About to order FIOS for new apartment, anything I should know

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AMD_Gamer

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I am moving into my new apartment this week and of course I need a high speed internet connection. The town my parents live in has never had Verizon FIOS but I have always heard good stuff about it but never really looked deep into it as far as quality and all that.

I am looking to get the $69.99/mo. middle version I am looking at on the website

Faster

Download up to 25 Mbps / Upload up to 15 Mbps

FREE Wi-Fi access included

How does this compare to the current comcast high speed cable I have now.

Is there anything I need to know about FIOS? I plan to use an IPCOP box and my wireless routers for my roomates?
 
Though I live in a newer apt, I would say no, there really isn't much you should worry about or anything in particular you need to know... Verizon tech's will take care of it and if need be, ask you any questions they need to. The only thing I can see as being an issue is the battery backup system they install, though it's most likely outside your apt, though it might be inside, like a closet or by your heater/water heater.

Also, their router/modem works pretty darn well. It's only WEP based but otherwise I love the thing. I get full 5 bars through several walls.

Note; My apt complex has cat5 prewired in the walls of the apt with a patch panel (very cool), but Verizon didn't use it, not sure why...

Oh, only thing I can add, is the modem will need to be hooked to a coax port in your wall, like a cable modem, so be sure to clear some space where you want the router/modem setup and ensure its close to a coax wall port.

Cheers and enjoy high speed poRn downloads... LOL
 
PanzerKrieg13 said:
Though I live in a newer apt, I would say no, there really isn't much you should worry about or anything in particular you need to know... Verizon tech's will take care of it and if need be, ask you any questions they need to. The only thing I can see as being an issue is the battery backup system they install, though it's most likely outside your apt, though it might be inside, like a closet or by your heater/water heater.

Also, their router/modem works pretty darn well. It's only WEP based but otherwise I love the thing. I get full 5 bars through several walls.

Note; My apt complex has cat5 prewired in the walls of the apt with a patch panel (very cool), but Verizon didn't use it, not sure why...

Oh, only thing I can add, is the modem will need to be hooked to a coax port in your wall, like a cable modem, so be sure to clear some space where you want the router/modem setup and ensure its close to a coax wall port.

Cheers and enjoy high speed poRn downloads... LOL
Click to expand...

where do they install everything and what if my house does not have Cat5 wired?
 
AMD_Gamer said:
where do they install everything and what if my house does not have Cat5 wired?
Click to expand...

As mentioned, Verizon didn't even use the Cat5 pre-wired through out the apt. As for installing everything, the router/modem goes where ever you want it, as long as it can hook to a coax port in your wall. As for the battery backup system, it either be outside your apt attached to your wall, or in a central spot such as meter cabinet, or they might be it inside, which will be inside a closest or with your heater unit/water heater unit.

As for additional equipment, I'm not aware of anything, it will all be outside, underground or in a central point like a distribution box or breaker box. Our apt complex has a room for each building for wiring telephone/cable/internet, so if your apt complex doesn't have one of those, again, it will be outside somewhere either underground or in a box somewhere outside the building.

Verizon should not have to run any additional wires in your apt, but they may have to run some coax or something similar inside or to your apt, just as if you were installing cable or satellite. But again, it will most likely be underground or from/to a distro box.

Hope that helps.
 
I'm assuming they prewired the fiber in your apartment building, thats what they do around here - run the fiber down the halls and pre-drill through the concrete hallway wall into a closet. The tech did not have tools to drill through concrete, he did have a drill for plaster/wood though.

When i had it installed, they needed to install 2 boxes into my closet where the fiber comes through, its the same closet for me where my circuit breakers are. Be aware they need power for their boxes. My closet did not have an electric outlet, so they installed a wallwart in my living room, and ran low voltage cable under the carpet to the closet.

For internet they by default run coax from one of their new boxes in your closet to where you want your computer, they drilled through the side of my closet until they could sneak the cable under the carpet over to where my computer was.

With the coax cable you i think you have to use their router. I think over at dsl reports they can tell you more. My router supports wap or wap2. It's pre-configured with a wep key though, which is nice - its not wide open by default. I haven't looked into the ways of replacing it, it works just fine for me.


