 Review by rexbinary 
UPDATED: 66 days ago
member for 4.8 years, 2405 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Plano,Collin,TX
 Contract price not specified.
 "Fast, low latency, more bandwidth for a better price then any competitor"
 "None at all"
 "Better then any Cable or DSL connection hands down"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've had FiOS installed since 8/1/05 and to date I have had no problems or issues with it at all. I have the 15MB down and 2MB up package.
The install took about seven hours as they had a little trouble going under the driveway with the fiber, other then that the install went smooth. They supplied a D-Link Router, but I am using an Apple AirPort Extreme router instead.
I am getting a little over the installed speeds both up and down. Gaming is very nice, on many first person shooter servers my ping is 3 or lower. I have been accused of being an admin on gaming severs because of my ping. 
I am very happy with FiOS and I would recommend it to anyone that has access to it.
UPDATE 10/8/06:
After having FiOS for over one year now, I am still just as happy with the service. I have experienced no losses of service, other then one brief scheduled maintenance that was in the middle of the night during the week. I have lost power twice since FiOS was installed, and my telephone still functioned as advertised, no problem. FiOS is unmatched by any other service provider in my area.
The service uses PPPoE. Some people tend to consider this a negative, as in theory the PPPoE induces overhead to your connection causing it to be slower then say a DHCP connection. I am consistently getting my full 15MB/2MB speeds as advertised, and my latency is extremely low. Rumor has it that at some point my connection will be converted from PPPoE to DHCP, I will update my review then with any differences or lack of differences at that time if/when I am converted to DHCP.
UPDATE 8/29/07:
My service is still stellar. No outages or trouble to report, technical or billing. Still getting full speeds and low latency. No throttling or bandwidth shaping that I have detected. I am still on PPPoE, and the last I heard they decided not to convert original customers to DHCP as it was just unnecessary work and cost. I have no complaints about that at all, as it has caused me no grief of any kind. I simply cannot express how happy I am with my FiOS service.
UPDATE 4/15/08
I upgraded to the 15/15 service on 11/26/07 which costs me $59.99 a month. The service is still outstanding, and I would never purchase DSL or Cable again by choice. Still no outages to report since 8/1/05.
UPDATE 10/19/08
Everything is still working perfectly. Still running 15/15 package with my Apple AirPort router. No outages to report. To say I am pleased with the service would be an understatement.
UPDATE 8/10/09
I have upgraded to the 25/15 package. Everything is still working great and no outages to report. But on this upgrade, I having a hard time reaching my maximum bandwidth. I have called Verizon twice to verify I am provisioned correctly and I have also ran the FiOS Optimizer under their favorite operating system Windows. I am still investigating if it is an issue on my end, and I will report my results.
UPDATE 9/12/09
Lightning Strike! Sounded like a bomb went off in my backyard. Took out all the FiOS equipment plus my router, two switches, and the ethernet port in two of my desktop PCs.
I called Verizon Friday night. They quickly concluded I would need service and scheduled a technician for Sunday morning. To my surprise the technician arrived about 7pm Saturday night. I was very pleased.
The technician said my FiOS equipment was five generations old and replaced all of it including the battery. It took him about an hour to complete the work. I replaced my old router with an Apple Time Capsule 1TB, and I replaced my old switches with Cisco 5-port 1GB switches.
I am now getting my full 25/15 speeds. I do not know what corrected the issue but it could be one of three things.
1) The ONT had never been reset since it was installed in 2005. Maybe if I had reset it, which I planned on trying, could have possibly corrected my speed issue.
2) My five generations old FiOS equipment was replaced with current equipment. Maybe my old FiOS equipment just couldn't handle those speeds.
3) My router was replaced with a much more current router. Maybe my old router couldn't handle those speeds.
It could be a combination of 2 and 3 as well. Either way, Verzion's service was outstanding. Not only am I back up and running quickly, but I am now getting my full speed.
Followup comments:  
MDuke
@verizon.net | Rate Increase! I simply cannot express how happy I am with my FiOS service. You may want to hold your applause for them. I just received notification of a rate increase to $62.99! 15/2mbps | |
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Info Junkie
@verizon.net
|  FIOS and Apple Extreme Base Station (AEBS)
FIOS is now installed at residences with an Actiontec router and if installed as per usual via a legacy coaxial wall connection (the old cable jack) then you must use the supplied router. All is not lost though as you can bridge another router to the ActionTec router via an ethernet cable going from the WAN port of the new router to the LAN port of the Actiontec. Below is a description of my setup and I hope it is helpful to anyone who might come across this thread:
Whatever you do - do not follow complicated and non-functioning instructions for turning your FIOS router into a bridge (they're all over the Internet, as are complaints... perhaps once valid, now they are outdated and don't work at all - don't touch your Verizon Actiontec router's settings). As I suspect many have done, I followed one set of instructions only to have wasted over 1.5 hours. You see the problem is that once you follow those instructions the "default" settings cannot just be re-initialized without problem (I wish someone else would have told me this - it was an assumption I had made, and it was wrong!). You end up having to contact Verizon for them to release and renew your DHCP lease for you. A huge pain in the butt. The reality is that in this snapshot in time all you need to do is literally plug your AEBS into one of the ActionTec LAN ports, configure your AEBS to work as though it is on a LAN and Bridged, and you're good to go after then just turning off the wireless signal on your Actiontec.
Other lessons learned are that
1) sometimes upon changing AEBS settings in the utility program (such as channel to use) the router disappears from view. All you need to do is push the pin-button for 1 second (no longer or you'll lose your settings) and it soft-reboots which then makes it appear. Someone else figured this out for me but I figured I'd post it here... seems that the manual soft boot does something important to bring the AEBS back online.
2) perhaps obvious, but for whatever reason I had a senior moment about it, you need to realize the WEP password you create for the AEBS is case-sensitive. I couldn't get one of my 2 PCs to connect, and spent an embarrassing amount of time virtually getting Cisco certified in network knowledge only to realize I hadn't considered case-sensitivity of the password.
3) Setting up a USB Printer to work with AEBS and my two PC's (using Bonjour) was a piece of cake. You don't need to do anything funky with the latest firmware edition of AEBS. Just install Bonjour on your PC's after setting up the AEBS, and then use the Bonjour printer wizard to identify and configure. Simple as that. | |
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mkremer
@verizon.net | Re: FIOS and Apple Extreme Base Station (AEBS) One question I can not find an answer for; how does one "turn off the wireless signal on" the Actiontec from the mac?
Thanks. | |
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rexbinary
Mod King
Premium
join:2005-01-26
Plano, TX | ActionTec Router Yes that is correct, my fiber comes straight to the house. There is no coax cable used. So I don't have one of the ActionTec routers. I just plugged my Apple Router in and it worked. | |
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Theherofalls312
@verizon.net
| Re: ActionTec Router I got verizon fios just a few days ago. I'm an avid online gamer and with Verizon Fios I can't play anything. My latency shoots up to 4k ms, and I got disconnected from the server before I can do anything.
Does anyone know if FioS has an internet amplifier? | |
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