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Review by lonls See Profile

  • Location: Newark, New Castle, DE, USA
  • Cost: $150 per month
  • Install: about 36 days
TV and Internet work Great.
Almost six years now... I'm still loving FiOS!
Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings above consensus)

I ordered my FiOS on line which was easy (March 13th). Originally my install was set up for two weeks after I made my order, but I had to put it off another three weeks because I couldn't get my original install date off from work. When I called to reschedule I talked to a very nice person who tried to sell me some extra services and she backed off quickly when I said I wanted to check things out further on my own time...no hard sell. So the delay was my doing, not Verizon's. I did a little preliminary setup myself. I ran a Cat 6 cable from where I wanted my router to where they would go through the wall
in the basement. I also ran a heavy-duty extension cord to the where the battery backup was going and I bought an inexpensive upc/battery backup the plug the Verizon backup into.
I had two messages confirming my install before it happened. A live person three days before and an automated message two days before. The Verizon techs (one experienced, one in training) showed up a little before 9am April 17th (the window I was given was between 8 and 12). I showed them where the things I had set up were. They seemed pleased with my prep work and asked if I minded if the ONT were installed inside because the components (ONT,battery box and power supply were all premounted on a board). I told them I preferred it that way. They had to run the cable from a pole in my neighbors yard through (around) a bunch of trees. The inside work was easy. They had me actually running the setup on my main PC while they told me what to do... including a speed test on speakeasy, a good way to learn stuff. I was up and running and they were gone by a little after 1:00pm. I spent another couple of hours reconfiguring my network (all wired), tweaking my other PCs and checking out the wireless. Everything works great and the speeds are as advertised (I have the 5/2). I was really impressed with the whole experience. The Verizon techs impressed me especially, and I'm a tech (copiers and printers, not Verizon) myself and not easily impressed.
I'll try to update this review in a few months after I've used the service for a while.

Here are some speed test results (my upload speeds are a bit faster now after running some tweaks but I'm at work and I don't have the updated results at hand).

dslreports.com speed test result on 2006-04-17 13:50:17 EST:
4936 / 1566
Your download speed : 4936 kbps or 617 KB/sec.

Your upload speed : 1566 kbps or 195.7 KB/sec.

It tests a little faster on speakeasy...
Download Speed: 5062 kbps (632.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1638 kbps (204.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

5/11/06
I've upgraded my service level to 15/2... I had some problems doing this online... They don't send a confirmation e-mail, and the upgrade never showed up on my account info online. I kept trying to set up a new connection and I think I may have confused the issue further... I finally called Verizon and talked to a real person (a really great person) and everything was fixed just fine. I have the 15/2 service now and it is truly amazing. My son is home from college (and a fast .edu internet/network connection... he is also amazed at the speed and quality of our current home connection. This is really a great product at a great price.

12/29/06
I've had Fios for 7 months now and I'm still very pleased. The service is very fast and extremely stable. I haven't had the service go down... ever... I haven't needed to contact Verizon about anything since I upgraded my service in May. I have had no billing issues. I'm very happy with both Verizon and FiOS. I am anxiously awaiting FiOS TV. I should be able to get it 1st quarter of '07.

10/2/07
I've had FiOS internet for a year and a half, and I must say that I am completely satisfied with their product. My connection to the internet is fast, stable and totally reliable. I have had no outages at all in the last year.
During the summer months when my son is home from college there are three of us at home heavily using the connection. My son and wife can both watch TV online at the same time. I've downloaded many linux distro ISO files (about 3Gb each) with absolutely no problems what so ever.
My only small complaint is that the upgraded speeds are not available in all FiOS deployed areas. I have 15/2 and I anxiously await being upgraded to 20/5.
I got the FiOS TV service in April and I have to say that I am very satisfied with that as well. The new Actiontec router seems to work fine, my house is fairly small so I have no issues with the wireless range. It's connected to the ONT via both coax and the original Cat6 cable that I installed. I have the extended basic service (it's all digital) and set top boxes for two televisions. This costs around 45 dollars a month. The Comcast service that I got rid of was analog extended basic with one set top box, half the channels that I get now and inferior picture quality, for 10 dollars more a month than I am paying now. I have to say that Comcast had a better guide, but I'm hoping that will be fixed in the future. When I first had the TV service I noticed a little pixellation a few times, but I haven't seen any more of that in months.
The phone service also works fine. My copper line is still attached to my house, but is not connected to anything. I don't miss the copper at all. I live in a heavily wooded development with aereal services and my old copper line could get noisy at times... that's not good for voice or DSL. I hope the squirrels don't like too much fiber in their diet.

All in all, I am an extremely satisfied Verizon customer.

12/11/2007

Not So Happy Anymore!!!

I've had internet connection issues the last few months. I lose my www for up to an hour or more at a time. I can still ping web sites and load them using an ip address, but "regular" urls don't work during the outages... I've been given a work around for this, but I think that this shouldn't be an issue at all.

