I got Verizon Fios Installed today

Hi guys, I'm new to the board.  Thought I'd post my fios experience. Just got my Verizon Fios installed today.  I had been waiting for it to come to may area and was going to sign up when my neighbor asked that I give her name as the person who referred me.  She had gotten it a few weeks before. I gave her name and she got a month free, and then baked me brownies to say thanks! So keep that in mind.  I had Direct TV, Verizon telephone, and Verizon dsl prior.  My bill ran about $175 a month.   With the Fios I got $150 rebate which will hopefully cover me cancelling my directtv.  Its going to run me about $160 a month and I get an upgrade on the TV and Internet.

The install went pretty smoothly,which was better than my neighbor which took all night.  It took my guy about 4 hours.  No drama, arrived on time, and got all things hooked up.  He did have to mount this lunch box sized thing on the side of my house.   I guess its better than than that big dish on my roof.  Here is my experience with the toys so far.

INTERNET- My Internet was a good news/bad news.  I had DSL before (768K) which was pretty nice.  I now have 20MB download speed, which is F'n amazing.  They had told me they would sign me up for the 20mb down and 5mb up package but I figured those numbers were sort of like the car manufacturers suggested miles per gallon numbers (ie BS) However, speed tests clock me in between 18mb and 21mb range so it is as advertised.  So I was totally elated with the speed of my desktop.  The router they gave me had wireless built in so I hooked up my laptop hoping I would see some speed improvements there also.  No such luck.  The wireless speed I'm getting is horrible on my laptop.  I spent an hour with tech support and we tried all sorts of things.  I can get connected but the speed is like a 28K modem.   So I need to trouble shoot that some more.  I was very disappointed with that.

TELEPHONE - Dial tone before and dial tone after.  Nothing exciting here.  I did get to remove all those DSL filter plugs but everything else pretty much the same.

TV - I have not played with this too much yet but there is a LOT of options on the TV.  I got the two room set up with HD DVR's in both rooms.  My wife has a Tivo in her room which we will retire.  So far she is not too fond of the new Verizon remote because it has so many buttons and options on it.  They have tons of channels and even a video on demand where you can watch shows that they have taped.  So if you missed last weeks Desperate Housewives they have all the reruns you can watch with a few clicks for free. I got all the premium channels with my package. I only had Starz before but with this package they gave me all the movie channels.  So between the video on demand, the stuff I will record on my DVR, and all the extra channels I think I am on overload. 

I cant really grade the TV just yet as I think its going to take me a few weeks to play with all the stuff.  If I can get the laptop speed thing resolved I would give this very high marks.

Sounds like a decent deal.  The internet piece really sounds great if you get the wireless deal figured out.  I would get someone else with a laptop to come over and see what speed they get; if they get it fast, the problems lies with your laptop settings or hardware, if they get slow speed, the problem is with the new set up somewhere.

I FINALLY got the wireless issue worked out.  I had to punt on Verizon tech support and went out to the forums for suggestions.  In the end I plugged my old Linksys wireless device back in and plugged it into the back of the Fios router.  I can now connect wirelessly through the linksys device (same way I had before) and it then gets its connection through the fios router.  I'm getting wireless speeds of 5mb - 6mb now! 

So I'm loving the service so far.  I have poor marks for verizon tech support though.  They should have been able to at least suggest I go this route.  Anyway, I'm a happy camper now.

FIOS rocks!  I have had it for six months now and have had not one problem.  If you log in to your Verizon account on the web, you can set your favorite channels and program your DVR for recording...easier than using the remote in my opinion.  My battery back-up thought the battery was dead a couple of weeks ago.  The beep every five minutes was like trying to figure out which smoke detector has given up the ghost...very annoying.  A quick punch of the reset button corrected that though.

That lunchbox on the side of your house is your optical terminal network.  You musta packed a big lunch as a kid since mine is the size of a briefcase!