I pay for 25 MB up and down stream Internet connection and am routinely throttled to less than 15 M download and about 5 MB up. I pay for the Extreme HD programming, and have been paying for it for four years. In that four years, Verizon has dropped about twelve channels 'to make room for more programming' and yet they have not added anything. Oh, I forgot They added OWN and several extra premium NFL channels that are not in my package (not that I care about the NFL and the inflated salaries the drug-addicts and criminals who play football get). I also pay for Cinemax, HBO, Shotime, and Starz. I watched as Verizon dropped half of the channels of Cinemax 'because the West coast channels offered the same programming as the East coast channels, just a few hours later'. The answer when I complained was "Oh, well we offer the same programs on OnDemand. Not really. Half of the movies on the channels do not appear on OnDemand (the good half, unfortunately) and those that are available are available whenever I want to watch them, as long as that is between 8 am and 10 pm Eastern time, Monday through Friday. For those of us who wake up in the middle of the night, or who sleep very little at night, forget about watching what we want, when we want it because Verizon is doing maintenance, and during the weekend, who would want to watch anything on television that was not scheduled by people in New York who have no clue what good programming is? So, here it is, 3 AM, and I am looking through the guide, seeing nothing interesting on television and try OnDemand to watch one of the programs I had selected earlier this evening. What a surprise, it is unavailable. And so I wanted to watch it straming from the network site, and my Internet connection is running at a whopping 12 MB download speed out of the 25 I am paying for, and the upload is a blazing fast 3 MB out of the 25 I am paying for.
How long are we going to have to put up with escalating costs and dropping service? I was taught when I worked in retail that the customer is always right. Now that I work in IT, I know that most users are **bleep**. So, what is Verizon's attitude towards me and the rest of the people who pay for their services? Are we customers or **bleep**?
OK, lets start with some basic questions as to speed. I have 25/25 service and I get 30/25 every hour of every day when I run the test on an optimized hard-wired (i.e. cabled) PC. That is by nature the beauty of FIOS (fiber optics), Comcast can't
acheive this with their technology if you have a lot of neighboring users. So lets see if you are measuring it right. Most wireless network configurations will NOT get you 25/25 and that is because of the network, NOT Verizon. Using the word throttled implies Verizon is intentionally limiting speed, I doubt it, unless you are trying to host a server farm in your home.
So, please answer these questions
(1) Laptop or Desktop PC
(2) Windows XP/Vista/7/8 or MAC
(3) Cabled (i.e. Cat5e cable to Verizon Router) or Wireless
(4) Are you using website speedtest.verizon.net or something else??
Here is the way to properly test for speed (first step):
(1) Connect PC to Verizon Router with cable (DO NOT use wireless)
(2) Open Internet Explorer and go to "speedtest.verizon.net" (You will need to have Java installed)
(3) Pick "Less than 75Mbps" and make sure to pick your state.
(4) Report results of the test.
(5) If you don't get 25M/25M, use the FIOS Optimizer tool that is discussed at end of test. It will modify settings in
the Windows OS related to buffer sizing and can make quite a difference in higher speeds.
Let us know how it goes.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
