Fiber to the house?

[eddie_van_earache]

Does anyone have this service? How fast is the internet? blink of an eye fast? Do you think its worth it?

[Jason1212]

I have it (Fios). It is faster than the regular DSL service I had in the past and the cable internet it replaced. I went with it because it bundled my tv, phone and internet into one bill and I saved some money. So for me from that aspect it was worth it. If you are not going to save any money by switching over and or get a higher bit rate at the same cost I wouldnt bother.

[Predator1]

I am still waiting for it in my neighborhood. My inlaws have had it for about a year and a half with no outages and insane speed.

[Soap]

Your asking about running "fiber optic" in your house/home?
Unless your the host on a regular basis of lan partys that seats 100+ PC's I can't imagine its practical use or benefit in the home. Even then, fiber isn't essential or practical.

Whats up?
Creating a in home network of x amount of machines and your looking for maximum speed along with security? Go with a Cat5e setup.
1. Get a "Patch Panel" the amount of ports is entirely up to you/size of network.
2. Get a manageable 10/100/1000 "Switch" with VLAN and mirroring capablility...some can be loud because of cooling concerns. The VLAN and mirroring allows growth lots of growth, may be overkill for your needs. The "1000" allows for very fast speed transfer if the nic has that capability and usually drops are are thing of the past with faster switches, thus "1000". The switch and cabling are the backbone of a good network.

What brand?
For a in home network don't go with Cisco, although they indeed are stellar top notch.
Its outrageous price keeps it mostly locked into large business and corporate applications. For home I recommend Netgear or SMC, both have good support too.

Lastly...
3. A router.

This is where a variety of opinions enter the equation and it all depends on who you end up talking to/with. Again, I don't know your particular needs or concerns and depending on the size of the home network, you can get around or only go with a modem and router. Its cheaper and much easier to manage.
If you do lan parties.
For the sake of average to above average security and desired speed for a home network I would personally go with a switch and router both, but thats just me. With the switch you can tell/assign ports on x amount of bandwith or just turn them off. You got a son or daughter that has their assigned port and if they are using too much bandwith you can reduce his or her bandwith, you can even view the sites he or she goes to without touching their PC's. Ports can be password protected and etc. I can go on for days with switches. Manageable switches are very rich in features and very cool what each of those features provides the adminsitrator tools with, to manage the machines connected to the network.

[Newc]

Why do network nerds think the only reason to have the fastest possible internet connection is to host lan parties or set up a server?

If AT&T can have blazing internet speeds, why can't Joe Blow?


The internet isn't a fine wine that you savor and sip, it's a tool just like a hammer. You use it for information and entertainment, not for the sake of being on it.

If he wants to get his info and entertainment faster (and thus get more in one day), why does he need excess gear that adds $300 to his electric bill when he can get it with a lightpipe?

Granted, all that stuff looks neat in a rack next to your guitar stuff

[dg]

Here's how Verizon Fios works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIOS

In our area, they do the tiered pricing. Download speed at the cheapest level (5Mbps) is just slightly faster than our cable service. Upload is way faster: 2Mbps vs 500Kbps. $10 more per month gets you 15Mbps downstream, which is pretty damn fast. The "premier" cable speed here is 10 Mbps downstream / 1 Mbps upstream.

We haven't made the switch, but we're thinking about it just because I hate the cable monopoly here (Cox), and want to push back a little after taking their constant rate increases for years. My friends who have it like it, but there were some issues with spotty customer service when there were problems in the first few months, mainly with the TV part of the package.

[iced_earth]

I have FIOS - internet only. No problems at all so far and download/upload speeds have been very consistent.

[~K~]

I have fios.. love it . for the same price I was paying comcast for slow internet I got fios

Last Result:
Download Speed: 15542 kbps (1942.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1794 kbps (224.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

[SEEGERMANY]

I'm a firm believer in fiber.

[Soap]

Why do network nerds think the only reason to have the fastest possible internet connection is to host lan parties or set up a server?

If AT&T can have blazing internet speeds, why can't Joe Blow?


The internet isn't a fine wine that you savor and sip, it's a tool just like a hammer. You use it for information and entertainment, not for the sake of being on it.

If he wants to get his info and entertainment faster (and thus get more in one day), why does he need excess gear that adds $300 to his electric bill when he can get it with a lightpipe?

Granted, all that stuff looks neat in a rack next to your guitar stuff

Hey bud, I misunderstood his question and realized afterwards.
His not wanting a home network using fiber which I thought that was what he was asking, instead he wants a fiber line to his house.
Again, I didn't realize this until afterwards.
But referring to me as a "network nerd" is a bit extreme in your assessment of me when you don't know me.
In all actaulity, I'm the farthest thing from a network nerd although I do like my hardware of all kinds.

[Axewielder]

Last Result:
Download Speed: 15542 kbps (1942.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1794 kbps (224.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

That's pretty kickass. I'm definitely interested.

[rjohnstone]

I have fiber to the curb, but copper from there to the house.
Qwest VDSL service running at 3 Mbps up and down.
Waiting for the 20Mbps service to go live. That will be fiber to the house.
Won't be completed until late 2009 in my neighborhood though.

[audiophile]

I'd be all over it, but then just after getting it, all ISPs will decide to go metered (Like the Time Warner trial in Texas)
So instead of me hitting my cap in 20 days on cable, I'll hit it in 3. Dayum

When I go hit school campus and tap into the network, speedtest.net always gives me the big grin with ~25Mbps down and 15Mbps up

Currently have a respectable speed cable @ home 7000k/384k through the hated TimeWarner

[Newc]

But referring to me as a "network nerd" is a bit extreme in your assessment of me when you don't know me.
In all actaulity, I'm the farthest thing from a network nerd although I do like my hardware of all kinds.

I meant it more as a compliment on your knowledge than an insult on your attitude.

Like "Tech Head" or "computer geek", as opposed to "know-it-all jerkoff"

[OnlineStageGear]

Fios is faster than Cable. Cable is usualy up to 10 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream and that's what they have here. Time Warner's responce to Fios was to offer Roadrunner Turbo which is 15 Mbps downstream and 1 Mbps upstream. Fios typicly runs around 20 Mps down and 2 Mbps up.

The thing is I rarely ever max out my 10 Mbps cable connection so getting something that is faster is like buying a Fararri and putting a governor on it. The internet for the most part is just too slow right now.

BTW, if you get confused as to what those numbers are, a 10 Mbps download speed is a 10 MegaBIT per second download rate. The actual number you will see downloading on your PC will be 1000K/sec or 1 MegaBYTE per second since there are 8 BITS in a BYTE plus a tag bit. They always rate download speeds from a service provider in BITS rather than BYTES cause you can use a higher number.

Matt