I'm switching from Cox to FIOS. Does anyone have any advice to a new FIOS user? What were your experiences during the installation? Is there anything I should think about before hand or make sure that installer does? Thanks!

Endershot Wrote:
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> I'm switching from Cox to FIOS. Does anyone have
> any advice to a new FIOS user?

Switch back.

WashingToneLocian Wrote:
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> Endershot Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> > I'm switching from Cox to FIOS. Does anyone have
> > any advice to a new FIOS user?
>
> Switch back.


bitter much? perhaps if you put down the cell every once in while, you wouldnt have exhausted your 15000 minute plan and run up a $500 bill.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I did the same thing a year and a half ago. FIOS is a much better
service provider than Cox. One word of advice though. Initially, I
only subscribed to TV. Later, I decided to also go for local,
unlimited long distance phone service, and high speed internet.
The billing was a nightmare and it took nine months to get it
straightened out. One advantage Verizon has too is that their
customer service reps speak American English and not some
convoluted pseudo-English like you get from Cox customer service
centers in India. Also, you do not lose service during heavy cloud
cover and snow storms. Billing problem or not, I'm happier with FIOS.

Does Verizon throttle their users? If so, then leave an unused computer just for seeding and downloading Linux installations. Once they try to shut you down, you file a lawsuit against them. (Linux is free, open-source software).

Easy profit.

When closing on my new place was 100% set in stone on April 28, my wife called Verizon to try and get FIOS set up. The previous owners told our agent that they had FiOS with Verizon.

She was told that things could be set up on May 16, not even a regular landline.

I then spent two hours with Verizon, to try and get a better time, or at least get a regular landline installed early. I was told, nope, no FiOS in our records at that address. (BTW, one of the folks I got bounced to was a call center in India.)

All this despite us getting a cool little clear plastic card telling us that we were Premium Verizon customers due to having so much Verizon stuff (two cell phones, DSL, fax line, and a fully loaded landline.)

So we set up with Cox. The guy said he was from Herndon, and the Cox guy came out the morning of May 1 to get things set up.

When we got back home, we were told Verizon could move up the FiOS install to May 8.

And so Verizon sees none of our money instead of about $200 or so a month.

Get fios much better service much better internet and no throttling. Speeds up to 50 mbs download 50 mbs upload.. Much better picture on tv to... def. better switch from cox to verizon

I'm looking at either switching to FIOS or upgrading my satellite service to include local channels because of the impending digital transition for local broadcast TV. The FIOS package prices all say they don't include other service charges, fees, and taxes, so it's hard to tell what the monthly bill will be. I tried the online salesperson, but she didn't know (??!!). Anyone out there know if it's more than just a few extra dollars per month?

FiOS is a much better service overall than Cox. The problem comes in that all of them lie to you about converter boxes and such. For FiOS, the HD converter boxes are $10/month each, and an HD DVR is like $14/month. The internet hookup is much better, and I can tell for a fact that the TV images even on my normal TV with a regular set top box are much better than pictures I got with COX. When I spoke to the FiOS folks recently they indicated there is a box available as part of the digital upgrades (not a STB but something different) that is free to home users so they can tune standard channels without access to scrambled content - the box may not be offered by FiOS, but it is around. Main thing - their "free" offer of a TV or whatever might be the enticement... well I got my service in January and still have not received my TV yet... SO both good and bad parts to the story :)

Seriously//////STAY AWAY FROM FIOs. If you just begin to read the atrocious custumer service and lack of commitment to thier customers you will run and not walk away!! This company is the most disfunctional company I have ever encountered. They are HORRIBLE

Endershot Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm switching from Cox to FIOS. Does anyone have
> any advice to a new FIOS user? What were your
> experiences during the installation? Is there
> anything I should think about before hand or make
> sure that installer does? Thanks!

I am no fan of Cox, but it is far better than Fios. You can upgrade to 50 mbs download and upload as well. Stay away from fios

fios Wrote:
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> Get fios much better service much better internet
> and no throttling. Speeds up to 50 mbs download 50
> mbs upload.. Much better picture on tv to... def.
> better switch from cox to verizon

FIOS has a long way to go, it's the future, but they have at least 5 years before I'll even consider it.

Fios has been great, and their customer support has also been fantastic.


