Verizon DSL Blog

FIOS Comes with Web Space

2008-10-31T11:49:00.001-07:00

I'm glad to learn that Verizon FIOS services come with web space too!

I'm working on a website for it:

http://mysite.verizon.net/bizzcv2p/

FIOS Follow-Up

2008-08-27T07:04:00.000-07:00

Comparing FIOS to DSL is like comparing the space shuttle to a pair of sneakers. Seriously, in my experience and opinion, FIOS is fast and reliable, whereas DSL is slow and flaky. To be more specific, the beauty of FIOS is that is uses high-fidelity fiber optics to carry digital signals, while DSL uses analog copper wires to transport digital data.

The proof is in the speeds these technologies are able to achieve:

DSL: 3Mbps
FIOS: 50Mbps

What do you think? Of course you can make up your own mind on these matters, but that's the conclusion that I've come to.

Since this blog is mostly focused on DSL, my other blogs, Informed Hosting and Telecom Rebirth feature most of what I have to say regarding FIOS. Check 'em out!

FIOS for My Office

2007-12-14T10:41:00.000-08:00

My jealousy towards my cousin for his FIOS connection is fading slowly, as I finally am getting FIOS in my office, woohoo!

Fios

2007-11-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

My cousin Max just got hooked up with FIOS:

From comcast to Fios

Man am I jealous!

Cancel Verizon DSL - Cancellation Confimation

2007-08-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

Just got this from Verizon:

Dear Valued Verizon Online Member,

Your Verizon Online DSL service has been cancelled.

Thank you for allowing us to serve as your Internet service provider. We received your cancellation order effective 08-02-2007. We're sorry to see you go and hope you reconsider. If you change your mind and would like to re-start your Verizon Online DSL service, simply call 1-800-567-6789.

If you had a Broadband Essentials & Extras subscription with your broadband Verizon Online service, your access to those services will also be discontinued.

Are you sure you want to cancel? Have you taken advantage of all that your high-speed Verizon Online DSL service has to offer, including lower pricing packages and cool new features?

To learn about special offers available to only Verizon Online DSL customers like you, please call your Verizon service representative right away during business hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, at 800-567-6789.

Again, we're sorry to lose you as a customer and welcome the opportunity to resolve any problems you may have experienced. We're eager to have you back, so we will hold your current e-mail address and your User ID for you for 30 days from the date of this message. That way, coming back is easy!

If you subscribed to any Broadband Essentials & Extras services, those services will remain active and will continue to bill at their normal rate unless you cancel them. Please visit us at www.essentialsandextras.com if you want to cancel these services or need to make any changes to your Broadband Essentials & Extras account. Remember, you can visit us anytime at www.surround.verizon.net to order broadband services from Verizon Online, regardless of your ISP.

Thank you for choosing Verizon Online. We hope to serve you again in the future.

Sincerely,

Verizon Online
Broadband Customer Care Team

Still with Verizon DSL? Nope!

2007-08-02T07:20:00.001-07:00

Even though I've tried to cancel my Verizon DSL account several times - the account is still open. Today is the day - I'm going to stay on hold until its gone! It's just not worth the $27 / month.

Here's a running log of my call:
* Teleprompt menu - said "cancel"
* On hold for three minutes - connected with tech support, I provided the DSL phone number, explained that I had tried to cancel three times before, unsuccessful, and would like to cancel now.
* CSR informed me I was talking to technical support, not the cancellation department, transferred me.
* On hold for additional 3 minutes, tele-prompted again, typed in my DSL number.
* CSR answered, asked for number again, so I provided it again, asked for my account number which she said which would be on my bill, but I don't get a bill - its autopay. I confirmed my identity through other means, and was then able to cancel. The CSR was polite about it, she asked two questions - why, and whether a free month would change my mind. I informed her that this was my fourth try canceling, and since the price went up I had already switched to Comcast.

All in all, the process really wasn't too bad. I've been through much worse! :-)

If Verizon gets around to offering FIOS at my location, I'll jump on it - though I'll probably end up moving before that happens.

Canceling Verizon's DSL

2007-06-01T04:59:00.000-07:00

So after trying enough times to contact Verizon unsuccessfully, I've decided to cancel my account. Its disappointing to have them be so unprofessional, I guess they just don't care about the lowly DSL customer.

I sent them this email this morning:

Hello,

Please cancel this DSL account. Every time I try to call you, I get disconnected. Its not worth my time.

