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  • Author Author: blakerwilson
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Google Fiber setup complete!

blakerwilson

Google Fiber is in and almost everything ran smoothly. We opted to forgo the TV portion and only run with Internet.

 

Then only thing that didn't work was the wireless connection to our Smart TV... No big deal. I just needed to run a cable to the TV and we are all set.

 

VoIP and the ObiTalk

The ObiTalk VoIP solution was simple to do. As you may recall in my previous blog, I decided to keep my home phone number, transferred to Google Voice via a two-step process. Step 1: transfer number to a wireless carrier. Step 2: transfer from the wireless carrier to Google Voice. The interesting thing for me was when I did the porting from Xfinity to my ATTGo phone. I was up front with the people that helped me and I let them know that I would only be a customer for a few days and that I needed their expertise to keep our beloved home phone number. It took all of 3 days to get the phone transferred totally to Google Voice. I was frustrated the day I initially set up the ObiTalk due to a faulty phone I was using to test the clarity of the tone. I will have to go back and re-route the phone lines this weekend and get everything working as intended.

 

The Google Fiber Box

The one frustration I have with the box they installed was the wireless capability. I would have expected to see 802.11ac as the standard however it isn't. They use 802.11n which is older than I expected. I will probably invest in an additional wireless router that is capable of 802.11ac since my MacBook Pro uses (and does not have a dedicated Ethernet port). Also, the actual router only has 4 ports on the back side which seemed limiting to me. If the best way to fully access the gig speeds was to be wired, why not have 6-8 ports? Maybe most people only need 3-4 ports.

 

Future Upgrades?

I  am installing an Ethernet switch to send wired signals to places like my home office, the main TV, main receiver and to the AirPort Base Station. that switch will help me distribute the load and get around the 4 ports on the back of the box.

 

My Conclusions...

If you are looking for a way to save yourself $30-$40 bucks a month on a phone that everyone else seems to have ditched years ago, I would look into the ObiTalk. If you have kids and ever want to have a babysitter, it is nice to have that home phone in the event that they need to call someone... You don't have to rely on the sitter having their own phone. If you've had that number for longer than you can remember and have given it out to scores of people (like we've done) it just makes sense to move the phone to ObiTalk. I do pay fee for the year ($15 a year) for e-911 service which I feel is important. I should have done this years ago. I am in the telephony industry and when we switched to cable for our Internet needs, I should have taken control of my phone needs myself and not left it in the hands of the cable company. They didn't do a bad job with it; I just paid an additional $1,000 to the cable company over the past 3 years for something that I could have done myself.

 

I am kicking around the idea of a battery backup for the Google Box as well as the ObiTalk. If you lose power, you lose the phone. I have cell phones so that isn't a big deal. If I lived somewhere where the weather would knock out the electricity for day upon end, I might consider a generator for the whole house.

 

What ideas do you have? What tests should I run on my Internet? What questions can I attempt to answer? I would say if I can figure this out, you can too! I think some people have mentioned that the VoIP takes a lot of bandwidth so if you are in an area where you have 3-5meg Internet speeds, you might want to test before you commit to being your own phone company. It was a no-brainer for me with the Gig speeds.

 

Let me know if I can answer any of your questions!

Parents

  • Can you comment on which city this service is? Too many places are under served (AT&T) and over priced.

    Clem

  • in reply to clem57

    Sure thing! I am in Olathe KS... Close to Kansas City (to put it into perspective).

     

    I agree... under served and over priced seems to be the trend. I was on a conference call the day Google installed and everyone (except me) met up in Denver and they couldn't believe that Kansas got fiber before they did. One thing is for sure, when Google comes into your neighborhood, the competition freaks out!

     

    I forgot to mention that the whole process took 45 minutes! They give you a time and commit to showing up at that time... So they were to be at the house at 8AM and 5 minutes before 8, I received a call to say they will be there soon! Totally unexpected! I recall the days where you'd get a 4 hour window when someone may be around to install your service.

     

    Anyway, I hope that helps!

Comment
  • in reply to clem57

    Sure thing! I am in Olathe KS... Close to Kansas City (to put it into perspective).

     

    I agree... under served and over priced seems to be the trend. I was on a conference call the day Google installed and everyone (except me) met up in Denver and they couldn't believe that Kansas got fiber before they did. One thing is for sure, when Google comes into your neighborhood, the competition freaks out!

     

    I forgot to mention that the whole process took 45 minutes! They give you a time and commit to showing up at that time... So they were to be at the house at 8AM and 5 minutes before 8, I received a call to say they will be there soon! Totally unexpected! I recall the days where you'd get a 4 hour window when someone may be around to install your service.

     

    Anyway, I hope that helps!

Children
  • in reply to blakerwilson

    Nice, but wish they came here. My cable company (TWC!@#$%) had second outage since Nove last year. The first time was I was gone and turned off cable box. When I returned the service was out. The tech came after a few days and claimed someone(other tech?) took my line since it was not used! The next time we used in the morning and went out. Came home to no service same day. I waited till next morning before 7 am and placed call. Automated call insisted to follow steps to test and hung up. I had done these before. I called back for a call center tech who did the same things! Ugh. Finally the earliest time I could get a tech was 4 days!?! The same day, they try robo call to confirm! What? This happen again that night with a tech from overseas. I said testing will not fix and hung up. When the tech arrived, he check the box and said the whole building was out. Later another person was called and fix some upstream problem but never came to door. The original guy at end of shift check and I thanked him.

    Clem