I'll never go back to cocks.

cocks seemed to be blocking torrents more than they used to, or should I say throttling them... if I ever used my net connection at home for more than itunes and surfing anymore, i might care. All my tv downloading happens at work now on low-quality sites so I haven't been able to appraise a more recent state of downloading large stuff from cocks. I honestly can't tell the difference between it and my t3 here at work when I am surfing. Actually, my t3 is slower, due to web use tracking via our proxy.

cocks blocking? sucks cocks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/22/2008 02:54AM by RESton Peace.

I switched from Cox to Fios back in May. The installer spent ALL day here and explained every detail. The service people on the phone have been great. The television picture is fabulous. The internet is lightening fast and I've never had a problem with it going off line as Cox often did. My bill for telephone, television and the fastest internet is nearly $90 less than with Cox. I am paying $153 a month for one DVR with HD television, HBO, 3 boxes on other televisions, telephone with free LD, voice mail, everything, and the highest speed internet with a wireless router for the house. With Cox I was paying over $230 and had to hook up my own wireless router.

I will never go back to Cox. Fios is wonderful.

Verizon just started digging up in our neighborhood..I see you are paing $153.00 a month for basically what would want. Is there a upfront charge for the DVR and other boxes and does $153 include all the taxes and surcharges...

Thanks

Thanks for the thoughts and advice. It seems like everyone is in very different camps, some Cox loves and some FIOS lovers. I image neither is going to be perfect, so I think I'll try something new because I have been disappointed with Cox's internet speeds (versus the marketed speeds), customer service, and constant raising of costs.

Thanks for the help! Here's to hoping that competition makes them both better.

How do they get the signal from the outside box to your computer in the house? It goes over fiber optics in the ground, but houses don't have fiber optics inside. I asked them and they said there were 2 options, depending on what neighborhood you're in. They can run the signal over the cable lines in the house. That wouldn't work well for me because I only have a cable outlet in 1 room.

The other possibility was to run an Ethernet cable in the house. They said they would install an Ethernet cable in the walls of the house, to whichever room I wanted to put my computer/router in. That was suprising to me, since it sounds like a major project, but they said there was no charge for it. Has anyone had this done?

I would preferably want to have Ethernet going to 2 rooms, one upstairs and one downstairs. I wonder if they'd do that.

WHen they installed FiOS at my house, the installer was there for 8 hours and pulled a bunch of cables for me (phone and ethernet) for no charge. Granted mine was a bit complicated as we had just finished an addition to our home, but still, the guy really did a lot of work.

I already had ethernet ports installed in my rooms in the addition but not the old part of the house. BUt the guy did a real nice job and did everything I asked.

According to the Verizon web site, FiOS TV is not available at my specific address. However, it is available in my zip code (22308). Does anyone know where I can access a map footprint of the service area in Fairfax County? Also, I noticed there is a new channel lineup for the Washington Metro area, effective September 22, 2008. Does anyone know if the service area will be expanded at that time?

Registered Voter Wrote:
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> WHen they installed FiOS at my house, the
> installer was there for 8 hours and pulled a bunch
> of cables for me (phone and ethernet) for no
> charge. Granted mine was a bit complicated as we
> had just finished an addition to our home, but
> still, the guy really did a lot of work.
>
> I already had ethernet ports installed in my rooms
> in the addition but not the old part of the house.
> BUt the guy did a real nice job and did everything
> I asked.


I asked the person who called me up and tried to sell me FiOS about the signal once inside my house. They told me first that it was run over the phone lines. I asked why then they needed to run fiber to my house if it was jsut going on the thing that looks like a big phone connector. Put me on hold and 10 mins later I'm talking to a slightly smarter guy who says they will run Cat-5 thru my house for 50 bucks a room and labor of $20 an hour for the tech. I said well a: thats expensive, fuck FiOS if thats what I gotta have and b: Cat-5? Who uses that? how about cat 5e or cat 6. He said that is industry standard.

Everyone refers to it as Cat5. Cat6 is really nothing more than well shielded Cat5. Most Cat5e cables will run 1 GB network speeds. But even today, most folks still refer to it as Cat5 due to the lack of real change in anything Cat6.

They run Fiber to a termination box, just like they do for almost every other business in the world. Even in common office environments, the fiber only goes to the communication closet, not to the desk. The fiber connection mainly ensures you can get shared data, video and voice on the single cable, and there is still ample bandwidth to expand services. There is an ethernet conversion in the fiber termination and a modem is connected to provide service to the house at 100MBit ethernet speed.