I sent it to billingservices@verizon.net, an email I found after 15 minutes of searching through their site.

UPDATE - This one didn't work either! I had to call them again to finally cancel my Verizon DSL.

Response from Verizon

2007-06-01T04:44:00.000-07:00

In response to my last email to Verizon, this is what they sent me:

We apologize, but you have reached an email box that does not respond to incoming emails. It is not monitored.

However, your issues and questions are important to us.

Please visit our Verizon Online website at :

http://www.verizon.net/myaccount

To send an email or chat with a representative, please click the help tab at the top of the window, and select the "Contact Us" link on the left-hand side.

I don't understand how they can stay in business.

Verizon's Billing Customer Support

2007-05-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

I just emailed verizon.update2@verizon.net, and my email was bounced, so then I tried billing@verizon.net, but who knows if it went through. Here's what I wrote:

Hello,

I tried to update via the link you sent me, and the website said it was still under construction. I tried calling the number you gave me, went through 15 minutes of automated attendant menus, and was then hung up upon.

All I wanted to say was this: please renew my contract for 12 months so that I can continue to have DSL for $19.99. Please make this change, and send the confirmation to my house, as I do not check this account very often.

I'm simply trying to sign up for the Verizon Yearly Plan Billing Rate

Verizon shareholders have say in executives pay

2007-05-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Reuters is reporting that Verizon shareholders now have a say in top executive's salary:

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=media&storyID=nN18229144

That's a big change from the way things used to be. This could either be the start of something big, or a change that will soon be reversed.

Verizon Wireless Cell Phone Line-Up

2007-05-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

Check out the Verizon Wireless Cell Phone Line-Up featured at TelecomRebirth.com.

You'd think Verizon's DSL and their wireless service would be more integrated, but in fact its not at all. They two are run by completely separate companies. Vodafone in England even owns part of Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Yearly Plan

2007-05-03T03:48:00.000-07:00

My Verizon DSL plan recently completed its term and I received this email about what happens next:

FROM: "Verizon High Speed Internet Customer Care Team"

SUBJECT: Important information regarding your Verizon High Speed Internet account

Dear Verizon Customer,

Our records indicate that you currently subscribe to a Verizon Online DSL 768k Annual Plan and that your one-year commitment has been completed or will soon be completed. We are writing to inform you that your rate for your High Speed Internet package is changing to $26.99 per month.* You will see the new rate on your bill within two billing cycles. Your service will automatically continue, with no term commitment or early termination fee. If you have recently changed to a different plan, please disregard this notice.

If you are interested in other plans that may lower your rate or if you would like to see if you qualify for a higher-speed package, please go to www.verizon.net/greatrate or call 1-800-567-6789.

Verizon Online remains committed to ensuring that we remain the best value in Broadband and will continue to keep prices affordable to our customers. Now Verizon Online comes with a comprehensive entertainment package, featuring Disney Connection, ESPN360, ABC News Now, Movies.com MAX and SOAPNETIC. Theres something for everyone including kids, movie buffs, news junkies, sports fans and soap opera lovers. Youll enjoy videos, games, special attractions and much more. Check out all of the great content available to you as a Verizon Online member at http://surround.verizon.net.

Thank you for being a Verizon Online customer. We appreciate your business and we look forward to continuing to serve you.

Verizon Online

*Additional surcharges, taxes and fees may apply.

Of course, the login for their "great rate" system for renewing didn't work in Firefox (I didn't dare try Firefox or Deerpark, let alone Camino!), so I booted up Parallels and am checking it out in Internet Explorer (IE) blech. I checked their price list anyway and it reports I can get my level of DSL for $14.95 / month... that would be nice. But that's probably not dry-loop.

OK... I could login via IE but only got this response:

Still no FIOS for me

2007-04-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

Now TWO of my clients have FIOS, and I do not. :-( What gives? When will they bring FIOS to all of Massachusetts?

Comcast Blog

2007-04-05T17:35:00.000-07:00

I read about this at PC Magazine, but the blog is the important link:

Comcast Broadband dispute

The gist of the article and the blog is that Comcast kicked someone off their network because they used the service too much.

I've never heard of Verizon doing this... does anyone know if they have?

Verizon DSL is Down?

2007-03-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

Our DSL service has been unresponsive since yesterday so its time for a modem restart.

