mo Verizon Fiber Optics Installation]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [IP] Verizon Fiber Optics Installation
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 15:50:25 -0500
From: J. Daniel Ashton <jdashton () ashtonfam org>
To: dave () farber net
References: <43FE19B6.3020402 () farber net>

I can confirm this: Verizon switches you from copper to fiber voice
service at the same time that they install FIOS.  In addition to the
battery question discussed below, this also means that you can no longer
bring DSL in to augment your nifty new fiber installation.  They reason
that you will have even better voice quality on fiber, but I cannot
discern any significant difference: I guess our copper was fairly good
before, and we seldom use the voice landline anyway.

Our installation actually had a pinched wire leading to the UPS, which
caused it to drain and start beeping in the middle of the night.  It was
a weekend, but Verizon managed to get a technician out to help us very
early Sunday morning.  I give these particular people very high marks
for personable helpfulness, although I suspect that Verizon in general
cannot boast of such a reputation.

Another fine point: Verizon doesn't want any residential customer
running a web server, and they enforce this by blocking inbound port 80
requests for both DSL and FIOS customers.  That wonderful 2Mbps upload
speed is doing me very little good, except for serving some Cringely and
Linux distro torrents from time to time.

Because of this port 80 block, I'm still paying for Comcast cable,
through which I'm still running my own web server.  Although I love the
FIOS speed, I may well drop Verizon because of that port 80 block.  I
don't know how long I can afford to pay for two ISPs.

Regards,

Daniel

-- 
Daniel Ashton      PGP key available     http://Daniel.AshtonFam.org
mailto:Daniel () AshtonFam org           http://ChamberMusicWeekend.org
 AIM: FirstFiddl           ICQ# 9445142           http://MDMusic.org




> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A couple of weeks ago we had Verizon install a fiber optics (FIOS) internet connection in our house.  A network 
> router is included. There is one aspect of this that anybody else planning to have this done ought to be aware of at 
> the outset.  The default is to have telephone service also on the FIOS.  This was not brought to our attention before 
> we had the job done.  For ordinary telephone service over copper wire, power is supplied from the central office, so 
> that if there is a local power outage, you don't lose telephone service. But FIOS requires that power be supplied by 
> the subscriber.  Verizon supplies a battery backup system that will maintain telephone service (but NOT the data 
> channel) in the event of a power outage.  It will give you a few hours of phone service.  Also, these batteries do 
> fail after a few years and subscribers are responsible for replacing them. I don't know of any benefit to the 
> subscriber of having the phone on FIOS.
>
> We realized this shortly after the job was completed and then it took a lot of agitating to get Verizon to restore 
> the copper phone line connection.  I believe that there would have been no problem if we had asked for this at the 
> outset, which is the reason for this message.
>
> The system is working very well so far and we very much enjoy the high speed service--claimed to be 5MbS  (or 625 
> KBS).
>   



-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/