[lotuseclat79]

What are the gotchas?

Last year I remember checkingout the Verizone/DSL website and lo and behold both of my phone numbers were eligible. Now, neither is eligible, although I see a lot of ads for $14.95 on the boobtube. Anyone care to share their experiences:

How far away are you from the CO (Central Office)?
Is it all its cracked up to be?
Is there a way to trial it for a month?

-- Tom

[Gary16735]

Have had Verizon DSL for about 1 1/2 years and would NOT trade for anything. Excellent speed, fantastic support, etc. They say you need to be less than 2 miles from the Central Office. I am only about 5 blocks. As far as the $14.95 a month deal, I don't have it. Am using the $29.95 with an average of 2.7 megs. With the cheaper one, you must commit for a years at that price and only get half the speed. I also am using the Internet Security Suite from Verizon at $4.95 monthly on the regular phone bill. Have not had any problems since installing it. Also, it updates several times a day. Anti-virus, firewall, parental control, spyware and a couple more items. Check out. Gary

[Skivvywaver]

I use the $29.95 pack. I was cable before and while cable was faster sometimes I am now steady on my connection speed. When I was on cable you could almost set your watch by the lag times and dropped speeds. Every evening when everybody was online I would drop to about 1/2 speed and sometimes I could even get on at all.

I don't use the security pack because I take care of that area myself. I am not leaving them anytime soon. I do not use the verizon software, I set my modem and router up manually and as long as nobody ever hits the reset button (I will kill if they do) I will never have to mess with it again. I hated the software but once that was solved.........

[JohnWill]

I'm using Comcast cable, and I get full bandwidth anytime I measure it. I've noticed no slowdown in the evening. I have friends and clients with Verizon DSL, and they've all generally been satisfied too, I see no reason not to jump on it.

[jrom727]

$14.95 = 768/512 kbps

A lot of people subscribed to VOL making the COs full (resulting to delays on the service ready date) And that's prolly why ur not eligible for now.

You can still try to order it tho... and see what happens.

And oh yeah, answering your last question... I think if you order it online there's a 30 day free trial.

[Skivvywaver]

With a cable connection, it depends on how many people are on in the neighborhood and the signal strength they provide to begin with. I could download at 300 KBS when it was good, and when it was bad, well it was still a little faster than dialup.

My DSL has a steady 200 KBS which seemed slow at first but there is never any bad times with it. My neighborhood was built in the late 50's so I figure the old lines played a part in my troubles. If it rained I would either slow down or if it rained hard enough I would lose my connection. That would be old lines with cracked insulation I figure.

Maybe in a newer neighborhood cable would be great, or if they would re-string the wire here it would work better. All I know is DSL works better where I am located at the moment.

[Deathblow]

Well, My Cable is Much faster than normal DSL, I get 6MBit connect, and typically my downloads are 500-800Kbs. I've had it for years and never notice a slowdown. I did have DSL originally, but didn't have much luck with it, the speed was no where near as good as my Cable, and I had connect problems. Luckily I was on a trial connect, without a yearly contract, so I was able to cancel it as soon as Cable became available in my area. I consider it a good fallback, but can't see choosing it over cable. Maybe if it were Fios.

[Skivvywaver]

I am not saying DSL is better for most people. If you lived in my neighborhood you would get hit with some very slow speeds. The equipment (lines) are old and I figure the insulation is cracked hence the mess when it rains.

I would rather have the faster connection "if" it were constant. It just is not. 200 kilobytes constant vs 300 kilobytes "sometimes" made it an easy choice for me. I realize for most people cable would be better, just not where my house is located. Maybe some day they will replace this 1960's era line and things will get much better. Until then I guess I am a DSL subscriber.

[Stoner]

I'm currently on Road Runner. Seems consistant.
Although I'm not that far fron a CO for DSL, the telephone lines up tp my property are underground and ancient. Water in the lines causes frequent problems, so, no matter how cheap DSL gets, untill the lines are upgraded I won't be using DSL.

[Skivvywaver]

Jack, You have the exact opposite problem I have. It kind of sucks to have either of them old and cracked to smithereens. I am going back to cable for my TV eventually. The TV never suffered from bad weather or congestion.

I went to the dish but as soon as my commitment is up, seeya. I hate the dish, too many useless channels for me to try to keep up with and a $5 charge for each box after the one they give you. That adds up to $20 a month here. That part was not explained to me at all. I think it was kind of sneaky but I only have a few months left.

[Skivvywaver]

I'll never review any ISP I use again. Yesterday, for the first time since June I had problems connecting. It didn't last long, maybe about 15 minutes but I had issues.

Y'all jinxed me.

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by jrom727

$14.95 = 768/512 kbps

A lot of people subscribed to VOL making the COs full (resulting to delays on the service ready date) And that's prolly why ur not eligible for now.

You can still try to order it tho... and see what happens.

And oh yeah, answering your last question... I think if you order it online there's a 30 day free trial.

Hi jrom727,

Only question is: How do you order up a 30-day trial when you are not yet eligible, online or otherwise?

-- Tom

[jrom727]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

Hi jrom727,

Only question is: How do you order up a 30-day trial when you are not yet eligible, online or otherwise?

-- Tom

PMed.

[lotuseclat79]

Hi jrom727,

Back at ya!

-- Tom