The FiOS technical folks (when you call to order) are idiots, plain and simple. They cannot answer a question beyond how they are scripted. If you ask for a supervisor you will do better, especially if you have questions beyond "is it available" :) Otherwise the picture clarity is vastly different - on my older TV (not HD) the picture is much sharper then cox was ever able to provide. One reason is that cox has a lot of issues with signal loss when balancing neighborhoods, and you have a significant signal loss just getting it to your house, let alone when you split it and push it to the tvs in your house. With FiOS the signal for your house starts in the fiber termination box, so it is much easier to determine when there is a problem, and where the problem sits - inside your house, perhaps due to a splitter, or outside where the fiber comes in. I have had so many stupid service calls with Cox over signal quality problems - and they never really solved them.

FiOS is much better IMHO. But you can decide based on facts, or inflamed responses. If you have time do some internet research besides this site where all the angry people tend to hang out ;)

Good luck.

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> I asked the person who called me up and tried to
> sell me FiOS about the signal once inside my
> house. They told me first that it was run over the
> phone lines. I asked why then they needed to run
> fiber to my house if it was jsut going on the
> thing that looks like a big phone connector. Put
> me on hold and 10 mins later I'm talking to a
> slightly smarter guy who says they will run Cat-5
> thru my house for 50 bucks a room and labor of $20
> an hour for the tech. I said well a: thats
> expensive, fuck FiOS if thats what I gotta have
> and b: Cat-5? Who uses that? how about cat 5e or
> cat 6. He said that is industry standard.

that is rather retarded but to be fair, you are not going to need anything faster than cat-5 (100Mb/s). furthermore, if you are so concerned about speed, you should install single-mode fiber or at the very least shielded cat-6. in the event that you do get cat-6, you will need a router that does the full 1000Mb/s on the WAN port, not just the LAN ports so that you can actually use the full speed. if you really think you are going to exceed 12.5MB/s (100Mb/s) you are sorely mistaken. if you want to bypass installing cables, you can use a wireless router and a wireless card which are really cheap now.

i personally recommend the Linksys WRT54G for $25: http://www.google.com/products?q=router+WRT54G&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd
and pretty much any cheap-ass wireless G card you can find: http://www.google.com/products?q=%22Wireless+G%22+pci+card+-mini+-pcmcia+-ebay+-notebook+-auction&btnG=Search+Products&show=dd


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Ah, the [in]famous WRT54G. I went with wired network after so much wireless trouble. (and neighbors dl'ing child pron thru my network which when secured with WPA, crashed)

I specifically asked about cat-5e or cat-6 and they had never heard of it.

I havent had ANY problems AT ALL with cox for the past 5 years. Before that, it was because some dumb ass installing FiOS cabling cut the cable with a backhoe.

Heres my COx speed test

I just did the same speed test as the above poster im paying for 30 mbs up and 5 download I tested at 34 mbs download and 6 upload so thats pretty nice..... Cox can suck my dick that place blows worse than a whales blow hole... I have had many problems, Expensive bullshit repairs, Horrible customer service, and a much hire bill... Cox needs to burn and die

I just moved to the area. I at first ordered Verizon and they had me scheduled for like 2 1/2 weeks later. Meanwhile, I saw a Cox add that they install the same day ( I had an HD antenna). So I called Cox and they came the same day!

2 weeks after the install I get a letter from Cox stating that if I wanted to cancel their service I had 3 days from the date of service! DUH! The letter also stated that if I cancelled after that 3 day period I would owe like 20 bucks a month for the next year.

I still had Verizon scheduled to be here and in trying to cancel that I learned a bunch. All of Cox HD channels are at 720P / 1080I. Verizon offered me 20 up and down, Cox 20 down and 5 up. Verizon also stated they are 1080P. For those that do not know it - there is a clear (no pun intended) difference between 720p and 1080P.

So I contacted the Fairfax county people to see if they could help me get out of the Cox situation. Heard from Cox the next morning. They admit their HD is no match for Verizon and that they do not have the bandwidth to handle a match on the 20/20 deal. They did offer to give me one month free and 4 months with 20 bucks off and premium for 6 months.

I think I am going to go with Verizon because all indications are that Verizon brings you the bandwidth that Cox does not have. I am concerned with hidden costs like another poster mentioned. I will try to negotiate with them as I can still go with the dish.

