Fiber optic internet connection

[Chuck Wintle]

I was just offered by my telephone company a fiber optic connection for about $40/month. its a 25/10 connection. Does anyone have this type of connection? I may switch nu i don't know if i need this much speed. Thx

[Stephen Cherry]

I've got the fiber optic internet, and it is seamless. Super fast, always there.

[Tony Joyce]

I would love to be able to get that offer, I'm envious. Fiber optic is in front of my home, but I'll probably never get offered a connection, especially at $40 a month. I don't see how you could go wrong.

Tony

[Larry Frank]

Man, I would love to have that connection at that price. I would take it in a heart beat.

[Jim Matthews]

It's a little-known fact that all converting to FiberOptiques must become Columbus Blue Jackets fans and return their Guy laFleur autographed jersey.

*******
Kidding aside, the details concerning the contract after your second year of membership might be worthy of consideration.
As others have mentioned, fiberoptic internet connections were promised in the USofA, paid for by taxpayers and never installed.

Do you have competing wireless plans in your area?
Some of the speeds offered wirelessly are quite fast.

[Curt Harms]

My experience is with Verizon FiOS so YMMV I guess. Yes it's nice but that speed isn't really required for web surfing. If you download large files on a regular basis, it's sweet. I can download a 800+ MB. Linux distro in about 3 minutes if the host is up to the task. The same download took around 45-50 minutes with a DSL connection. Another benefit is the speed doesn't decrease with number of users. I've run speed tests at 5 A.M. or early evening when kids get home from school and the speed remains the same. I found that sometimes DNS resolution was kinda slow but that may be a Verizon thing. I changed the DNS server on the router and it seems better.

[Jim Becker]

Fiber to the home is about the absolutely best way to deliver Internet, Phone and Video from a technical perspective. And it's nearly infinitively upgradeable.

I've been a Verizon FiOS customer now for nearly three years...from just a few minutes after they completed the build-out for this area and started offering it. I truly hope I never need to go "backward" to any other delivery format.

Your offer for $40 for 25/10 is a very good deal. Go for it! Relative to "need this much speed", you'll enjoy it. Things will load faster and you'll also be able to enjoy additional content available to you more efficiently, such as streaming movies, etc. Most fiber providers don't have the "after school slow down" that cable service typically does, too.

[Brian Elfert]

I thought my 1.5 megabit DSL was plenty good for a number of years and didn't think I needed any faster. About 18 months ago I switched to Comcast cable Internet because it is cheaper than what I was paying for cable and DSL separate. I noticed an immediate improvement in my web browsing speeds.

My employer has 1 gigabit Internet for about 900 users and that can be really fast if the other end has a fast pipe too.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

If the price and contract are right........I've never heard of anybody complaining their internet service was too fast!

[David C. Roseman]

Question for the techies: Doesn't the practical benefit of fiber optics depend in large part on the type of network in the home? E.g., if distribution to laptops, HDTVs, printers, etc. is through a wireless network, isn't useable bandwidth speed on those devices limited to the speed of the wireless router? Same question if distribution is hardwired, but is via basic RG6 coaxial cable?

David

[Brian Elfert]

Yes, speed can be limited by the speed of wireless in the home. Most wireless is at least 54 megabit which should be enough for 25 megabit Internet. Wired connectivity in a home is usually via Ethernet cable, not RG6. RG6 would be for TV or cable Internet. If you have Ethernet in the home it should be 100 megabit or gigabit which is plenty fast for 25 megabit Internet.

[Matt Meiser]

There were old network technologies that used coax like 10Base2 but I can't imagine anyone still uses them--if so, dump them for something new! And if one still had a 10Mbit hub or switch, dumping that for a 10/100 or even better 10/100/1000 would be good. Otherwise you're definitely being limited. Likewise with an old network adapter that used USB 1.0 or USB 1.1.

[Jim Becker]

Most "deployed" wireless in the home is not as efficient as one might like due to the way it works and the way signal degrades quickly with distance from the access point. So yes, "optimal" performance is going to be with a wired connection, even if you are literally sitting next to the wireless access point. I found the variability with wireless signal less than satisfying for things like streaming video to the Internet capable TV and DVD devices and switched them to wired. It made an amazing difference! (To be fair, our home is an extremely difficult environment for wireless due to materials in the walls left over several generations of additions and renovations...I have to run multiple APs just to provide service to all areas of the house) Wired connections for my most critical devices allows full utilization of the 75/35 (effectively 83/39) service I have with FiOS.

With more and more 802.11n level WiFI being available in both the access points as well as devices, wireless is starting to be able to keep up and better leverage true high-speed Internet connectivity to the home. But just one device that is not 802.11n capable can really affect performance if the AP doesn't have dual radios. (Most consumer units do not)

Brian is generally correct that typical wired Ethernet in the home is via twisted pair cabling (Cat5 or better), but in the case of FiOS, it's possible to carry those connections over RG6 since FiOS uses MOCA IP connectivity from the fiber termination device to both their supplied router/AP and to the set-top boxes for VOD and some other things. Since that RG6 connection is "there", a consumer that doesn't have their house wired for Cat5 or better Ethernet, but does have RG6 distribution for "TV" can use a MOCA adapter (or a surplus VZ Actiontec router/AP set to non-routing mode) to provide Internet access to a device or devices elsewhere in the home via the RG6 cable. Devices can plug into the Ethernet port(s) on the back of the adapter or if a surplus MOCA router/AP is being used, utilize wireless connections.

