Take that, Cox!!

Tech news
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by Adam »

Yes
Adam
Posts: 2240
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 9:50 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by Adam »

I liked it alot better when it was $60 for the same service.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

Everything that lead me to switch probably wouldn't have happened if it was still $60.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

Image

Bam. From desktop in bedroom which uses 1 Gbps Ethernet to the router.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

From my Surface 2 on 2.4GHz wifi:
Image

He said the 5GHz part is crappy and recommended not using it. He seemed to suggest that Apple devices tended to switch back and forth and I wonder if part of it is just signal issues, as the 5GHz tends not to propagate as far. I will play with it. For now I need to change all the settings over to my preferences. Nice to have a modern router. Even supports guest Wifi.

Side note: the slowest tier FIOS offers is apparently in the top 9% of US internet connections. Just a little call back to our other discussion...
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

Couple fun facts from talking to the installer.

- Previous owner of my house had FIOS since 2007, which would have been the initial rollout. Goes to show that for some purposes, I am not really in the woods, even though the setting of the property/neighborhood itself is wooded.
- All of the infrastructure was already in place. The fiber was already run from the street and he didn't touch that. The ONT box still worked and he decided to move it inside the garage, which cleans up the area around my electric meter. He even used the Cox coax that went from the garage area to where my cable modem was.
- The ONT I have supports up to 75/75 which I think was the fastest speed they offered back in the day. He also said over 100/100 they tend to prefer running gigabit ethernet from the ONT rather than coax, to the router
- At my request he moved the power supply (well the new power supply) to the same location as the router and my network switch stuff in the basement.
- The previous generation system used a battery (the old system that was still there had it) but the current internet-only hardware does not use a battery, thankfully. This is how it should have been from the beginning.
- He was with the company since 2000 and has been doing FIOS installs since 2007. I asked how he liked working for Verizon. His answer? "Meh." It's a company, it pays the bills. It used to be better, but he's happy with the work itself.

Now excuse me while I call Cox to cancel. A little over 13 years with them.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

Cox guy told me they are offering 100 down for $60 mo. I don't know about all of that because I checked the website and it says this:
"Preferred" service at 50/5 for $60/mo for 12 months and $78/mo after.
"Premier" service at 150/10 for $70/mo for 12 months and $88/mo after.

Maybe that 100 thing was promotional or whatever, but he didn't make it sound like it was a special retention offer. Anyway, I am still saving money. Though I may not have switched if someone explained that deal previously.

He had a sales pitch about making sure I understand that FIOS prices vary by year. I said I knew that and both years are below the slow-ass internet I was paying for at Cox. Come to find out (above) that Cox is now playing the same game with 12 month pricing.

I will enjoy the big uplink pipe for a few specific activities:
- Uploading files to onedrive on sync, both from a desktop and wirelessly like from my phone
- Uploading videos to youtube (not that common)
- Uploading files to this forum (like pictures, which tend to be pretty large from my phone)

2Mbps up was pretty noticeably slow before. 5 was tolerable but 50 is going to be awesome.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

So do I notice a difference? Actually yes, even just web browsing.

Fun fact:
The FCC definition for broadband internet is at least 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up. My 15/2 service with Cox didn't qualify as broadband according to the 2015 FCC definition. That's funny. And kind of sad.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

kevm14 wrote:From my Surface 2 on 2.4GHz wifi:
Image

He said the 5GHz part is crappy and recommended not using it. He seemed to suggest that Apple devices tended to switch back and forth and I wonder if part of it is just signal issues, as the 5GHz tends not to propagate as far. I will play with it. For now I need to change all the settings over to my preferences. Nice to have a modern router. Even supports guest Wifi.

Side note: the slowest tier FIOS offers is apparently in the top 9% of US internet connections. Just a little call back to our other discussion...
5Ghz
Image

Other than for an interference issue I don't know why I'd use 5ghz.
kevm14
Posts: 15200
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: Take that, Cox!!

Post by kevm14 »

Just tried again on 2.4.

Image

I don't know if speedtest.net is trustworthy.
Post Reply