 Review by PetDude 
Posted: 1.4 years ago
member for 7.5 years, 4735 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Annapolis,Anne Arundel,MD
 $160 per month
 about 14 days
 "Price/Performance"
 "Home Media Options are Flakey / Blocked Port 80"
 "As good as it gets"
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I've run the Internet gauntlet, I think. In chronological order, ToadNet Dialup, DirecPC then HughesNet, Comcast@Home, Millennium Cable, back to Comcast, Speakeasy DSL and now VZ Fios. My neighborhood went from being an Internet black hole 6 years ago to the Broadband melting pot of the east coast. Each step has been a great improvement (well except for the Millennium mistake) and Fios is another huge leap forward.
The specifics:
Ordering/Installation: I originally tried to order Fios back in October 2006 when I saw neighbors getting installed. Twice my order was taken and later cancelled since engineering had my address flagged as unavailable. That didn't seem right since neighbors literally 150 feet away already had it, but nobody could do anything about it. Turns out that since the pole is on the other side of the street, I had to wait for the contractors to come in and run a conduit under the road. Nothing wrong with that, but I just don't understand why nobody in sales could tell me that, or why they kept taking my orders and setting up install dates.
The conduit was installed in January and my address became available around the first of February. I placed the order at a mall kiosk at that time and the install date was set two weeks out.
The installers were professional and friendly. My network in the house is not particularly simple since there are a mess of computers on different subnets connected via VPN to other networks. I had not cancelled my Speakeasy account as I was running web servers on it that hadn't yet been moved to my office so I was very concerned about the rumors I had heard that my copper would instantly vanish. All I did was mention that fact to the installers and they were happy to leave the copper alone. I wanted the ONT connected via Ethernet to the router rather than Coax for maximum future flexibility, and again the installers were happy to oblige. This required them to run a Cat5e and a coax for the TV side by side for maybe 30 feet, but they didn't complain.
They listened to all of my concerns and responded affirmatively to all. They weren't perfect though. They hooked up the HD DVR using my existing HDMI cable but told me they would leave me another HDMI when they left. This was important because the DirecTV HD DVR they replaced was going to my son's house. Well, they left without leaving me a cable...oh well. They also failed to seal up the hole in the wall were they ran the cables inside, but again no big deal. Otherwise the install was clean. The whole deal took about 4 hours.
I had ordered the 15/2 package but once it was fired up it was clear I was on the 5/2 package. Also I was supposed to have the home media DVR set-up but that also was not present on installation. The installers gave me a phone number to call and told me all of that would be in place that night. Well, nothing is ever that simple. It turns out that sales has to get involved to change services and since it was after 5 on a Friday, nothing was going to happen till Monday. I called and got the order straightened out on Monday and the speed upgrade was pretty immediate. The home media stuff didn't happen until a second call the next day. Which leads me to...
Tech Support: Nice, friendly folks who are certainly more knowledgeable than Comcast or the completely friendly but useless HuhgesNet script readers, but do not seem particularly empowered. It took too many steps for me to get the right service, IMHO. Of course I'm comparing to Speakeasy where any one you speak to at any time of the day or night can fix just about any problem, or make any change in minutes. I'm pretty spoiled.
Internet: Got the 15/2 package. Like others report, actual speeds are around 14.9/1780 just about 24/7. Pings across country aren’t quite as good as Speakeasy, which was outstanding, but are actually a bit better to the east coast. Vonage is working better than ever, and significantly better than on the DSL line (which was 1.5/768). Like everyone on a 15/2 package I anxiously await an upgrade to 20/5 as has occurred in other areas, but no word on when that might happen. I'm saving about $20/month over Speakeasy for a connection that is 10 times faster, so there isn't much to complain about. Of course with Speakeasy I could run servers, had 5 static IP's, had DNS hosting, etc., etc., but the simple fact was I no longer needed that stuff. It would be nice to be able to leave the servers at home but for $20 a month, I was ready to move 'em.
TV: I bought the whole shooting match, just like I had with DirecTV. All the premium channels, HD DVR with Home Media etc. I'm loving the VOD, but so far there are no HD VOD choices which is unfortunate. The DVR is no Tivo but it is better than the DirecTV HD DVR because it actually works. The home media stuff, which consists of being able to watch stuff recorded on your DVR on other TV's in the house is cool...when it works. From time to time the option just disappears from the standard TV's menu and a re-boot of the DVR ends up bringing it back. The re-boot time on the DVR is ridiculously long though...up to 25 minutes to get the guide and menu back, though the picture does come back in under a minute. Another bummer is that the recorded stuff can't be HD or you can't play it on another TV and you can't play anything on a second HD TV. Hopefully that stuff will be straightened out later, but who knows.
The other part of the home media deal is Media Manager which, ostensibly, allows you to show slide shows and play music from your networked PC's on your TV. It's a great concept. Got me to sign up for another $7 a month. But it really doesn't work well enough yet to be functional. The pc software is truly a joke. It will only send to the TV music that is in a playlist, but won't import playlists from anything. Building a playlist in it is a nightmare because it won't take songs from folders and subfolders. You have to actually open each folder and chose files. Geeze man, I've got over 5,000 MP3's arranged into artist/album folders. Making a playlist like that is way too time consuming.
Once the playlists are defined, good luck. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the DVR won't load it's software to communicate with Media Manager, sometimes it will. Sometimes it will play the songs fine, sometimes it won't. Sometimes a song will just make it re-boot...that's always fun. I think I need to talk to someone about a credit...
Oh yeah, the TV picture quality is just outstanding. I want more HD channels, of course, but what is there, both in HD and SD is outstanding. I have more channels, better PQ and more HD and I'm saving about $15/month over DirecTV. And I love the speed at which I can change channels. I can channel surf again! It's been years!
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