[David C. Roseman]

Jim, Matt and Brian, thanks! To the OP's original question, sounds like local network distribution should not be a practical limitation on the 25/10 tier of service Chuck's been offered, and that he ought to go with it. Also, from Jim's encyclopedic post, I gather that MOCA adapters will allow existing RG6 coax to handle even faster fiber optic tiers than 25/10. Our house is fully wired with RG6, and pulling CAT 5 everywhere would be a nightmare, if not impractical. Fiber optic is nearby in our area, but still not yet available to us. So for now we get high speed internet (and voice over IP telephone) through our cable company, redistributed to laptops and Blu-Ray players via wireless G routers. Our HDTV service is through a satellite service, using HDMI cables from the receivers to the HDTVs. If we want to watch Internet TV, it's a hassle. We have to rely on two piggy-backed wireless G routers transmitting through several walls to Blu-Ray players. Believe me, that recurring buffering symbol on the screen gets to be quite tiresome. I'm assuming that's due to degradation of the wireless signal from the routers. From Jim's post, it sounds like upgrading the routers to 802.11n wireless N may help.

David

[Curt Harms]

Question for the techies: Doesn't the practical benefit of fiber optics depend in large part on the type of network in the home? E.g., if distribution to laptops, HDTVs, printers, etc. is through a wireless network, isn't useable bandwidth speed on those devices limited to the speed of the wireless router? Same question if distribution is hardwired, but is via basic RG6 coaxial cable?

David

That's one of the neat litle things about Verizon FiOS. It uses something called MOCA which is sorta like ethernet over coax. The maximum theoretical speed is around 270 Mb./sec, real world is less, of course. The useful thing is you can have one or more more ethernenet connections at each cable TV outlet assuming the cable and splitters are up to it. You don't have to pull new cables. Adapters run about $70-$75 each unless you're a tinkerer with a FiOS router picked up cheap.

[Dan Hintz]

If you need a good splitter, go with Electroline's 8-port active splitter. Solves a lot of weak signal issues and signal degradation over a boatload of splits is minimal.

[Brian Elfert]

I wired my house with both Cat 5E and coax when I built my home in 2001. They are all home runs to the utility room. I installed a powered active splitter for the coax and it works great. No signal degradation that I know of.

[Jim Becker]

If you need a good splitter, go with Electroline's 8-port active splitter. Solves a lot of weak signal issues and signal degradation over a boatload of splits is minimal.

Not useable with all types of services. Not recommended for FiOS, for example, as the signal is major hot already coming off the ONT.

[Dan Hintz]

Not useable with all types of services. Not recommended for FiOS, for example, as the signal is major hot already coming off the ONT.

I have FiOS... no problems.

[Jim Becker]

Yea, but do you need that amplification? :)

[Dan Hintz]

Yea, but do you need that amplification? :)

A fair question... and I can't answer it offhand. I knew I needed to split off the incoming line to a slew of different paths, so I started digging for a multi-way splitter. If I'm typically losing 3dB with every split, why not gain 3dB right back with this thing. I knew 8 splits (or more) could wreck things when service started getting dodgy (it always seems to get dodgy eventually, no matter where I live).

The biggest draw for the Electroline is it's amplification of the uplink line... not really necessary for me, but that's one main draw for others.

[Jim O'Dell]

The 10 meg upload speed is good, but I'm a little confused by the 25 meg download. I get 30 down (only 4 up) on my cable internet. Granted, it costs half again as much as what you are being offered. I would have thought fiber optic would have given more down than 25 down. Maybe there are other services for a higher price? Jim.

[Curt Harms]

The 10 meg upload speed is good, but I'm a little confused by the 25 meg download. I get 30 down (only 4 up) on my cable internet. Granted, it costs half again as much as what you are being offered. I would have thought fiber optic would have given more down than 25 down. Maybe there are other services for a higher price? Jim.

Aren't there usually?
http://www22.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/prop27=FINT_ISP_table%5Eprop11=res|%20fiosinternet/overview.htm#plans

300 Mbps down 65 up work? :) What's it cost? No idea. 75/35 shows here as $94.99 for internet only so I'm sure 300/65 ain't cheap. I've never used cable internet much at all but FiOS seems supply what they promise speed-wise, not "up to X Mb./sec" but probably less during heavy usage.

[Jim Becker]

Curt, FiOS typically "overachieves" under normal circumstances--on purpose. I have the 75/35 plan now, upgraded from the 35/35 that I originally started with. I get 83 down and 38 up. VZ calls that "fluff" and its there to compensate for any effect that VOD might have on the Internet bandwidth because they provide VOD via IP, rather than through the regular "cable" signals. I believe they still use the "up to" language...something that is wise...since there will always be variables in Internet access performance due to so many moving parts. Some of the peering connections to the Internet backbone have issues with YouTube performance, for example. (Not limited to VZ, either)

[Curt Harms]

Jim, we have the same situation. We're paying for 15/5, getting 25/5. I've read that happens when you get TV bundled and for the reason you mentioned, VOD.

[Matt Meiser]

People always talk about this after school slowdown with cable but I've talked to a few friends who have the cable company that's supposed to be headed our way and they say they don't see it. I DO see it on my DSL since they've oversold the capacity of the terminal closest to us--and it hasn't even been a year since they started service.

[Vera D. Lindsey]

I think it is a very good offer. If I were you I would take that offer. You know it is a very good connection. And it is in only $40/month. it is a very good offer. You should take that offer.