I didnt get tv from them. I've read for the tv boxes to work, you have to use the provided router.

Supposedly you can get cat5 instead of coax, but you may have to argue with the tech, and not be getting tv.

I also got phone, they sneaked this under the carpet until they could drill through into the bedroom to sneak around the wall to get to a phone jack. The phone cable runs up the wall to tap into the phone jack and provide phone service, not the prettiest of installs, but it works.

They insist on installing software on one of your computers, its not actually required for the service to run, but they claim to need to do it. My tech used a personal thumb drive, which auto-runs a bunch of stuff. I would recommend setting up a machine you can wipe easily after their software is installed, since who knows what it includes, and isnt required for operation.

My new verizon email came preloaded with spam and continues to receive it- which only goes to a bunch of verizon accounts, so i think they have somebody selling their addresses.

My install took about 4 hours, and my tech seemed to be the only guy who knew what he was doing since he kept getting calls from other tech about how to do their jobs, so i think i was lucky in that regard.

I signed up online for the service. I don't know if that made a difference instead of calling them. As part of the online pre-install you sign up for your account name and such.

I think they moved around my appointment some, which kind of sucked. So be sure your schedule is flexible, and you have time to do the install.

The tech needed to get into the buildings utility closet - which you might need to pre-arrange with management. I think they just run all the fiber from there to the apartments, but leave it disconnected in the utility room, so he had to connect it. Or he may have been disconnecting my copper phone line there.

20 megabit download / 5megabit upload is awesome :)
 
My first question is:

Do you want to use your own router, or their's? There are several known issues with previous versions of the Actiontec router (ie small NAT tables if I remember correctly).

If you want to use your own router easily, then read up on the issues/requirements at DSL REPORTS. Pay particular attention to sections 3.0 and 3.1

After looking through that site, post any other questions. I've got FIOS and like it. Have also set up several clients using their own equipment, subjugating the Actiontec...
 
boatasiaus said:
My first question is:

Do you want to use your own router, or their's? There are several known issues with previous versions of the Actiontec router (ie small NAT tables if I remember correctly).

If you want to use your own router easily, then read up on the issues/requirements at DSL REPORTS. Pay particular attention to sections 3.0 and 3.1

After looking through that site, post any other questions. I've got FIOS and like it. Have also set up several clients using their own equipment, subjugating the Actiontec...
Click to expand...

My own, DIR-655
 
If you are just getting Internet, you should be able to use your own no problem. Just tell them to provision it as CAT 5e

If getting TV as well, you need their modem as a MOCA bridge, so cable on demand, channel info, etc works. Again, you want to be provisioned as CAT 5e, which the techs don't want to do. It helps if you run the CAT 5e yourself, from where the ONT (main FIOS connection coming into the house) is to the router location.

The guides I pointed to over at DSL reports go thru all this
 
thanks for the info everyone, I have it being installed on Tuesday, the medium internet plan only for $70/month, I think it is 25/15 should be great.

My room does have coax and cat5 running into it so everything should be all set and upon further inspection of my house either a previous tenant or the apartment on the 2nd/3rd floor has FIOS as there is one of those optical boxes on the outside with the electricity meters and all that stuff.

I left my IPCOP box at my rents place so for now I will just use the DIR-655.
 
Be prepared for a much, much higher 1st bill... the first bill is usually $200+ for people, since it includes a partial 1st month and a FULL 2nd month.
 
PanzerKrieg13 said:
Also, their router/modem works pretty darn well. It's only WEP based but otherwise I love the thing. I get full 5 bars through several walls.
Click to expand...

The verizon routers support wpa but it needs to be enabled. It is under wireless settings under advanced security settings. You should be able to select wpa and wpa2 instead of wep. Should be the same on their dsl routers as well. By default it uses wep.

Anyway OP everyone else seemed to have covered the basics. Setup takes a little time but past that nothing too bad.
 
hmm i wish i had fios 0.0 but to me fios has excellent reviews in terms of an stable speed all the time vs cable which is shared with everyone else. i was on this other forum about palisade park i believe its in nj they all have twc but once fios came into the area they all signed up for it. i also heard that verizon is also investing on small battery packs and more flexible fiber cables. i saw this on dslreports
 
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