A question for you Verizon DSL users

[BurninMan921]

Getting sick of comcast, so I'm looking to switch. Does Verizon have unlimited usenet (ie, newsgroup) access? If not, what are the download limits?

Thanks for the help!

[UALOneKPlus]

Getting sick of comcast, so I'm looking to switch. Does Verizon have unlimited usenet (ie, newsgroup) access? If not, what are the download limits?

Thanks for the help!

What happened? I use Comcast, no big complaints yet, other than pricing...

[CowboySlim]

I have Verizon for my local landline and had them briefly for wireless. I hate them as much as Fry's.

[BurninMan921]

A) Cost
B) Service interuptions/failures (modem's always resetting in the middle of the downloads).
C) Crappy newsgroup service

I friend of mine had the Verizon DSL service, and had no problems with it. Plus it's cheaper. He never used newsgroups, and doesn't have DSL anymore, so he's no help on that subject...

[TheWizard]

Hmm, I won't be much help on the Usenet question either. Although, I can give it a whirl with my Verizon DSL connection and get back to you with some answers. Sadly enough, I hear that for the best Usenet service, you need to pay a third-party company (like EasyNews) for it. By paying, you get no restrictions and no download limit.

I definitely hear you with the cost issue. I used to have Time Warner's Road Runner Cable Modem Service, and I would have kept it if I didn't move. It cost $15 more than my Verizon Online DSL connection, which is definitely a noticeable price difference! I liked the speed of my Road Runner connection; it was MUCh better upstream, but for 15 bucks less, I don't mind taking the decreased upstream bandwidth of Verizon DSL. I can still manage 1.5Mb/s downstream, which is slightly less than what I managed with Road Runner. In terms of stability, Verizon is just as solid as Road Runner, if not a little more.

[Matt]

A) Cost
B) Service interuptions/failures (modem's always resetting in the middle of the downloads).
C) Crappy newsgroup service

What kind of newsgroup service do you want? If you're interested in binaries *grumble* you might as well head on over to giganews.com. If you want straigt text newsgroups for discussion like they were designed for check out news.individual.net which is very complete and up to date, or supernews.com. Andrew at supernews frequents several of the groups that I post in and their service is very solid and complete.

As for DSL service itself:
1) Depending on location, generally, speeds are not as fast as cable, but you don't run into node saturation problems due to a single source of bandwidth right to your ISP. This also influences packet loss and over all response times on the line. So basically it's slower in most instances but somewhat more reliable.
2) From what I've observed, people have less trouble with DSL routers/modems than they do DOCSIS based cable modems.
3) You're less prone to port scans and intrusion attempts due to being on a different non contiguous 24.0.0.0/8 IP space.

I haven't used DSL service from verizon before, but I have used IDSL(northpoint, rhythms, covad), ADSL(qwest), cable (formerly attbi), and currently wireless. There's a rather large verizon forum at http://www.broadbandreports.com

[daphatty]

I am currently a Verizon DSL user and have this to say about them so far.

1) Cost. $34.95 a month does feel pricey to me. Especially for 1.5d/128u.

2) Service. I haven't had an issue with service interruptions per se but I did notice that my connection would drop if I left my PC on and there was no network activity for long periods of time. I thought it was a bad modem and asked to have it replaced. Instead, Tech Support told me that the modem was a brand new model and that I my connection may have been dropped due to inactivity. Apparently, there is a clause in the contract that allows them to drop your connection if you aren't using it. This can be quite annoying because it forces you to power cycle your modem in order to reconnect. Fortunately, this has never happened while I was downloading data. I just log into an active IRC channel as a work around.

3) Usenet. Their NG access isn't the best. The retention times aren't that great and many of their posts show up incomplete. (This is in my experience.) There are no download limits that I am aware of yet what good is that if they dont have complete posts? You are better off paying for a dedicated Usenet provider like Easynews or the like. Easynews has a limit of 6gigs per month but its hard to surpass that. They even have a earn free gigs program that you could accumulate for those times where 6gigs just aint enough.

-DaPhatty

[BurninMan921]

Thanks for the info everyone. I went ahead and ordered it, because Comcast's just starting to be really flaky of late

Nice to here that the atleast have SOME usenet access...I spent an hour on the phone with them today, talked to four different people (all of which who had no clue what I was talking about) and finally got told they didn't have usenet access (even though they have a "what are newsgroups" thing on their website). Argh!

One things for sure: Comcast's customer service is a heck of alot better than Verizons. Luckily never really need it.

But daphatty, please tell me this: is their usenet server address provided in the setup package the send you? I really don't feel like spending two hours on the phone again talking to "DSL Techs" who have no clue what a "newsgroup" even is..

[TheWizard]

If their news address is not provided in the setup package (I didn't see it anywhere in mine), then simply type it in manually: news.verizon.net

I hear you about the Verizon DSL tech support, BurninMan921. My brother and I both spoke to them regarding an account on their mail server, and apparently their Level 2 Techs don't know what an SMTP server is. On top of that, they said their mail server is "locked down" and no one has access to it. This strikes me as extremely odd. There must be SOMEONE with the administrator password, but according to the techs, there isn't! Verizon customer service/tech support is friendly across the board (landline phone, wireless, and DSL), but their DSL division doesn't have a clue, as you pointed out. I agree with that 100%!