Review by srr2 
UPDATED: 327 days ago
member for 6.8 years, 1183 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Bethlehem,Northampton,PA
 $34 per month
 about 6 days
 Verizon
 "Uptime acceptable"
 "Support, if you need it, very poor download performance"
 "Verizon ----- YOU'RE FIRED."
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Connection reliability:
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(ratings match consensus)
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[Update 15 Nov 2007] Adios, Verizon. Your failure to deal with the obvious resource shortcomings in your network pushed me to an RCN cable modem. My last attempt to work through tech support was futile. After explaining to the CSR that there was no problem with the connection or the computer because their speed test would run at full speed at some times during the day (However at other times instead of 350KB/sec, it could be as low as 60KB/sec). His first request? "Ok, let's clear your Internet Cache". I thanked him for his help, ended the call, and immediately called RCN.
[Update October 2007] Well well, how time changes things. Fast forward to 2007. This formerly happy customer is now quite unhappy. Previous routine speeds of the full 3000Kb/sec are a distant memory. From the looks of the network performance plot in TaskManager, it appears that Verizon has implemented band shaping software, resulting in my available bandwidth not 3000Kb/sec but more like a delivered rate of 1000Kb/sec, and sometimes even worse. The attached plot (click on the thumbnail below, following the text) shows what they're delivering on a Thursday afternoon. There is one process reading newsgroup headers from a fast news server (one connection), one downloading an update to Nero software, and one pulling binary articles from Verizon's news server (four connections). Three years ago, any one of these would come close to saturating the connection at its full rate. Now, you can see how awful the performance has become.
I lodged a complaint about this, with some extensive troubleshooting documented, on the Verizon personal support forum. To their credit they answered quickly, however, they utterly ignored the detailed demonstration of the symptoms. Speed tests from DSLR shows one router close to my location that's dropping packets at a 30% rate. Verizon's comment on this piece of evidence? Silence. I also demonstrated that my connection from one good server could easily run at its full rate, thereby ruling out any problem with the connection and network settings. Then, because I was unavailable and couldn't keep up with the post immediately, they summarily closed the thread. Some support.
Looking at this plot of speed though, I'm very suspicious that this speed degradation is deliberate. You can see the occasional spike to full speed, demonstrating that the connection is capable of it. The limit is clearly coming from somewhere else farther upstream, and it's NOT the source of the data, as this particular instance was receiving data from three different, normally fast, places.
To put it bluntly I'm not at all happy with them and would not recommend them any longer.
My previous review of 2004 follows =====================
I'm approaching the second anniversary of being a VZ DSL customer. Started out at 1.5/128 for $35+++, got a free upgrade to 1.5/384 for $30+++, and recently another free upgrade to 3000/768 for $30+++. The only contracted time period was the initial one year, during which the only requirement for termination was return of the modem (a B90-2100). The last upgrade came about easily with a brief call to billing, and came with a promise that my account will continue to qualify for the promotional $30+++ rate that accompanied the 1.5/384 upgrade. All in all, it's been a very customer-friendly arrangement. The initial install went smoothly according to plan, save for one minor glitch in setting up the account credentials (due to a system problem at VZ) which TS resolved quickly.
One slightly odd thing that seems to apply consistently to my account is the length of time changes take to propagate into service. All the upgrades took almost a full week to show up. Now, this is exactly what they told me would happen, so I have no complaint, but it's in remarkable contrast to many (the majority?) of other customers posting in the VZ forum that find their changes applied in anywhere from minutes to a few hours. In the overall scheme of things, it doesn't matter, it's just peculiar.
Performance-wise it's been mostly smooth sailing with uptimes measured in months and consistent, reliable speeds, as advertised. It probably helps that I'm not far from the RT that serves my line and have excellent signal strength, and that I installed a Siecor splitter when first setting up the modem. This is in contrast to my experience with an RCN one-way cable modem that quite literally required power cycling twice a day to renew its IP address. VZ has been rock solid, day in and day out using the built-in XP PPPoE client.
I have experienced three outages, all due to VZ equipment failures. Each was painful to troubleshoot due to VZ Support's implicit assumption that a) the customer is an idiot, b) it's surely the customer's problem, and c) the customer is always wrong. Quick learner I am, the last two outages were somewhat quicker to resolve because I set up a 'sacrifical lamb' computer (an old PII notebook with XP on it) that I was willing to connect directly to the modem sans firewall, etc. No cache to clear (a perennial VZ support favorite), no cookies, no interfering applications. It spoils all their fun because they are left with nothing to blame for the outage except their own equipment. [Irony of ironies: I was just interrupted by a phone call. James Earl Jones pitching Verizon DSL. Good grief. Subtract two points.] On the plus side, they did follow up with a confirming phone call after the repair to see if it was working, and they automatically credited the monthly charge with a prorated amount for the time lost.
And no review of VZ is complete without props to the VZ Usenet service. Clearly among the very best of all ISP proprietary services, and fully the equal of many of the for-fee independent services. Like all news services they have an occasional glitch, but it's usually resolved quickly. VZ seems to be making a conscious effort to maintain the quality of their news servers in the face of increasingly heavy news volumes -- retention and completion are consistently good: around 10 days for binaries and months for text groups. For heavy news users, this service alone is almost worth the price of the DSL line.
And finally even the billing is convenient. The monthly charge is just another page on my phone bill.
Would I sign up with VZ again, given the choice? You betcha, Red Rider.
Attached images and files
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this speed degradation is deliberate