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Some urban areas are getting crowded with broadband options, meaning that your buying decision must rest on price, performance, and features. Verizon Online DSL with MSN offers all three, in spades. Its $34.95-per-month service provides 1.5Mbps downstream and 128Kbps upstream for $15 less than our other Editors' Choice, Covad. Billing options are flexible; they go either to your phone bill or a credit card. You get your pick of Internet interface, either a regular browser looking at Verizon's start site or the greater hand-holding of MSN. Verizon trumps Covad, too, by leaving off a penalty for early cancellation. All you do is return your modem or pay $99 to keep it. What's not to like?
Setup and interface: 8
To order Verizon DSL with MSN service, you must live in an area served by Verizon and be within three miles of a Verizon central office. Verizon's Web site will confirm whether you qualify (MSN's site mistakenly told us we were out of range). Verizon offers a 30-day free trial period and charges you for the shipment of the self-setup kit (about $13), but equipment and early termination are free. If you cancel within a year, you either return Verizon's DSL modem or pay $99 for it. This beats Covad and SBC Yahoo, which both charge at least $200 for early termination.
After you sign up, Verizon pampers you with an estimated service-ready date, links for tracking your equipment delivery, and regular updates. When your self-install kit arrives, just run the included CD and follow the instructions. The company even calls you when your service is active. In our test, the self-install kit arrived in two days, but the service wasn't switched on for seven. Note, however, that Verizon Online DSL with MSN is actually two separate services for the price of one, and you must set up each service separately.
Other elements of the Verizon service could be explained better. If you want to set up a new Verizon e-mail in-box, for example, you have to set up a new login name, too. You get a Web mailbox by default, but guidance for setting up Outlook or Eudora is fairly well hidden on the Web site.
Features: 8
Unlike cable Internet access, Verizon DSL uses a PPP account with a virtual dialer application to log you on to the DSL service. You can easily incorporate the dialer app into a broadband router to share access among different computers, too. Verizon not only allows multiple-PC access, it will provide technical support for home networking if you buy your router through the service--a nice touch.
Once you're connected, Verizon's offerings really kick in, including separate logins for eight different people, each with 10MB of Web space, and its own Web-based or POP3 e-mailbox. Verizon's service includes a fairly effective junk mail filter, and you can create Web pages by uploading your own or using Trellix's template-based Site Builder--a few clicks away from Verizon's start page. You can also use the bundled MSN service.
When is a DSL service not a DSL service? When it's two services, of course.
However, Verizon Online DSL with MSN is clearly two entirely different services with sometimes awkward integration. Yes, you get a total of 17 e-mailboxes, but 9 of them end with @msn.com and 8 with @verizon.net. If you're on the road, you can check your Verizon e-mail at any computer by logging on to Webmail.verizon.net--but you can't do that with MSN. Fortunately, both Verizon's site and MSN include prominent information and support for their sister services.
On the downside, the monthly $34.95 subscription does not give you dial-up privileges. When you travel, you can call Verizon on a case-by-case basis and order a $8.95-per-month dial-up package that gives you 20 dial-up hours, but this is a hassle.
Performance: 9
Like all DSL, Verizon Online DSL's performance depends on your distance from the phone company's switching office. At our test location, downstream rates consistently topped 1Mbps, almost 40 percent faster than the fastest connection our neighborhood cable service could provide. At this speed, file downloads and streaming media at a variety of sources worked smoothly, even with three computers simultaneously using the same connection. By comparison, at various times of the day, cable access slipped to the lower reaches of the 400Kbps-to-500Kbps range; it also seemed to suffer more outages and take longer to sync up after an outage.
Service and support: 9
Good news: Verizon's phone support is free, toll-free, and available round the clock. In several calls, we found that late-afternoon wait times could extend to 15 minutes, but at most other times, techs picked up within seconds. Plus, they seem to be pleasant folks who know their stuff.
Verizon's Web site is none too shabby, either. You get up-to-the-day account information, tutorials, and pretty good FAQs. If only e-mail setup information were more up-front, we'd have nary a complaint.
Introduction
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Setup and interface: 8
To order Verizon DSL with MSN service, you must live in an area served by Verizon and be within three miles of a Verizon central office. Verizon's Web site will confirm whether you qualify (MSN's site mistakenly told us we were out of range). Verizon offers a 30-day free trial period and charges you for the shipment of the self-setup kit (about $13), but equipment and early termination are free. If you cancel within a year, you either return Verizon's DSL modem or pay $99 for it. This beats Covad and SBC Yahoo, which both charge at least $200 for early termination.
After you sign up, Verizon pampers you with an estimated service-ready date, links for tracking your equipment delivery, and regular updates. When your self-install kit arrives, just run the included CD and follow the instructions. The company even calls you when your service is active. In our test, the self-install kit arrived in two days, but the service wasn't switched on for seven. Note, however, that Verizon Online DSL with MSN is actually two separate services for the price of one, and you must set up each service separately.
Other elements of the Verizon service could be explained better. If you want to set up a new Verizon e-mail in-box, for example, you have to set up a new login name, too. You get a Web mailbox by default, but guidance for setting up Outlook or Eudora is fairly well hidden on the Web site.
Features: 8
Unlike cable Internet access, Verizon DSL uses a PPP account with a virtual dialer application to log you on to the DSL service. You can easily incorporate the dialer app into a broadband router to share access among different computers, too. Verizon not only allows multiple-PC access, it will provide technical support for home networking if you buy your router through the service--a nice touch.
Once you're connected, Verizon's offerings really kick in, including separate logins for eight different people, each with 10MB of Web space, and its own Web-based or POP3 e-mailbox. Verizon's service includes a fairly effective junk mail filter, and you can create Web pages by uploading your own or using Trellix's template-based Site Builder--a few clicks away from Verizon's start page. You can also use the bundled MSN service.
When is a DSL service not a DSL service? When it's two services, of course.
However, Verizon Online DSL with MSN is clearly two entirely different services with sometimes awkward integration. Yes, you get a total of 17 e-mailboxes, but 9 of them end with @msn.com and 8 with @verizon.net. If you're on the road, you can check your Verizon e-mail at any computer by logging on to Webmail.verizon.net--but you can't do that with MSN. Fortunately, both Verizon's site and MSN include prominent information and support for their sister services.
On the downside, the monthly $34.95 subscription does not give you dial-up privileges. When you travel, you can call Verizon on a case-by-case basis and order a $8.95-per-month dial-up package that gives you 20 dial-up hours, but this is a hassle.
Performance: 9
Like all DSL, Verizon Online DSL's performance depends on your distance from the phone company's switching office. At our test location, downstream rates consistently topped 1Mbps, almost 40 percent faster than the fastest connection our neighborhood cable service could provide. At this speed, file downloads and streaming media at a variety of sources worked smoothly, even with three computers simultaneously using the same connection. By comparison, at various times of the day, cable access slipped to the lower reaches of the 400Kbps-to-500Kbps range; it also seemed to suffer more outages and take longer to sync up after an outage.
Service and support: 9
Good news: Verizon's phone support is free, toll-free, and available round the clock. In several calls, we found that late-afternoon wait times could extend to 15 minutes, but at most other times, techs picked up within seconds. Plus, they seem to be pleasant folks who know their stuff.
Verizon's Web site is none too shabby, either. You get up-to-the-day account information, tutorials, and pretty good FAQs. If only e-mail setup information were more up-front, we'd have nary a complaint.
Introduction
| Screenshot
| Back to top
