technology, networking and IP telephony
Posts tagged FIOS INTERNET
Verizon FiOS Upgrade
1November 21, 2010
I’ve been extremely busy over the last three months both personally and professionally and the lack of posts on my blog has begun to show. So today I thought I would post a quick blurb around my Verizon FiOS experiences.
Last week I finally made the time to renew my contract with Verizon for their FiOS TV Extreme HD and FiOS Internet 25/25. I also added Verizon’s Home Media (Multi-Room) DVR replacing the older QIP 6416 DVR with a new QIP 7416 HD DVR STB. I’ve been very happy with the service Verizon has provided over the past 30 months. Over that period I’ve only experienced two service outages, I can’t say the same of my previous experiences with Comcast. As you can expect I’m a very serious power user and I do a LOT of work from home over SSL/VPN/SSH. So I’m very aware of my Internet performance and I’m very excited to tell you that when you purchase Verizon’s FiOS Internet 25/25 (25Mbps up/25Mbps down) you can actually expect to get 25/25. There’s something to be said about an Internet connection when you can download Call of Duty: Black Ops which weighs in at just over 8GB at a blazing 3.1MB/s in under 40 minutes.
Verizon also just announced Verizon Flex View which allows Verizon FiOS subscribers to access On demand content via your desktop, laptop or mobile device. I’m curious though if Verizon’s Flex View is just centered around paid content or if they allow access to their entire On demand library. And let’s not forget about Verizon’s Media Manager which is a great little application for sharing your computer based content with your Verizon FiOS set top boxes and ultimately your TVs. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t tried either Verizon’s Flex View or Media Manager just yet (no time) but Call of Duty: Black Ops just finished downloading so it’s time to go kick the tires on that game. :)
Cheers!
Verizon launches MyVerizon 2.0 portal in Philadelphia
0August 14, 2010
When I logged in to my Verizon webmail last week I was prompted to upgrade to the MyVerizon 2.0 portal. Always interested in trying out new things I responded “Yes” and have been very happily surprised with the new portal.
I believe Verizon announced this new portal back in April 2010, but only just recently started rolling it out to customers, or at least customers in the Philadelphia, PA area.
The first big thing I noticed (besides the redesigned site) is that Verizon is now encrypting the user credentials with an HTTPS/SSL connection. Let me just say the following, “its about time!”. Up until now you couldn’t login to webmail.verizon.net over a non-encrypted public hotspot for fear of someone potentially stealing your user credentials. So for me that single change is really exciting. Just a quick warning for those non-technical folks out there. While your user credentials are secured the actual contents of your email messages are still transmitted in the clear.
I’m curious what anyone else thinks of the new MyVerizon portal?
Cheers!
Verizon FiOS to block SMTP Port 25
3May 3, 2010
I received an electronic notice (email message) from Verizon last week indicating that they will start blocking SMTP (TCP Port 25) on or around June 1, 2010 for all Verizon FiOS customers.
Their taking this action in hopes of stemming the flow of SPAM from infected home personal computers.
I’ve never heard of Mail Submission (TCP Port 587) before this announcement so I had to Google for it and do a little research. It looks to me like Mail Submission is just SMTP with authentication although I could be wrong, perhaps someone would help clarify the benefits of using TCP port 587 over 25.
In any event, if you are a Verizon FiOS subscriber and you use a regular email client you’ll probably need to make some configuration changes.
You can find the official Verizon announcement here.
Cheers!