UPDATE: The DSL wasn't actually down - the wireless router needed a restart, its back up and running again.

VOIP over DSL

2007-03-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to make a quick comment here that VOIP over DSL is definitely possible, even over 768/128 speeds. At the lowest speeds, you MUST use the g729 codec - with ulaw/alaw you'll definitely get delays and stutters.

Comcast Workplace is Fixed

2007-03-18T08:09:00.000-07:00

A Comcast technician visited my house today to repair my Comcast Workplace connection - 9AM on a Sunday, now that is impressive support. Its all working now, so I'm off the slower Verizon DSL for now. Thank you Verion SO MUCH for being reliable, it was nice to have a backup during the outage.

Cause of the Comcast Outage
My downstairs neighbor was having trouble with their cable, so when a tech visited them to repair, they disconnected mine for some reason. Go figure. Another problem caused by human error!

Thank you Verizon!

2007-03-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Comcast Workplace is down, and has been for the past 5 hours. So glad I still have Verizon DSL!

Almost forgot about my Verizon DSL

2007-03-12T07:37:00.000-07:00

These days, I almost exclusively use my Comcast cable connection, so I've almost forgotten about my Verizon DSL. I of course always use my Verizon Wireless phone - I love the thing (except for the fact that they disabled the multimedia functions of the Motorola e815!).

I'm still waiting for FIOS. One of my clients has it and I am jealous!

Verizon and Comcast Comparison

2007-02-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

Its been some time since Comcast Workplace was installed, and I gotta say its way faster than Verizon's DSL. However, the price difference is even bigger. Comcast's Workplace is more than five times as much.

Don't worry - I'm keeping my Verizon DSL. Its nice to have a backup anyway. Either way, I really with Verizon would speed up its roll-out of FIOS. Its such a great service, can't wait to try it out.

Can Verizon DSL and Comcast HSI get along?

2007-02-10T15:36:00.000-08:00

Awhile back I had both DSL and Comcast cable in my office, and I tried setting up a failover route but it didn't work very well - the DSL slowed down the cable latency.

But that was on a linux machine, and I just found out Cisco has a router with both a RJ11 wan port for ADSLoPOTS (Asyncronous digital subscriber line over plain old telephone systems) and an RJ45 port for ethernet wan access. Interesting. I bet they manage the routing much better.

Verizon versus Comcast

2007-02-10T05:45:00.000-08:00

Today's the day! Comcast is coming to install its Comcast Workplace service at my home for business use. I'm going to keep the Verizon DSL for personal use and the Comcast Workplace will be for business use.

It will be cool to compare the two and I'll post some metrics here when I get them. One important metric I know already is that the Comcast Workplace service is over 5 times as costly! Ouch.

A different Verizon Wireless Experience

2007-02-06T10:20:00.000-08:00

When I first moved into an office in Stoughton 2 years ago I signed up for Verizon DSL. Unfortunately, the speed and reliability wasn't there because the office was too far away from a Verizon switching station. Here are my notes dated 2005 of the experience:

Verizon Experience:

Told my DSL account was activated on the 10th, so I moved into my office. Discovered DSL didn’t work. Was told misleading information from customer service.

Waited until the 17th, got it activated on the 20th. The technician said the number wasn’t on a DSL qualified line.

Now it is the 22nd, and while DSL is working, the phone line is not. There is no signal coming from the phone line.

Sent this email to them on the 22nd:

Hello, I am writing to inform you of the troubles I have had in getting services from your company. I signed up for DSL and a phone line, and the complications of this process have been terrible. I would like to be compensated for my troubles by a discount on my phone bill and my wireless bill, as I have had to use my cell phone numerous times to troubleshoot the phone, as well as use it in the normal course of business because of the phone line getting shut off during the course of a business day. Please inform me as to how this request can be processed. I would like my first month free, as well as my cell phone (which is a Verizon Wireless phone) minutes reduced. Thanks.

Actually, I couldn’t submit this because their website was malfunctioning, so I sent it via raw email.

I am also only getting 768down, 128up. Argh that’s lame.

And since it was a "business" dsl line, it was more expensive, and you couldn't get dry loop like I now have at home. A dry look DSL line means I don't have to have a regular telephone line with my DSL. All I have, and all I pay for, is DSL.

These days I use cable internet at my business office.

