Verizon FiOS Evaluated Versus Comcast Cable Internet

They've dug up my neighborhood, wired fiber optics into my home, wired cat5e ethernet in my garage, but unfortunately didn't go the last few meters to wire ethernet to my basement. That's where it would be ideally in close proximity to most of my IP enabled appliances (i.e. a.k.a. computers). To top it off, they left a wireless router, unsecured and without a password for me to reconfigure.

Here's a photo of what's installed in my garage:

There's also a box twice as large outside the house that seems to do all the heavy work translating fiber signals to ethernet:

It didn't cost me a dime to get the installation or the wireless router. That's of course with a one year commitment. ;-)

However, despite the dissapointments in the installation process, I think everyone wants to know the bottom line. Let me reiterate the bottom line, it is "Bandwidth, Bandwidth and Bandwidth". I've found a neat site "Speakeasy Speed Test" that is arguably the best-looking and most convenient way to test your bandwidth. You should never thake the word of a vendor. You should always run your own independent tests. So here are mine in its full glory (both tests directly wired to the router):

Comcast Internet Cable Speed Test.

Verizon FiOs Speed Test.

Standard Disclaimer: Your milleage may vary depending on context.

I currently pay $44.95/month + $4.95 for the cable modem (w/c for some reason I never replaced) for Comcast Internet cable. I subscribed to the $44.95/month Verizon FiOS service. Given the higher bandwidth for FiOS, it's a no brainer as to which service to throw out.

To be completely fair, Comcast does intend to catch up with its planned 16mbps service. Yes, free market economics in action!

[update] I found this blog entry "Verizon FiOS Installed: Macintosh Compatible and Fast!" which is an order of magnitude more detailed than my entry. One can't feel but me amazed at how much research goes into blog entries.

Dan Bricklin (Visicalc fame) has another long writeup of his experience.

After spending a couple of hours wracking my brain trying to configure WEP on the supplied DI-624 Dlink router, I'm begining to suspect that it's impossible to do. Could this be Verizon's way of selling it's own "tweaked" wireless adapter cards?