hey curtis,

my family has been thinking about switching to verizon fios from cable, mainly due to it being a little cheaper than what we currently have. i've been trying to do some reading on it to see how the whole installation works, but verizon's site is kind of vague. hopefully you can answer a couple questions for me.

first, the site says they install a free wireless router to use in your home with the fios service. they will set up one computer for free, but you have to pay like $75 extra to have other computers set up with the software or something. i'm sort of a techy, so i when i installed our current wireless router, i skipped the software install and did all the setup through the router's web interface. is the software they setup really necessary to connect to the service, or is it just a way for them to make a quick buck for "setting up" other systems?

second, they seem to offer different speed packages. the 15Mbps download is one of their top priced offers. are you paying extra for the speed you are getting, or are you just getting better-than-advertised performance.

third, with the tv portion, do you have to pay extra money for hd channels, or are they standard? if they are not standard, do you know how much extra they cost? we have a 52" widescreen in the basement that i'd love to take advantage of hd broadcasting (heroes in HD... *drool*)

last, when you got fios, were you switching from a standard cable internet provider? if you were, did you notice a significant increase in performance? our current cable connection is rated at 6Mbps download speed, and the entry-level fios is rated at 5, so... just curious.

anyone else who wants to chime in on fios, feel free i want to hear all the compliments AND complaints on the service so i can advise my dad properly.