Take That TimeWarner!
Recently Commodore64 lamented that his ISP, TimeWarner cable had lowered his upload speed to 60k. Well sir, I hope Verizon will be rolling out fiber in your area soon. They were here today to install their FiOS service, and it rocks! As you can see, I am getting significantly faster uploads than TimeWarner provides.
The install was pretty quick and painless (mostly because I did a lot of the hard work ahead of time). The technician ran a molded and pre-cut piece of fiber from the pole to the house. The optical network terminal is mounted inside the house, usually in a basement or garage. He brought the fiber through the outside wall and into our laundry room near the electrical panel.
There were three separate pieces to mount on our cinder block wall, so he placed them all on a piece of plywood to make it easier. The small boxes at the bottom are the power supply (right) and a battery backup unit (left). The battery provides up to 8 hours of phone service during a power failure. He said it powered the phone only, but a simple test showed that it powered the Internet service also. Of course you would need to have your computer and the router on a UPS to maintain your connectivity, but it is technically possible.
The large box at the top contains a lower panel where he coiled the excess fiber. The upper panel is really the heart of the unit. There is a place to plug in the fiber, 4 spaces for phone lines, an Ethernet port for data and a coax port for the TV service.
On the right there are the four spaces for tradition POTS phone lines. The FiOS service is true POTS, not VOIP. That is a piece of Cat 5 running to the old phone NID which some rocket scientist decided to put in our attic. From there it feeds all the house phones. Next to that is an Ethernet port where he plugged in the Cat 6 which I had previously run to where the router was going to be. I decided to run the internal cables myself because the locations were a little complex and I was particular about how their install would look. Utilities tend to take the easiest, cheapest option that technically gets the job done, not necessarily the best looking one for the homeowner. The technician was very happy to use my wiring since it saved him A LOT of time and effort.
On the far right is a coax port for the TV service (which I didn’t get at this time). If you already have cable TV service they can use the existing wiring and simply connect it to that port.
After that was all done, it was just a matter of disconnecting our copper phone line and configuring the router. They provided a relatively powerful 4-port wireless G router. It has a lot more options that a typical consumer router including per-port blocking and parental controls, a firewall with an almost endless array of options, and full traffic and bandwidth monitoring.
One very odd thing is that the default wireless encryption is WEP. Get with the program Verizon, WEP has been cracked for years! Defaulting to WEP gives people a false sense of security. In their defense I will point out that the router does support WPA and WPA2, but I can guarantee you that the average user is never going to be able to figure out how to change it to use them. It is buried pretty deep in the interface.
I opened Firefox and you can see the results of the speedtest above. I downloaded a 200 Meg file from Microsoft.com in 5 minutes. With a connection this fast you do start to realize the limitations of other connections. I uploaded a file to our FTP server at the office and I was able to completely saturate our T1 (can you say DOS attack?)
The pricing for a 5/2 FiOS connection is the same as what I was paying for Verizon’s 3.0/768 DSL service. They offer a 15/2 service which you need to get if you want their TV service.
Overall, I’m very happy with it. The FiOS service is noticeably faster (especially uploads) then the DSL service. More speed for the same price, can’t go wrong there. Plus I get geek bragging rights and can say I’m one of the first people in the area to get it.
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I've got 10/1 on cable! :D
That's a benefit of living in the middle of nowhere, there's lots of bandwidth to go around!
I have 2 up and 1.5 down on cable as well. But checking out the prices and speeds available that FiOS got me drooling!
I take it you are enjoying it PD! Did we call in sick today? :D
I am looking forward to FiOS being in my area (the no-compete with another company just ended), but the important question: can you get a static IP?
I want to know the same thing! Can I get more than one static??
I’ve installed Verizon FiOS Internet service for a client almost three weeks ago. I installed ddns services because the tech who installed the service said he thought IPs change every week or so.
but here I am nearly a month later with the same address.
Does anyone else with residential FiOS service care to comment?
I know they offer costly business / static ip service but if its like optonline the ip doesn't change unless you are off line for ALONG time or specifically do a dhcp release/renew.
