Prepping For The FiOS Visit
Oct 28, 2009 11:00 - 11 Comments
As >Rockville Central readers are well aware, many residents have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on Verizon’s super-speedy all-in-one phone-TV-Internet service called FiOS. Big Red is busy running fiber optic cable throughout Rockville, so you may eventually be getting a flyer on your door that says FiOS can come to your very own home.
Rockville Central friend Jennifer Ramarui recently had her home blessed by the fiber optic deities, and she offers these tips if you are planning on it:
My tips:
1. If you can, ask for the guy named Bill — very pleasant and funny guy. But, I’m sure everyone else is good too, so it’s not a deal-breaker if he can’t come.
2. Clear clutter around areas where they need to work, and think of an area near a plug where the battery backup can be installed. Ours went in our cellar near the circut box.
3. They might need to drill holes to get the coax cable routed through the various rooms. If that ‘s not an option, think of ways it can go over over door frames, near baseboard, etc. If you have Comcast right now, it might not be an issue. We had wacky double DirecTV cords, which caused a little confusion
After you place your order, you’ll receive an email with a link to a”what’s next” page which provides more details about preparing. The installation took a long time, but I was only offline for about 30 minutes. It may have been shorter since I ran out for a bit while Dante was there.
Important — you need to be there the whole time. Our installation took from 11:30 til 6:45, but it was thorough. He programmed ALL the remotes to work with ALL the devices, which was very nice.
Thanks so much Jenny! Now I just have to wait for them to reach me.
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I had FiOS installed about a week ago at my home here in Rockville and am very happy with it myself, but I will add one very important piece of information.Even if you don’t know what this means, when the Verizon install technician comes in, ask him (or her? it could happen?) to use CAT5 cabling instead of Coax between the ONT (the box Verizon puts on the outside of your house) and the router they give you. The reason for that is simple: the router they give you is terrible. Google for “Verizon FiOS Actiontec router” and you’ll see nothing but scathing remarks about it. For the average home user, the worst part is that the wireless range and quality is lousy, but there are other issues as well that are rather technical so I won’t go into the details. That said, I’ve since managed to tinker with (read “massively hack”) the darn thing to make it work better, but it’s not something your average home user can do.If you ask Verizon to use CAT5 instead of Coax, you’ll later be able to swap out the Verizon router for just about any other commercial Wireless-N (or Wireless-G, but you may not experience full FiOS speeds) router. Unfortunately because of the standard Verizon uses for coaxial data transmission, there are no commercially available routers I am aware of that can simply be swapped for the Verizon router on a Coax connection.This all assumes that you’re only going for FiOS internet. If you’re also switching to their TV, you’re stuck with the Actiontec router without doing some major playing with the default settings.
The advice Ms. Ramarui gives is very good. I would like to add to it, but I do not want to run the risk of getting into a legal battle, with Verizon (and maybe DirecTV, and possibly even Comcast); I am not publishing my name. While I generally am satisfied with Fios, I was not satisfied with part of the installation process and a few other aspects of Fios, of which you might want to be aware so you can avoid, hopefully. Please understand that what happened below took about 6 hours, so to be with the installer, during all of that time, was quite taxing, and I just did not watch the installer’s every single move. I advise you to watch the installer’s every single move, because of what I write, beginning with the second paragraph below.First, Verizon will e-mail you a “What to Do Next” e-mail, as Ms. Ramarui wrote. One step in that e-mail is to install some programs into your computer. The sales person offered me Verizon’s computer security system, but I declined it, since I have had trouble with security systems other than the one I have now. I was told that Verizon would not have this with me and I would not be charged for it. Well, in the installing of the “What to Do Next,” package, I found that Verizon’s Security System was in it and it automatically got installed in my computer. Time was getting short, I was busy, and I had already spent a lot of time with Verizon asking them questions, since I was going to have to buy out my DirecTV contract for $260, I wanted to make sure I was satisfied. When Verizon sold me their bundle, they told me that, since I did not want their Security System, I did not have to have it and I would not be charged for it. Well, the installer absolutely refused to uninstall the Verizon Security System; it ended up being very hard to COMPLETELY uninstall. It caused all kinds of conflicts with my existing security system, and kept popping up in all kinds of ways reminding me to do this or that, even after I thought I had uninstalled it completely. Also, since we have paperless billing, and often don’t pay as close attention to it as we should, we called Verizon about another problem and the representative went over our bill. She said that we had Verizon’s Security system, which I think costs about $8.99 a month. I told her that I had declined this, when we purchased the “bundle,” and she did retroactively credit our account, however. Also, when the installer arrived, I had to argue with the installer about where to put the battery. It doesn’t take a huge amount of space, about the girth of a car battery and about half the height. The installer said it needed more space than it really did, and I think he said this so he wouldn’t have to drill through our house wall where he did to get the battery where we wanted it.The installer did not up the Fios router from our desktop computer so our laptops would work from the Fios router. When the installer came, we were using Verizon DSL and a Lynksys router for our laptops. Before the installer left, I made sure that our laptops worked. However, later on, I noticed an Ethernet cord from the Fios router was dangling from it and not connected to anything. I thought this was odd. The Fios installer did NOT hook up the Fios router to our desktop computer and although out laptops were working; they still were working by using the DSL box and the Lynksys router, which the installer did not remove. When I removed the DSL box and the Lynksys router, the laptops stopped working. I, myself, then found where to connect the dangling Fios Ethernet to our desktop, so the Fios router would work.The worst thing the installer did happened because I didn’t watch the installer’s every move as to where the installer put the cable onto the house, even though I told the installer exactly where I wanted it installed. The installer did not run the line where I told installer I wanted it run, so it would not be seen. Instead, the installer ran the line, the easiest way for the installer to run it, but it looks bad, since it’s on the front of the house for thirty or so feet then goes down the front of the house for about ten feet. All of this could have been avoided, if the installer would have run the cable line where I told the installer to run it, or if I had watched the installer’s every move. When I complained to Verizon about all of this, they asked me if I was at home when the installer did the installation, and, of course, I said yes. They said that these are the reasons why they ask you to be at home when the installers are there. But wow!!! To watch every move for 4 to 6 hours is something else!So, in a nutshell, I advise you to really use your due diligence, to the max, from beginning to end. Stay with the installer’s every move and watch the installer like a hawk. It’s your house, and the installer probably doesn’t care about your house as much as getting the job finished as easily as she/he can.There are some good things, I will say about Fios. The bundle of Extreme HD TV with 3 DVRs, the highest speed of internet and phone costs us about $20 per month less than we were paying for DirecTV alone. A couple of downsides to Fios versus DirecTV are Fios’ DVRs have a lot less storage space to record programs. Also, having had DirecTV, I think it has the best software programming for its services. Regarding Brad’s nemesis, Comcast, they were mine, too, before DirecTV. They wanted half a day to be blocked out for repairs, and then they wouldn’t arrive, would bring the wrong equipment for the repair, or couldn’t do the repair for some reason – all on my time. With DirecTV, we did have HBO and Cinemax, but we never watched them, so we don’t miss them, and Fios has sales on them from time to time, so if we decide we want them, we can always change our mind and get them again. Also, Fios has a lot of on demand movies, which are free. Also, I’m so glad that when it rains hard or snows hard I can still watch TV or if I’ve tried to record a show and it has rained that it will have been recorded.
