has internet access has Charter, because DSL isn't available (WTF ATT???). Of course, I say when it works, because Charter is absolute crap and wouldn't know what reliability is if it knocked them down on their ass. The crappy service isn't due to the fact it's a cable modem, it's due to a poorly managed company who doesn't care about their customers and hires idiots to do customer service. But I digress.....The point is, when it works, it works fine.

But with FiOS, you get a few things. First, you get bragging rights (I think many of us are extremely jealous of people with FiOS ). Second, from what I've seen, the same amount of money gets you much faster speeds. Third, you don't have to deal with that traffic shaping crap Comcast does. And, you don't have to give an evil company like Comcast your money...not that Verizon is any less evil, but at least you can download porn kids movies legally from the iTunes Store at blazing speeds

 

[eddietr]

Thanks for all the replies! Does anyone know if there is a speed test out there that will test your internet over say.. 5 minutes? That way you could get an accurate reading.

With the router that Verizon gives you, do you have to use it or can you supply your own?

I was able to use my own router with FIOS (totally bypassing their router) until we got their TV service.

The FIOS TV service requires that you use their router because their router has COAX output that connects to their DVRs/Tuners.

I just turned off the wireless on their router and use my own for draft-n service.

 

[tylermacman]

Time-Lapse Speed Testing

Thanks for all the replies! Does anyone know if there is a speed test out there that will test your internet over say.. 5 minutes? That way you could get an accurate reading. <snip>

For "time-lapse" testing I use Numion. Click "Options" (the second link) and scroll down to the bottom of the settings. Look for "Auto-Repeat". There are 3-minute, 10-minute, 60-minute and "Do not repeat" settings.

- Jeff

 

[iJon]

I get good luck with Cox to. I pay for 12/1 and many times I'll top 13/1. I will admit though, other places in town aren't so lucky to get what speeds they pay for from Cox.

jon

 

[jwas1]

iMac Fios problem

I am new to world of iMac and Fios.(had cox before) I am using the built in airport to connect with my Verizon router. Sometimes it works great at 10mbs and other times it doesn't run at all. Airport says the connection is fine. I have had several sessions with Apple tech support. It looked like resetting Safari was working last night, but not today. I know Verizon is working because I still have my pc up and running on the same router (not at the same time) and it is rock solid. Anyone else had this problem and know a solution? Right now the iMac is useless for internet.

I switched from Cox to FIOS and we've had much lower typical latency and we get the bandwidth we pay for all the time, including peak evening hours.

That was a big difference for us.

I have the MP wired right to their router I can dial up 30 mbps in downloads anytime of day, any day of the week.