Consumer Reports gives Verizon DSL high marks

2007-01-31T09:17:00.000-08:00

In this month's Consumer Reports, Verizon DSL ranks #1 in the DSL Internet Service category. Way to go Verizon!

The rankings were based upon price, speed, reliability, and tech support.

Testing out new blogger.com - Verizon FTP connection...

2007-01-25T03:40:00.000-08:00

Does it work? Let's hope so, I love this new blogger.com!

Blogger

2007-01-24T16:09:00.000-08:00

I use Blogger.com to publish several different blogs, but some of them require word verification. Its actually pretty annoying, and a compelling reason not to use blogger. Anyone know why it is there on some blogs, but not others?

Informed Hosting

2007-01-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

There are a zillion hosting websites out there, but this one is different because the published is only providing reviews of hosting companies that they have done business with.

Informed Hosting

FIOS Deal

2007-01-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

If I could get FIOS, I would snap up this deal:

$100 Reward Card for FIOS

Does a domain name matter?

2007-01-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

In thinking about search engine optimization, search engine indexing, and the price of web hosting, I can't help but wonder about the impact of domain names, IP numbers, and whois registration information.

For example, does this blog, which gets published to Verizon's "mypages" sub-domain, have a better or worse chance of getting indexed, getting ranked, and making an impact on the web than a page that gets hosted on a static IP, without any other domain names there, and with a private registration? Does any of that matter? Is it ALL based upon content and link structures?

Where is FIOS??

2007-01-16T03:27:00.000-08:00

Speaking of broadband speeds, where the heck is FIOS?? I've been waiting for so long! For those who don't know, FIOS is "fiber optics", and means much faster connectivity throughput. I've heard that Verizon's DNS servers are still a little slow on it.

Verizon Customer Service

2007-01-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

One complaint about my Verizon DSL service is their customer service. I emailed them over two weeks ago about UPGRADING my service and they have yet to respond. Right now I'm at the $20 / month dry-loop "naked" dsl service level, and would consider upgrading, but I can't seem to find what they other packages and their costs are.

Let me take another look. I remember I first found out about the package through Yahoo, so I checked it out again and they did have some prices. It looks like I can get 3.0 Mbps downstream for $29.00 / month. I think I'll stick with what I have for now. I'd love to figure out a way to improve the latency though, maybe a Squid proxy cache server would help...

Verizon DNS

2007-01-13T14:33:00.000-08:00

While I love my Verizon DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), the DNS (domain name server) is pretty slow.

Verizon Domain Name Server IP Addresses

4.2.2.1

4.2.2.2

4.2.2.3

4.2.2.4

4.2.2.5

Its pretty cool that Verizon pretty much let's everyone on the internet use these servers. But that, and probably some other technical factors, make them slow. In other words, they have high latency.

To remedy this, there are a couple of things you can do. You can run a DNS cache, but that's only helpful if you have many clients on your local area network. You can also use a different DNS server IP, but that can be dangerous, as the server could steer you to the wrong site for a domain name.

I think you can also host a real domain server, which is more complex, obviously. How this might help, I'm not exactly sure, but I think it would.

Verizon DSL Blogger account setup

2007-01-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

So here's how I did it. This might not be the best explanation so if you have a question just add a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can.

1. Login to your Verizon DSL account.
2. Setup "My web space", make note of the ftp username and password, you'll need these for blogger.
3. Setup blogger.com account.
4. When deciding where to publish the site, point blogger to your Verizon DSL ftp server.
5. Supply the username and password you noted earlier.
6. Good to go!

Pretty easy huh? Why do it this way? Good question, I guess because you can?

:-)

Verizon DSL

2007-01-09T14:38:00.000-08:00

Why do I like Verizon DSL? I like it because of the price. We've got it setup as a dry loop customer, meaning we don't have voice on the line. We have VOIP, yes we have VOIP! Its a good price.

We use Galaxy Voice with Asterisk (Telecomrebirth.com), and its fine for most purposes. My wife and I both have cell phones, so it isn't super important.

At my office though, we use Comcast Workplace (Informedbanking.com). Its pretty good, but expensive.

Flat HTML files

2007-01-05T14:46:00.000-08:00

The interesting thing about blogger is that it writes out the blog entries to flat html files. How does this help? Well for one thing, it likely boosts performance. The downside is that you can't truly have dynamic files, and it takes longer to "publish".

Testing 1, 2, 3

2007-01-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

Hello?