 Review by C0deZer0 
Posted: 262 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 5070 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Davenport,Polk,FL
 $150 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "Very reliable wireless router/modem. Great Speed!"
 "Uncomfortably mis-guided install techs for FiOS internet. Prepare to be project manager with the installers to get it right."
 "Verizon's product does it right."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
|
To summarize:
Yes, the "triple play" starts at $99, but we've added quite a few extras since then; not least of which:
= upgrade to 20/5 internet (from the base 10/2) (+$10)
= One HD-DVR (+$19.95)
= Two HD receivers (+$9.95 each)
= One SD receiver (+$5.99)
And the remaining to the usual taxes and un-fees (and whatever the HD channels package costs).
Pre-Sales information does its job for the big stuff, but naturally leaves out the costs involved for the additional STB's and the upgrade for faster internet speed. Sadly, none here would allow me to upgrade to a higher speed beyond the 20/5 service, saying that anything faster is not allowed to be bundled, and thus the bundle savings would be lost.
The install co-ordination for the FiOS internet went without a problem, and we were provided their branded modem/wireless router. It has good performance and I seem to be able to realize most of the speed being paid for while still doing in-LAN stuff. Disturbingly though, Verizon ships these out with only WEP enabled, and apparently trains their install techs to believe that WEP is "more than enough" for any home service. That may have been about ten years ago, but I certainly didn't feel confident enough in it. After some initial tryout to make sure this thing would work, some reconfiguring of its settings got us back up to the desired level of security for it.
Also of note for DS users: the provided FiOS modem/router package does not work as automatically for Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. You'll basically have to manually assign an IP and DNS settings in the DS's connection options with this router. After this though, all green. Assuming you stick with WEP, of course.
For the phone, Verizon stuck a UPS on the inside of the home to keep the phone service operational in case of power outage. Only negative is that it occupies one of your power outlets in the house. Not major (given its location), but worth noting.
The TV install was the more... curious one. Literally had to play the project manager to make sure that everything was taken care of.
For the roommate that did want the HD receiver, they provided an HDMI cable to link up his Vizio HDTV to the receiver; all programmed fine. For the HD-DVR in the living room, it was connected to same roomie's old Dell LCD HDTV. At first they wanted to use HDMI as well, but this TV doesn't have HDMI, and it also needs the "PC Audio" input to supply audio when using HDMI-to-DVI. Neither of the installers (yes, two of them showed up for it) had the appropriate adapter. For a while they acted like they didn't have any spare cables, but finally one of them produced a set for the connection, which I took care of. For my room and my Vizio, since I've been using the HDMI for my consoles, and had component cables to a switch, they neither would provide the necessary cables nor actually do the hook-up. This rather annoyed me. They also basically 'recycled' the inputs that the standard def receiver would then use, and programmed all that.
Also, of note, had a snafu with randomly garbling of the signal that the HD-DVR would receive. Called up Verizon and they provided a replacement box. Sad to see all the saved stuff by then go, but it seemed to have fixed the problem.
No problems with the phone to speak of either. And the verizon page that allows remote configuration and adding recordings to schedule for the HD-DVR is a real plus.
In short, the product delivers. However, I do feel that first and foremost, the install techs could use some (gentle) (re)education about things such as network security before they start making blanket statements like "WEP is more than enough". So far, what few things had gone wrong with the service have been resolved quickly.
The only frustration right now is for my other roommate, which has been struggling to find a single wireless adapter that will work with him and the FiOS router. I currently use a Buffalo 4-port ethernet converter (which can't be legally bought anymore  ), and he's gone through about literally five different wireless adapters for his desktop, and they've all had the same nature of problems:
- varying degrees of connection stability and latency
- all refusing to get even a quarter of the internet speeds we're paying for
- a few were simply incompatible with the rest of his desktop's hardware (q9550 with an eVGA 750i FTW motherboard)
At this point, he's currently resigned to a belkin usb wireless adapter; not very good speeds from it, but so far the most stable at gaining and retaining the connection. I wish there was more I could do for him, but I'm afraid to cause more trouble his way. 
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