no one offers FiOS but Verizon in US. Not sure what she is getting there it may be some type of fiber optic somewhere in her community but thus far Verizon is the only company that has fiber optic to the house or premises(FTTP), some have it to the street some to the neighborhood node(FTTN). with Verizon FiOS they come to the house and run the cable in the house and put a new special type of box (ONT) on the outside of the house and install the software on the computer and set it up and install the special router before they leave, they also install a battery backup for the unit they put on the house because if the power goes out you lose phone and internet (fiber does not carry power like the old copper phone lines do), the battery backup usually holds for a few hours. I had one of the first houses in the US installed with Verizon FiOS, I was a test house here in Texas. I loved having FiOS. Verizon FiOS I would worry about turning my laptop over to the phone company! does she have a firewall running on it? has that been configured to allow connections? with out knowing more about the ISP and connections she is dealing with hard to advise.

zep516, this desktop and a laptop are connected to the Verizon router. The Verizon router seems to be an Actiontec M1424WR Rev.1 (Model No.?) ESSID: 67J6G WPA2 KEY: PT2QH89MGDMKLVWP WPS PIN: 75005269 User Name: Admin & a password. The tablet has a connection labeled 67J6G. When I click on it, it asks for the password but when I type it in, I see... authenticating; then - authenticating problem. I am sure that there is a solution. I want to make this thing work. Thanks.

I currently have Comcast Business Pro Service ($52.50 a month roughly) and get blazing fast downloads (between 8 and 10 mbps) with respectable uploads just below a T1 line speed(700-1000 kbps). Super low latency (5ms-10ms to the gateway server) compared to Verizon DSL (80ms-120ms) I used to have which is good because I am an avid online gamer so latency is important. Plus I also have the ability to run network servers so the extra speed is a real bonus, and combined with the low latency, its a no brainer for me at least. Cable is a more expensive choice, I will agree, but I perfer the performance and functionality benefits, my cable provides over my dsl choice available to me, over price when it comes to my technology choices. At least that's the way it boils down for me in south-eastern Pennsylvania.

When you say the $20/mo Verizon phone service, do you mean the stand-alone POTS wired service? (POTS means Plain Old Telephone Service, e.g. the copper wire). I have two experiences with this. A few years ago, at one home, I had Verizon POTS service. It worked fairly well, I even had DLS internet. But there were many maintenance problems so when Verizon installed FIOS (their fiber optics network) on my block, they offered that to me at no additional cost. BTW, this service did NOT include television. Recently, at my other home, I was looking for internet service and Verizon has a telephone cable running through my property. I asked if I could get internet through that and they said that it's POTS and wouldn't even support DSL. So I ended up with a cable triple-play package which includes telephone (which I don't use because I have cell service not). The main, practical difference between these "land lines" supplied by the cable companies is that they require power at your home to operate. The POTS service doesn't - you have a power outage and your phone still works (assuming the phone itself doesn't need power). An old-fashioned dial phone doesn't need any power. You may say that the VOIP phones have battery backup but that battery doesn't last very long.