Comments on: FiOS Is About to Light up My Life

By: jimmie geddes

jimmie geddes — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:49:40 +0000

Congrats! I just got Fios, the same package you got and you’re going to LOVE it.

FYI it’s an all day install. Verizon was at my place from 9 am – 4:30 pm. It was worth it though.

By: Doug

Doug — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:13:55 +0000

Lucky you, i’m stuck with Comcast up here in pottstown. Verizon hasn’t even touched this area for DSL or FiOS… So maybe it pays to be living with the cows out there… i’m jealous
Doug

By: Jon Smirl

Jon Smirl — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:45:52 +0000

I complained about blocking port 80 so much that a Verizon VP called to ask why. I asked him why they allow unlimited P2P and block port 80. I also asked which did he think would have more traffic, P2P or web servers? He didn’t have have good answers. Then I pressed him about not blocking pseudo illegal P2P activity while blocking perfectly legal HTTP. Again the answers weren’t very good. Bottom line – they want you to upgrade to business service in order to remove the block. Of course that costs $400-1000/mth. Seems a bit extreme to host my kid’s web server. He finally recommended that I get an account at a remote host provider. Of course I knew about that before starting the discussion.

By: Travis

Travis — Thu, 28 May 2009 20:04:09 +0000

Congrats! FiOS should be available to me in August of this year. Here in fGTE land Verizon does not block port 80, on DSL anyway. Have you looked at the 0.verizon newsgroups? Some of the participants there are/can be very helpful. They are not followed by Verizon employees any more.

By: MasterBlaster

MasterBlaster — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:00:08 +0000

Ben, thanks for the additional port info… very useful. Also, I didn’t realize VOD comes from my inet bandwidth.

When I ordered Uverse, the installer also refused to use Cat5 instead of the coax, even though both were available in my house. I raised a big stink, and refused to let the tech finish his job, and he called in his supervisor, who then sided with me and said “if he wants Cat5, give it to him, it doesn’t matter to Uverse”.

By: Gavin Miller

Gavin Miller — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:32:09 +0000

20Mb up! Wow. I’m on 50Mb down but only 1.5Mb up. I’d certainly trade the higher download speed for 20/20.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:29:19 +0000

My parents have FiOS and their router is absolutely horrible, so yeah, if it’s possible for Verizon to set up Cat5, definitely have them do that.

By: gmazin

gmazin — Thu, 28 May 2009 17:27:22 +0000

Faster blog writing addon is another $15 a month.

By: Jose R. Ortiz

Jose R. Ortiz — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:52:57 +0000

yay for fios! glad to see you’re finally able to get it (and so quickly too!) i have the 20/5 service and it has been more than adequate for me but i’m not uploading hd vids. the fios tv service is great too, especially with the cable cards on my media center. you’re going to love fios…just as long as you don’t call customer service =)

By: Ben Drawbaugh

Ben Drawbaugh — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:47:30 +0000

A few notes for your install.

Figure out where the installer can mount the Backup batter in advanced, it needs to be inside. They drilled a hole to run the wire outside to the ONT.

If you don’t want to use the supplied router — I use it, and like it — you need to be prepared to demand that the CAT5 jack be enabled on the ONT, as by default these days only the coax is enabled for Internet. My installer refused even though I already had the CAT5 cable ran, but I wasn’t willing to push the issue. If you are getting TV service with a STB you’re going to need the router regardless as it is the coax to MoCA bridge that the STBs use to connect via IP for VOD and EPG data.

Keep in mind that when you use VOD, it comes out of your 20Mbps internet connection.

As for port 80 being blocked. Luckily the new WHS you just setup comes with a free SSL certificate, and FiOS doesn’t block 443. So just use ssl, which honestly you should be using anyways.

Good luck, and you know how to find me if you have any more questions. I’m sure you’ll be happy with it, I know I am.
Ben