Thoughts?

KeepOnTruckin Wrote:
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> Ah, the famous WRT54G. I went with wired network
> after so much wireless trouble. (and neighbors
> dl'ing child pron thru my network which when
> secured with WPA, crashed)

i agree that the default firmware isnt that great... which is why i upgraded to using ddwrt making it professional quality.


> I specifically asked about cat-5e or cat-6 and
> they had never heard of it.

wow, that's bad.


> I havent had ANY problems AT ALL with cox for the
> past 5 years.

im glad that someone has had a good experience with them. you wouldnt believe the horrific cabling job they did on my house's outside box. i had to fix it myself after the idiot installer left.

however, my big gripe is the insanely high prices and even more annoying is their self promoting commercials telling me about "the technology of tomorrow" which is complete fucking bullshit because they can do everything they say is coming in "the digital age." honestly, i think $30 a month for all their services (internet/phone/hdtv and everything on demand) is plenty of money. however, the cost is like $200 if you want all of those services and you cant even get everything on demand.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

Well, I pay 50 a month for HDTV and 5/2 internet. Thats my speed test above.

On the cabling job, when I first had it installed, they only hooked up 1 room and would have charged me more for more rooms, and so cut the ends off the rest of teh cables. (that was back when the basic channels came on one line and the expanded and internets came on the other, and since I was getting interwebs and basic, I got the expanded channels for free) I then did a redneck job on the rest of them so that I got signal going to all my rooms. When the guy came out to fix my line since the phone guy from verizon cut my cable line, he terminated all teh ends correctly and gave me a free splitter, all in a nice plastic box.

Fios has a lot of kinks to work out. My girlfriend got Fios and had billing problems for 6 straight months. We called every month to get it fixed but the same problem came up every month. The boxes, especially the non-hd/non-dvr boxes are incredibly slow. Their customer service is absolutely horrible. Try calling them and see how long you have to wait to get someone...and you'll rarely get someone in the U.S. The installer didn't show up three times for their appointment. I know we've had other problems but I cannot think of them right now. They rave about their fiber optics, but Cox is fiber optics as well. The difference is Fios runs fiber optics up to the side of your house and Cox runs it to your street. A few feet of coax won't make a difference.

I, on the other, hand have Cox Communications. I love their service. If I have a problem, they're out at my house a day later. (Although, I rarely have problems. I haven't had one in probably a few years) My HD looks great. My internet is faster than my girlfriend's, hands down.

My advice....DON'T SWITCH! Go with Cox.

For some, the question comes down to price. How much do you pay a month?

The FIOS salesperson came to the house last week and convinced us to make the switch predicated on getting out of the current maxbundle agreement. He stated that we are not locked in to any verbal agreement according to RI State law...

I have heard very good things about the FIOS service and have been impressed at a friends home. It is cheaper than cox.

I received my cox bill the other day and they have cancelled the max bundle discount due to the port request for the phone service. I do think it is fair seeing that I am switching services. The cox associate then went on to kiss my a--- to no end about what it would take for me to remain and I I am always welcomed back.... etc...

Then I called a third time through their automated sytem to get a billing answer... I talked to a rude customer service rep named Sal #2060 who wouldn't even transfer me to a supervisor even though he couldn't answer my question.. He did what I asked but did not want to transfer me to someone who could help.

I am waiting for clarification on the transfer from the verizon supervisor. Has anyone else had this problem or experience in RI?

firemonkey Wrote:
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>
> I am waiting for clarification on the transfer
> from the verizon supervisor. Has anyone else had
> this problem or experience in RI?


Is there a county in Rhode Island also called Fairfax?

firemonkey, I think your question would be better served at http://www.dslreports.com/ -- Just be sure to do a little better in searching their forums than you did in finding a forum about Fairfax County Virginia.

FIOS RULES ITS BLOWS CABLE AND DIRECTV AWAY IF ITS IN YOUR AREA NO BRAINER GET IT.
COX CABLE SUCKS AND THATS THE BOTTOM LINE.

I never have problems with Cox, great prices, great service. My girlfriend switched to Fios and she's had billing problems from day 1. They cannot get it straightened out. We have to call every single month to straighten it out. I've heard this from many many people (including many customers - I used to sell it). Fios on-demand is nice along with service reliability, but good luck if something is wrong with your bill or service because their customer service is horrible. I'll put it this way - I used to sell Fios and I still stuck with Cox.

