 Review by Doctor Dan 
UPDATED: 346 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 3665 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Chatham,Morris,NJ
 $18 per month
 about 6 days
 Verizon
 "Easy ordering, up and running in 6 days, reliable, great price."
 "Distance from CO limits speed to 768/128 service."
 "Decent DSL service at an excellent price, certainly better than a dialup line."
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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After being told for over 18 months by both Covad and Verizon that my house was "too far away" from the Central Office for ADSL, I suddenly was "eligible for DSL" through Verizon. I guess that Verizon increased their maximum allowable subscriber line length for DSL.
Chronology of my DSL installation:
10/4/01: Placed order for Verizon DSL service (640/90) online via Verizon's website. Selected Genuity (vs. Qwest) for GSP based on a comparison of network backbone deployment maps of both companies as well as negative comments about Qwest's overall service.
10/5/01: Received order confirmation via email, Service Ready Date quoted as 10/19/01.
10/9/01: DSL Modem self-install kit arrives via UPS.
10/10/01 (AM): A "surprise" (i.e. unscheduled) visit from a Verizon Field Service Technician; fortunately I was home. "You're very lucky," he said. "If you were a few more houses down the street, you'd still be too far away for DSL." Line checks OK, was told to wait until after 8 PM to use the DSL line.
10/10/01 (8 PM): Connected up modem, and DSL line is live; nine days ahead of schedule! Installed Verizon DSL software on my Mac PowerBook (i.e. MacPoET 1.1) and was able to complete my registration online using the DSL line. Rebooted the Mac, and MacPoET 1.1 keeps crapping out, freezes up computer, etc. Turned off all non-Apple control panels and extensions, rebooted, but problem persists. Reconfigured Mac to use dialup line, downloaded and installed MacPoET 1.2, then tried DSL connection again... different error message and still doesn't work. After spending several hours wrestling with this problem, I restored my Mac to use the dialup line and called it an evening.
10/11/01: I called Verizon DSL technical support at 10 AM, and got through immediately to a very helpful woman who did a bit of research and told me that MacPoET 1.1 is incompatbile with MacOS 9.2.1. Suggested solution was to "downgrade" to MacOS 9.0 (which supposedly works with MacPoET)... that's not gonna happen. OK, so I need something that will provide PPPoE encapsulation of TCP/IP... what about using a hardware router? 'Well, officially we don't support customer-supplied routers," the rep. informs me "but 'off-the-record' I can tell you that we have many customers in your situation that are using them successfully." Sounds good enough to me to give it a try.
10/11/01: Ordered a Netgear RT314 router from Outpost.com for around $100.
10/13/01: Router arrives. Connected and configured in 10 minutes, DSL is up and running! Speed testing averages 400/80... not bad for DSL "on the edge" of the maximum allowable subscriber line length. Using an analog 56 Kbaud modem on the same line, I typically was connecting at 40 - 46 Kbaud, so the downlink on the DSL line is approximately 10x faster.
10/16/01: Free Logitech camera (part of the Verizon DSL offer) arrives... too bad it doesn't work with Macs (although it does connect via USB). Ah well, it will make a nice holiday gift for someone this year.
So, now in addition to a working DSL line for my Mac, I have a 4-port router which I plan to connect up to my laser printer and Linux box, and of course it also works as a firewall. Certainly a reasonable solution at a reasonable price.
My advice: for Mac installations, get a hardware router and stay away from MacPoET... it's complete garbage. I have no experience with WinPoET, but considering it is written by the same company, I can't imagine that it is much better.
10/24/01: DSL line still up and running with 400/80 +/- 10%, even at peak hours. As others have mentioned in previous posts, Verizon's news server suffers from poor response times. I'm not into reading newsgroups all that much, so this isn't that much of an issue for me.
10/25/01: Did a bit of rewiring at my NID, and I must have fixed a poor connection, because my DSL throughput speed jumped to 510/80, which is supposedly excellent performance for a 640/90 circuit. Now I am just waiting for Verizon to get around to upgrading my service to 768/160, but there's currently a statewide hold on the upgrade due to NJ BPU regulations.
11/21/02: DSL service was upgraded to 768/160 last month, so my throughput is now 620/135. Not bad, considering that I am very close to the maximum distance for ADSL service. I also signed up for Verizon's "Veriations" package, so my DSL service now costs only $35/month.
1/2003: New copper was run on my street. Verizon telco temporarily created a 6000+ bridge tap in the process, and my DSL throughput dropped to 300/135. Once the old cable was cut away, speeds improved to 700/135.
5/2003: VOL lowered the monthly service fee for DSL. With my Veriations package, I am now paying only $29.95/month for DSL... what a bargain. I also got a new Westell 2000 series modem and my speed is now 725/135.
12/2005: I'm still using Verizon DSL which is now $15/month with a 12 month contract. I also now have a Westell 6100 series modem and a ZyXEL P-334WT wireless router with firewall.
9/2007: My Verizon DSL connection is now $18/month with no contract. I still have the Westell 6100 series modem but switched over to a ZyXEL ZyWALL 2WG wireless router with firewall. Now I'm just waiting for Verizon to announce when my area will be wired for FIOS.
- Dan
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