Verizon broadband?

[mountaineer]

Next week, Ill be starting a free trial of Verizon Broadband service. Has anyone had any experience with this service? Anything I should expect/ look out for? Also, it comes with free web site space but I forgot to ask if Ill have my own domain name or some fifty character long address.
This is my first experience with Broadband-Goodbye dialup!!! They are sending me the router and instructed me to get an Ethernet card (which I did), anything else Ill need?

[pam123]

The tech support is pretty good, they go a long way to get it right.
The problems, if you get any, will start once you're in the domain of general customer service. We're talking mindless drones here.
Register over at dslreports.com and yell for help.
I can't find it now but there is a by-pass number that will actually let you skip these morons if you get the run-around and the folks at dslreports know it. I needed it after 6 months of horror they put me through.
Note, not all drones are beaten down corporate cogs. One of them, realizing what had hapened, connected me to the people I needed to talk to. It speaks volumes about Verizon that she asked me not to tell anyone on the new connection that she'd done it.
After everything was running smoothly I was very pleased with dsl. The set-up was no problem at all, netgear 311 and a westell modem, and neither was the reinstall after I formatted the drive.
I use 98se at the moment but I'm switching to XP as soon as I get the new video card so I'll find out how good the on-line instructions I printed out for XP upgrade are.
After everything is up and running head over to the people at ZoneLab and download the free firewall. Configure it as suggested and the go to ShieldsUp and test it. I've found it to be trouble free with Verizon dsl.
One more thing, you really do need the filters on any phone line that is NOT the one you have the computer hooked up to. I know there's a doulble filter that allows you to hook your desk phone and your computer to the same wall jack. Check it over with care, some of them are too flimsy to work well, you might want to spend the buck or so it would take to replace it with something sturdier.
HTH

[ktkendall]

I've had them for two years now, and other than early on when they somehow deactivated my password and I called, took well over an hour to get through and then I must have gotten one of the above mentioned, "We're talking mindless drones here." He gave me another userID and password to try, and it worked instantly, but then he still proceeded to have me check all kind of things on my PC. At one point I asked, "didn't we just prove that the problem is on your end recognizing my ID and password??" He said yes but we have to check all these things, I understand you kind of have to do what they say cause they are just reading a script and don't really know what they are doing and if you want to get to the next level that will fix the prob you have to go along with them. Then He said he would do a password reset and I should be able to get back in shortly. Next day still no access, called back and they admitted there was a problem with their password resetting software they gave me a temp one. Then it happened again the next month, got it fixxed with not quite as much hassle and no problems since. I did add more filters cause my voice calls were getting so staticy and I finally traced it down to the DSL. Had a call up with major static, shut off DSL modem and cleared static, so I just put filters everywhere. I tried to go with just one at the demark but started all that static after a while, also upgraded the firmware on theDSL modem. I figure the phone company really controls the internet so I might as well get my service from them. Thay will provide you a DSL modem, not a router, but if your going to share with another PC then go with the DSL router with built in switch, even if you aren't now but you see one at a good price it is good because then you don't need their software (WINPOET) running on your PC, but with Winxp you won't need it either.

[SARGE]

Verizon is as good as any other. I use SBC and also work for 'em. Every group has its horror stories, but one never hears about the good service. I've had DSL for a year and never a hiccup. Since the bugs have been mostly ironed out of this type service, it's reliable (DSL). When it first came out everyone jumped on it and the technology was so new even tech support needed time to learn. Smoothed out now.
Here's a joint to scope out:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/ilec,vz

[pam123]

Sounds like Verizon.
Just the sort of thing to turn your hair grey.

[Markoman01027]

Verizon DSL is great. I always get connected, and I never experience "down time". The installation and setup is pretty easy.

You will like it. It is fast too, you will be able to download music from Kazaa(depending on the connection of the other user) at like 75-80kb/sec+.

Have fun with Verizon DSL!

[LawyerRon]

I have a couple friends with Verizon and they're satisfied.

[mountaineer]

Im not going to have a phone service in my house anymore. Going totally wireless soon. There isnt going to be any problems with that is there? All the wiring is still going to be hooked up.

[glc]

You need a voice line in order to get DSL service.

[mountaineer]

Are you saying that I cannot drop my phone service?

[SARGE]

As a tech who deals with this stuff, I remember at one time some now defunct ISP's were using a "dry pair" for their DSL - meaning there was no dial tone on the line, only DSL. I haven't run across any such animals the past year, so can't qualify any answers if that service is available or not. You're better off getting DSL through the local telco, along with some dial tone.

[arubahounds]

I set up Verizon DSL for my mom about a month ago. Make sure before you bother with the software that they've actually turned the service on. If the modem's ready light is blinking there is no service. In my case they turned it on about a week after the promised start date.

The software was painless and installation went smooth. The software leaves a few icons on your desktop and in your tray, but they're easy to get rid of.

One thing I didn't like - Verizon forces a user name and password on you, you can't choose your own. You can opt for an alias, which is an annoying process.

The service is fine otherwise.

HT

[glc]

mountaineer: That's exactly what I'm saying. ADSL runs "piggybacked" over a standard voice line and even if you get your DSL service from a 3rd party provider, they still have to use the local telco infrastructure. The "dry pair" that Sarge is referring to is for SDSL which is 2 to 3 times the cost of ADSL.

[kittyfire]

No dialtone = No DSL

[wolfhound]

I have not seen what Sarge talked about in a while either.

However, I can tell you this. I use Earthlink and due to the fact that Verizon is my voice carrier I am subject to their outages.
That has only happened once in 1 year during a major software upgrade.