I have just moved into my new apartment (in preparation for starting my new job tomorrow) and one of the first things I did was to get a high-speed Internet connection.
Initially, I picked Verizon DSL because they promised me a wireless modem with my connection. That, and I liked the guaranteed bandwidth (not sharing it as one does with a cable modem). However, when the modem arrived yesterday two things were apparent. One, I had been a victim of the old "bait and switch" and secondly, they wouldn't be connecting me for another couple of days. I could have handled the latter if the former hadn't been true. I was promised the wireless modem without a contract and they send me a wired modem.
Now because of my negative experiences setting up wireless routers with cable broadband I was leery of buying the cable option. But I was very aggravated that Verizon expected me to sign a 1yr contract just in order to get the wireless modem.
So after calling the cable rep and finding that if I picked up the cable modem I could set it up right away I called back Verizon (and after half an hour on hold) cancelled their butts.
A couple of hours later after some time with tech support (bad account number) I was up and running on my Powerbook using my newly-secured wireless router (I had a Netgear lying about). The speed seems to vary between about 750 kilobits to 1 megabit. Hardly the three megabits they promised but I can live with it.
My motto: trust but verify.
Posted by artandscience at January 4, 2005 06:48 PM | TrackBack