If you want the best HD TV signal, FIOS is the best, this is without question. Beats Dish, Directv, Cox, Comcast, etc.

You can debate forever about billing, customer service, price, channels, etc.

I also think FIOS internet is rock solid and ridiculously fast.

IMHO, FIOS is WORTH IT (a rare thing these days).

FIOS is Verison and Verison sucks.

Comcast is the best all around.

eesh Wrote:
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> Comcast is the best all around.


the best part is that they slowdown and poison torrents, not to mention their draconian bandwidth capping methods.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."

I have the Verizon 20/5 service. It works well. When installed they were going to default to using Coax but I asked for Ethernet since I already ran an Ethernet cable to outside for them. It plugs directly into my Juniper SSG5. Don't use their ActionTec crap device.

No problems with fios, I've had internet, phone and cable for 8 months. Also, i've noticed the set-top box from fios is a lot better than the one from cox.

Gravis Wrote:
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> eesh Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Comcast is the best all around.
>
>
> the best part is that they slowdown and poison
> torrents, not to mention their draconian bandwidth
> capping methods.


I just think they have the best customer service. The others in this area are pretty shitty for customer service.

Blessed are the murderous.

De only problem is the cable companies, including Verizon, are geographical monopolies due to the Archaic Franchising structure iniated in the early 70's. And Verizon only goes where it can cherry pick, apartments and good demographics. So where is the competition engendered by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Ask the FCC about cable rules and competition; they are the biggest Ali Baba's in media oversight. For fun, ask the FCC how basic cable rates are regulated and about Module H on Forms 1240, filed for every municipality. How archaic is this - franchises are still approved by towns and cities, where major plant and programming decisions are made by the cables and Verizon in their nationwide headquarters. And municips still get a 5% Franchise Fee on Gross Revenue for "regulation" -- What regulation and pay off of the "local fathers". What a Farce, Guys! But this is Amerika.



Jerry F

Jerry Franklin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> De only problem is the cable companies, including
> Verizon, are geographical monopolies due to the
> Archaic Franchising structure iniated in the early
> 70's. And Verizon only goes where it can cherry
> pick, apartments and good demographics. So where
> is the competition engendered by the 1996
> Telecommunications Act. Ask the FCC about cable
> rules and competition; they are the biggest Ali
> Baba's in media oversight. For fun, ask the FCC
> how basic cable rates are regulated and about
> Module H on Forms 1240, filed for every
> municipality. How archaic is this - franchises
> are still approved by towns and cities, where
> major plant and programming decisions are made by
> the cables and Verizon in their nationwide
> headquarters. And municips still get a 5%
> Franchise Fee on Gross Revenue for "regulation"
> -- What regulation and pay off of the "local
> fathers". What a Farce, Guys! But this is
> Amerika.
>
>
>
> Jerry F


I've met quite a few people from the middle east. Especially Palestinians.

You remind me of them.

Cocks Cable is a ripoff

Verizon Wrote:
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> FIOS is Verison and Verison sucks.


oh i thought we were talking about verizon... yea verison does suck.

I get free hd directv via my company. literally cannot beat that deal.

RESton Peace Wrote:
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> I get free hd directv via my company. literally
> cannot beat that deal.


They're still around? I thought dishes went out with tape players.

FiOS sucks

I love my FiOS. I was the first FiOS customer in the CO. There was definitely some growing pains bullshit at first. And billing was a nightmare since I had "naked" FiOS with no landline. Regardless, once the kinks were worked out, it just works. And keeps working with no issues. Sooooooo much better than the bullshit my father-in-law deals with over in Burke with Cox.

The same cannot be said of the FiOS TV DVR. It works but it's just as buggy as the Dish Net DVR it replaced and the DirecTivo before that. The picture kicks ass though. I'll be dumping the DVR ($16/mo) and using a cable card tuner ($4/mo) for my PC based DVR instead. I can live without PPV and On-Demand.

Still love my FiOS...

I’d never use FiOS for TV. They charge $19.99 for their multi room DVR service fee, which is like triple what DISH Network charges! A co-worker at DISH has the 922 DVR which is 3D compatible but the sweetest thing about this receiver is you can get the TV Everywhere mobile app on devices like Smartphone's, Laptops, and Tablets. FiOS can’t do that.