My bill has been inaccurate for the last few months. We got a month behind (too much personal crud going on... no excuse really) and the past due amounts have been added twice at least once, compounded... added two and three times. Also, we have phone, tv and internet service and we are not getting triple play pricing. I don't how to fix this without spending hours on the phone. I don't have hours to spend on the phone to Verizon right now. I have a job you know and I don't have a lot of time to spend on the phone with Verizon.

My Father had FiOS installed in north Wilmington and his install was a horror story. He had no internet for a few days and no phone for almost a week due to a provisioning error. He spent many hours (5-6) on the phone to Verizon trying to get this fixed. I feel somewhat responsible because I recommended FiOS so highly to him.

3/27/08

The uptime issues seem to be fixed for now. My connection is fast and reliable again. Trying to understand Verizon's billing is a challenge. I still have unresolved billing issues.

5/07/08

I've had a few evenings worth of slow internet and DNS issues. We switched my wife's cell phone service from Sprint to Verizon and it's really sad that the "quadruple play" pricing for existing customers online was more than my (third party) employee discount for Verizon cell phone pricing....

I'm still waiting after almost two years to have my 15/2 upgraded to 20/5... Verizon gets a C+.

The $190 is for basic land line service, 15/2 internet with extra storage for my verizon based web site (an extra 100MB of storage for almost $7 a month... memory is cheap, what's up with this???), basic FiOS digital TV service and $50 for a 450 minute/month+ unlimited text cell phone plan.

7/24/2008

The actual service has been great lately. I can't understand why Verizon won't automatically upgrade existing 15/2 FiOS customers to the 20/5 service. I've been trying to do this online for a few weeks even though it will cost an extra $3 a month. I've had no luck yet even though I get a screen that says I've successfuly upgraded my service. Something like this should be simple to do.

3/16/2011

It's been almost 5 years now since I first upgraded to FiOS and all in all I have been very satisfied with the product. I have experienced very few connectivity issues, the up and down speeds are consistent and the basic TV service is almost flawless.

1/12/2012

Almost six years now... I'm still loving FiOS!

member for 18 years, 2173 visits, last login: 2.4 years ago
updated 8.9 years ago

jdycio72
join:2005-04-17
Newark, DE

jdycio72

Member

Lucky!!!

You are so lucky to even have another broadband option, let alone FIBER! I have comcast and hate the fact that they are my only option
The speeds are good, but for what I am using I would be happier with a $15 dsl bill, and a choice...good luck with the service and keep us poor suckers up to date!

jdhamhock

rrengineer
join:2002-02-04
Sun City Center, FL

rrengineer

Member

Re: Lucky!!!

My FIOS experience was completely smooth for the last year, until today, but it was no fault of Verizon. I had the 15/2 service and it worked great, but I didn't need all that bandwidth. DSL is no longer an option as Verizon tore out the copper from the pole to my house when they installed the fiber last year (I have heard that you can now request that they NOT do that). Since the $35 5/2 service was recently upgraded to 10/2, I chose to downgrade to that level and save $15 a month. It only took a few minutes on the phone and the change was made. A day later, my speeds were dropping like a stone with DLs under 3 mbs. Before calling VZ, I shut down and reset my router. That did the trick and my DLs went back up over 10 mbs again. FIOS has been great and I can't wait for FIOS TV.
cablenut5
join:2005-09-05
Wilmington, DE

cablenut5

Member

FIOS in DE

I wish I could get FIOS! I'm using standard Dsl. I haven't had too many problems! (only ones I've created! ) We're going to ditch cable TV as soon as FIOS TV is available! Where in Newark are you, if I might ask?
supertech315
join:2006-03-01
Perris, CA

supertech315

Member

Set up an appoiment for the connectivity issues.

A tech that knows whats going on should get you up and running in no time .
MikeSugs
join:2007-12-11
Hawthorne, NY

MikeSugs

Member

Meh, no surprise.

I have to agree with you. Verizon is notorious for having things work well for a few months and then everything comes crashing down.

For instance, my connection speed is half of what it was on Day 1. I also get reoccurring packet loss. Lastly, my router will stay connected while I disconnect from EVERYTHING. I have no idea why this happens but it gets to extremely frustrating.
pkinc
join:2006-07-18
Lexington, MA

pkinc

Member

Sounds like a DNS issue....

If you can ping sites and surf to them using IP addresses, then it's most likely the DNS Server or your own DNS Cache that is having problems. First, I'd open a command prompt Start-Run- cmd then type in ipconfig /flushdns

If that doesn't fix it, then access your router and replace the dhcp assigned dns server ip addresses with a specific ip address, pick one from the list below, ideally the closer to you the better. I usually use 4.2.2.2 (easy to type in)

I've had Fios for 16 months with total outages of less than 1 minute and 1 dns issue like yours that was windows dns cache corruption.