Hope that clears it up. Unless someone else knows more than my assumptions?
Static IPs are available (I know someone who has one) but I believe they are only available with the business packages.
Actually I came to work today and it sucks! Sharing a T1 with 30 other people vs. sharing a 5.0 with one other person.
I've been told by every ISP I've ever had, starting from DSL, that my IP would change. It never changed. I've always known all my IP's like phone numbers.
Awesome article PD. Unfortunately, no they have not rolled out the fiber to my building, it's a pretty old building. But even if they did, the price would have to be comparable to what im paying Time Warner, because originally I was 'supposed' to be getting some 'decent' speed. I would be happy with 2 down and 1 up. I would even be happy with 768k up. But I'm getting 1990's style 56k. I can't wait for fiber. It's gonna be great!
Yup you are right and Verizon just confirmed it. With bandwidth like this readily available just think about the next wave of bots pumping out spam and REALLY dos'ing sites at will.
Mo' Bandwidth Mo' Problems
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[URL=http://www.speedtest.netIMGhttp://www.speedtes…“> “>http://www.speedtest.netIMGhttp://www.speedtes…
Nice! Where are you located Ken??
I'd love to know how (and where) you get that
I'm in West Palm Beach Florida.
It's just standard Comcast Cable modem service. (Used to be Adelphia Cable until Comcast bought them.) That one was a little slow…this one is more typical.
http//www.speedtest.net/result/262756156.png
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I guess it's in your best interest to keep an eye on your upload speed as time goes on…
the best part about the fiber is that to increase available bandwidth at the local node, all they have to do is change out the multiplexer at the node and the head office. Nothing needs to be done at your end.
pretty slick
My TimeWarner was really fast on the upload in the beginning and now it is also capped at 60k like the other guy. How long before verizon does the same? Do they sign off on a contract that those speeds will be available always? do you really need the 15meg plan for the tv? can you watch that on the computer? How much more is that plan.
great site and even greater articles I check back 10 times a day for new content.
I have no idea how, but my ISP (University of Southern California – I live on campus) is giving me 9.5 down and 6 up!
Thats big! What's a student to do with all that upload speed? :)
Any idea what their backbone or isp is?
Pirate movies and music of course! Unless they have that locked down? Do they??
No Curious none of OUR readers would do ANYTHING like that!
I get about 32/5.2 here with optimum online boost for only $60 a month. the advertised speed is 30/5 but cablvision took away the download cap and made the upload cap 5.5.
Where are you located MajorTom?
Where are you located major (roughly)?
I had recently FTTH 100/100 installed at my mother's home. Unfortunately this is not something in U.S. The provider is NTT(Nippon Telegraph & Telephone) serving in Japan. The monthly charge in us $ equivalent is about $60. Quick speed test I ran clocked 55/30 from a server in Japan and 6/0.5 from one in California(DSLReports). So, we all have to speed up to really take advantage of FTTH connection.
I'm jealous!
I’ve had FIOS for almost a year now. You can get static, but with the business contract, not residential. FIOS for business gives you 5 IP addresses to start, you can of course BUY more.
Heh… Optical connection rules. My provider had some technical troubles this year (was separating into two providers) and for some time I had around 80 (eighty) MBit/s download.
My brain is never going to be the same after those days. :)
What Carrier Rarst?
I am half-globe far from USA so it’s probably not very relevant. :)
I am glad i live in cablevision territory. I pay $45 a month for 16.5/2 service. At the llibrary we have 30/5 boost service (which allwos web and email servers. They give you the option to unblock port 80)
We are also installing a long island fiber line with 20/20 service and a dark fiber connection between our two buildings.
We have a 100/100 fiber pipe and are paying $1100 a month no blocking. @ home I have Optonline in a 15/2 ratio. Nothing to sneeze at seeming the jump in bandwidth over the last few years.
We’ll beat CV just about every time :)
Jeffrey Meltzer
Director of Network Operations
Long Island Fiber