I chickened out and put my phones on Comcast cable instead of putting the inernet and TV on Verizon. It was lots easier, and I’m saving a lot of money each month. Well, for a year anyway, then all bets are off.So far so good. Except…..when I plug the fax into the phone line, it won’t work. When I called Comcast to ask why not, the guy said “Do you have a dial tone on the line? Thats all we promise. You’ll have to adjust your fax, I guess.” I hope that ‘ll be an easy fix, but who needs a fax machine anymore.I gotta say, even with our old TVs (no HD here) the pictures are remarkably better with the digital cable than with the old cable. With my eyes, I cn’t imagine I’d be able to appreciate a better picture.I hope eveyrone loves their new FIOS, that might keep my Comcast bill lower!
Yeah, those prices are all good “for the next ….. months” then all bets are off.I think the incentive will be higher when I am the last guy with copper on the street and they really want to get me switched over… maybe?Plus, with DirecTV I can take my receiver box to my vacation place in the mountains and use it there with an antenna mounted on the house. Try dragging a fiber 160 miles!
One other big problem I encountered with Fios television, after it was installed is with their HD television reception. If you have H1M1 cable, which gives, by far, the clearest picture, connected from your DVR other type of box to your TV, quite often, your TV will go blank for about 2 seconds. This can be very annoying, for example, if you are watching the World Series and your TV goes blank just at the moment someone hits a home run, or with other shows and the TV goes blank just at a crucial moment. This “going blank” also happens when you record shows, too.I called Fios and they told me that there is a problem with their software, with TVs, which are connected with H1M1 cables, which they are working on but don’t know when it will be fixed. In the meantime, they said they were going to send me regular audio/video cables and told me to use them instead of the H1M1 cables. I complained and told them that the picture quality really suffers, when you use regular audio/video cables, instead of H1M1 cables. I guarantee you I’m not going to have paid several thousands of dollars for out HD TVs and then use regular audio/video cables with them, because of some software problem Fios has.Geesh!!! Comcast has lousy, almost non-existent customer service, poor programming, DirecTV is expensive and I didn’t get any reception on my HD TVs when it rained or snowed, and Fios has problems, too. Isn’t there some television provider that can bring us good television reception, price, and service? Maybe they could also throw in internet service, too.
so it seems that H1M1, much like H1N1, is awaiting a fix that is slow in coming…
Many thanks for the information and comments posted regarding FiOS. I have heard (and not folks with FiOS) that the Rockville Channel is not available with FiOS. I have contacted Verizon regarding this, and they were not able to confirm. For those with FiOS, is the Rockville Channnel available?
As I understand it, Channel 11 works just fine on FiOS, and in fact was part of the deal with Verizon.
As a Fios customer, Fios has Channel 11, The Rockville Channel. However, the Fios “Channel Guide,” which tells what programs are showing on channels, on Channel 11 reads “Local Programming,” on The Rockville Channel, Channel 11, all the time, so you do not know what programs, you will be watching at a certain time. This is the same, it seems with most or perhaps, all, of the other channels, on Fios’ “Local Public/Education/Government/” listings, it seems, whereas other “regular” channels show you what programs are showing at particular times on the “Channel Guide.” In order to find out what programs are playing on the Rockville Channel, you can get that information by going to the Rockville City web site and the Rockville television URL page http://www.rockvillemd.gov/rockville11/ at the bottom of the page.
Verizon had just finish installing FiOS in our neighborhood and a day later someone named Mike was knocking on the door selling the Verizon internet, phone, and tv bundle. We said ok. That was on a friday. He said someone would be calling us the following Monday to schedule the installation. That was two weeks ago yesterday and no one ever called to schedule the install. When we got in touch with the main office, we were told that installations were not available in our area yet (New Mark Commons). So why the “hard sell” to buy when the installation is not even offered yet?
TO “Fios customer with some cautions and come compliments” RE: cables.Are ypu by chance referrring to HDMI digital audio/vidoe cables? I too am experincing the probelm you describe but being a bit of a techie I’ve never heard of “H1M1″ cables.