Good Luck,
Pete

Adelphia
67.21.13.4 Los Angeles, CA
67.21.13.2 Los Angeles, CA
24.48.217.226 Santa Monica, CA
24.48.217.227 Santa Monica, CA
68.168.1.42 Florida
68.168.1.46 Florida

Bellsouth Fast access DSL:
Georgia
205.152.37.23
205.152.37.24
205.152.37.25
205.152.144.24
205.152.144.25

Charter Comms (Cable)
68.116.46.70

Comcast (pick the nearest!)
68.87.66.196 Comcast (national) Primary DNS Server.
68.87.64.196 Comcast Secondary DNS Server.
68.57.32.5 (Virginia)
68.57.32.6 (Virginia)
216.148.227.68 (Denver, Colorado)
204.127.202.4 (Denver, Colorado)
68.42.244.5 (Taylor, Michigan)
68.42.244.6 (Taylor, Michigan)
68.62.160.5 (Huntsville, Alabama)
68.62.160.6 (Huntsville, Alabama)
68.87.96.3 (Pennsylvania)
68.87.96.4 (Pennsylvania)

Cox HSI (Cable)
68.12.16.25 (Oklahoma - Primary)
68.12.16.30 (Oklahoma - Secondary)
68.2.16.30 (Oklahoma - Tertiary)

Cox.net
68.10.16.25
68.10.16.30
68.9.16.30

Earthlink - seem to be shared by Cable and DSL users in several states. Georgia and Florida confirmed.
207.69.188.187
207.69.188.186
207.69.188.185
209.86.63.217 (Cable) - Charlotte, NC

Harrisonville Telephone Company (HTC)
216.114.114.130 (Illinois)
216.114.114.132 (Illinois)

Horry Telephone Coop
66.153.128.98 (Horry County, South Carolina)
66.153.162.98 (Horry County, South Carolina)

ORSC Public Access DNS Nameservers (Anyone can use these, no matter what ISP)
199.166.24.253
199.166.27.253
199.166.28.10
199.166.29.3
199.166.31.3
195.117.6.25
204.57.55.100

Roadrunner (Cable)
24.25.195.1 (San Diego, CA)
24.25.195.2 (San Diego, CA)
24.25.195.3 (San Diego, CA)

SBC Yahoo DSL
206.13.31.13
206.13.28.60
206.13.31.5
206.13.28.31

Speakeasy (pick any two!)
66.93.87.2 (Washington state and Oregon)
216.231.41.2 (Washington DC - probably)
216.254.95.2 (NY, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania)
64.81.45.2 (Los Angeles, California)
64.81.111.2 (Denver, Colorado)
64.81.127.2 (Dallas, Texas)
64.81.79.2 (Sacramento, California)
64.81.159.2 (Baltimore and Washington DC)
66.92.64.2 (Boston, Massachusetts)
66.92.224.2 (Philadelphia)
66.92.159.2 (Washington DC)
216.27.175.2 (Atlanta, Georgia. Serves Florida too)

Sprintlink (nationwide)
204.117.214.10
199.2.252.10
204.97.212.10

TimeWarner
24.93.1.119 (Rochester, NY)

Unicom
216.104.64.5 (Grants Pass, OR)
216.104.72.5 (Portland, OR)

FrontierNet / Citlink / New North DNS addresses:
66.133.170.2 (Rochester, NY)
170.215.255.114 (Rochester, NY)
216.67.192.3 (Arizona)
207.173.225.3 (Arizona)
207.173.225.3 (California)
216.67.192.3 (California)
170.215.255.114 (New York (areas other than Rochester))
66.133.170.2 (New York (areas other than Rochester))
170.215.184.3 (West Virginia)
170.215.126.3 (West Virginia)
170.215.126.3 (Tennessee, Georgia)
170.215.184.3 (Tennessee, Georgia)
67.50.135.146 (Illinois)
66.133.191.35 (Illinois)
66.133.191.35 (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and Nebraska)
170.215.255.114 (Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and Nebraska)

Verizon (Level3) - these are not restricted to Verizon customers
4.2.2.1
4.2.2.2
4.2.2.3
4.2.2.4
4.2.2.5
4.2.2.6

Wave Broadband
24.113.32.29
24.113.32.30

Smith6612
MVM
join:2008-02-01
North Tonawanda, NY
·Charter
Ubee EU2251
Ubiquiti UAP-IW-HD
Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-HD

1 edit

Smith6612

MVM

Auto Upgrade...

In my area, Verizon has been upgrading people's FiOS connections depending on what plan they have for free automatically. You might want to give them a call if you can, as Verizon's website ususally has those glitches in there which make it useless many times.

lonls
Life is good
Premium Member
join:2006-03-20
Newark, DE

lonls

Premium Member

Almost 9 years now...

...and I am still loving Fios. It has been a super ISP and comtent provider... Five Stars and beyond