Verizon DSL

[Guest Chaney]

The fine folks at Verizon have made it know to me that they now service my geographic area and are willing to accept me ( ) as a customer of their fine DSL service. Cost? First month free, second and third months at $29.95 and month four until the end of time (or until a rate increase), $34.95. Verizon also supplies the modem (and self-install kit) necessary to use their service at around $13 to cover its shipping cost.

Also, what about...

Now with MSN® Premium at no additional charge! New benefits include MSN Pop-up Guard, MSN Internet firewall, MSN Designer E-mail options, and more

I don't want an intrusive service. Just get me online and get away from me.

Right now I'm on a loathsome dial-up connection with AT&T as my ISP. (I just downloaded side one of Julian Priester's Love, Love (thank you Mr. Ties!). Time of download? Around 1:45!)

Anyone have any experience with Verizon DSL? (I've read a few things online and Verizon seems to earn only a rating of average.)

(I'm not sure if my cable company -- Adelphia -- services my area and I can't say that I care as I DESPISE the cable company and its frequent rate increases... yadda yadda. RABBIT EARS ARE COMING BACK, BABY!)

Thank you!

[Kevin Bresnahan]

Verizon DSL has been great for me. Up time is awesome. Speed is almost always 720 kB/s. A friend of mine who lives closer to town gets twice that but they only guarantee 720. Unlike cable, it is a dedicated line so it should never slow down.

I agree with you on the MSN crap... but you don't have to install it to get on line with Verizon. Just follow the installation instructions and quit out when you get to the "Install MSN" prompt. That's what I do and I've done about 3 of these installs in the last 6 months.

BTW, if you have Windows XP, you can pretty much plug in the modem, connect the ethernet cable and "bam!" you're on-line. The "installation" kit from Verizon is pretty much a "stupid-proof" package. Most slightly advanced PC users could do it without the prompts.

Kevin

[.:.impossible]

Kevin,

I don't think that is true. Verizon uses what is called a split channel bank. The dsl piggy-backs your existing telephone line.

Your experience will depend on how far way you are from the Central Office. Fidelity of signal will decrease as you get further away, more specifically bandwidth. The other uncertainty regarding dsl is the quality of the copper lines between your house and the Central Office.

In this case, it sounds like the last stretch might be new copper. Hard to say. Verizon, and its resellers are coming up with new ways to offer "dsl" by oversubscribing t-1s in which case guaranteed bandwidth is shady. 768K is a good download rate. 1.5M is great. 3.2 is as good as you will ever see on a cable or dsl modem. Usually not realistic unless you live next door to the central office!

Either way, I think Chaney will be better off in hi-speed land than an ATT dial-up!

Chaney, see what Adelphia has to offer.

[Jazzmoose]

Better move fast, Tony, before they change their mind!

[JSngry]

My experience w/Verizon DSL was nightmarish. Much slower than promised speeds, larger downloads constatnly timing out, etc. Verizon blamed my ISP, my ISP blamed Verizon. I got them on a conference call, and they battled back and forth about line test results, packet sends, pings, pongs, rights and wrongs, and all this. Finally, my ISP rep made a series of points that the Verizon guy "had to ask a supervisor" about. All the signs pointed to the liklihood that the problem was w/the Verizon lines betweeen my house and the node/station/whateveritscalled closest to my house (and I know where it is - it's less than 1/4 mile away). He was gone for over an hour (yeah, I gave him that long, just because, and my ISP rep hung with me). After about an hour and ten, we both said, "this guy's not coming back", and that was that.

I know other people who have had satisfactory results w/Verizon DSL, but I'm not one of them. OTOH, I've now got Comcast Cable Internet, and it freakin' ROCKS. Always fast (rumors of cable's inconsistent speed have proven false, at least for me), never down, and I dowloaded that Priester album (both sides) & the Miles show in about ten minutes, easy.

Ypur milage amy vary, as they say. For me, though, DSL was hell. But with cable, I'm able!

Edited April 9, 2004 by JSngry

[Guest Chaney]

Thanks for the input gents. I believe I'll give Verizon a whirl.

As .:.impossible notes: anything is better than my current dial-up setup.

[kh1958]

I use SBC/Yahoo DSL. It has been great, and it's only $26.95 a month.

[Man with the Golden Arm]

Verizon uses what is called a split channel bank. The dsl piggy-backs your existing telephone line.

Your experience will depend on how far way you are from the Central Office. Fidelity of signal will decrease as you get further away, more specifically bandwidth. The other uncertainty regarding dsl is the quality of the copper lines between your house and the Central Office.

As well make certain there is "NO LOAD" on your line. If there is and the line you have, say, goes up the road beyond you and might split off somewhere then you need the tech to hook up a line with no load for your DSL. "You will accept nothing else."!!!

The phone company at the local level is only concerned about "voice" and they have to do some serious work to get a good line to you if you live in a weather heavy or older hardwared area.

Maybe Cary can explain more about this as well.

And I think that Kevin just means that your line is your line and the bandwidth isn't shared across the neighborhood when all the teenagers come home from school and you can't do chit from 3:30 PM on. No?

Edited April 10, 2004 by Man with the Golden Arm

[.:.impossible]

Yeah, load coils will stop the dsl signal. So will fiber slicks. Lots to consider. The telephone company's network is OLD! If they are telling you they can deliver, then there are no fiber slicks or load coils between you and the CO, so that's good.

I don't know the specifics of residential VZ dsl, but I'm pretty sure that bandwidth is shared within a node. Whether you have 10 subscribers on your node or 10 subscribers more than the node can handle is the question.

It is a nice package though, throwing in anti-virus software, anti-spam, etc. I still say go for it. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure there are alternatives in the area. Adelphia does still provide residential bandwidth.

[Tjazz]

Whats interesting about broadband, alot of people are going wireless.

They are setting up wireless routers in their homes and apts. So if you're near someone who has set-up a wireless router, you may be able to get a FREE broadband connection.

You might want to first get a wireless adapter for your PC or laptop and see what's available.

My Dad is able to get broadband from his neighbor. My neighbor also has a wireless router which is broadcasting at a faster rate than my DSL connection with VERIZON. I get about 1.2M, but if I hook into my neighbor's wireless router - his goes about 2M. (nice backup)