Google Fiber Review

Google Fiber Reviewed

Overview:

1. Moving from AT&T Uverse (TV & Internet(/ Vonage (Phone)
• I regularly saw down load speeds of 25Mbs and upload speeds in the single digits with AT&T.
• TV Picture was better than TWC but compressed.
• I had Vonage for 8yrs the only complaint was it could not do FAXs unless you upgrade to a business plan.
2. Moving to Google Fiber Internet, TV, and Phone
• I am seeing nearly 1Gbs upload and download speeds
• The TV picture looks significantly better on my 4k OLED TV than with AT&T.
• The phone works reliably. I have not tried to FAX yet. I do like that is integrated with Google Voice.

The Installation:

I had and an 8:00AM installation appointment. Not 8:00 AM to noon. Just 8:00AM. The technician was here at 8:00AM. Actually he may have been a couple of minutes early. This sure beats TWC and AT&T. The last AT&T appointment I had, the guy showed up 2hrs outside the 4hr window. So far Google has them both beat. 

I don't have your normal setup. I have 2 TV's, one in the living room and one in the upstairs office. The upstairs office TV was serviced by an AT&T wireless TV set top box. The Google Tech needed to have a wired connection from the downstairs set top box to the upstairs box. He always used the existing coax used by the previous TV providers. I asked if he could use Ethernet? He said yes but he had never done that. I guess I was going to have to school him. I had wired my house with Cat5 cable 15yrs ago. At first the upstairs TV box did not work. The signal was passing through another router and 2 switches. He called his support line and they told him it would not work going through a switch. I told him, what they meant is, it should work but it has never been tested. I found that the Ethernet cable to the switch by the upstairs TV had popped out. I plugged it in and it worked. I just saved the technician a lot of crawling around in my crawl space to run new cables. 

We noticed my switches were only showing 100Mbs with their connection status lights. As I stated earlier, I had run Cat5 cable 15yrs earlier. For 1Gbs, you need to run over Cat5E or above. I guess I will be doing some rewiring sometime this spring with Cat6 cables. 

 The Tech installed the phone modem with no issues. He transferred my existing land line number from Vonage to Google Voice. I saw no interruption of service. 

The main downstairs TV box installed without an issue.

The whole process took a couple of hours. It probably would have taken an hour less if we did not have that adventure with the upstairs TV. 

The internet:

As I stated the speed is as advertised. I just need to upgrade my network to take full advantage of it. The wireless speed runs around 86Mbs. We got around 25Mbs with my old duel band router. The Google router is really good.

The network management is probably the simplest I have ever seen. Just point your Chrome browser to fiber.google.com and you are there. It is so simple, my in-laws could manage it. You can set up your wireless, run speed tests, etc... Very simple. You would expect Google to do this right and they did. 

TV:

This is where Google does not shine. While picture is excellent the remote and screen layouts are not so great.  For example, every DVR remote I have ever seen in the last 15yrs has a DVR/LIST or some single button to bring up your recorded shows. The only way I can see to get a list of my recordings is to hit Menu and then select DVR. I also don't see a easy way to delete multiple recordings. It may be there but I have not seen it yet.
You can cast from your Chrome browser and Google Play Music app to the TV. I uploaded 2K songs up to the Google cloud and I can "Cast" them to the TV box. Actually, I can cast my whole computer screen to the TV box. This is cool.

TV wish to haves:

1. A single button push to get to DVR recordings.
2. Integration with Google Home. If I had a Google Home device, I would like to say, "OK Google, Put on CNN" and have it show CNN on my TV. 
3. They have APPs on the Menu. They only have 4, NetFlix, VUDU YouTube, and Weather. Google is the master of integration. They really did not show their expertise this time. Maybe they are planned for future upgrades. None of the other TV providers provide any real integration. I guess I just expected more from Google. 

Do you need 1Gbs?

Probably not but you probably need more than 25Mbs. 

I have up to 2 laptops, 2 desktops, 2 tablets, 3 cell phones, and my VOIP phone connected to the internet at one time. If you have a couple of people streaming content, and you are on the phone, things can get dicey, 

Also, Google fiber does not have data caps. Most providers do have or are planning on implementing data caps and throttling. I would regularly use more than 750GBs per month with AT&T. Since I had TV and internet, they did not charge me for the extra data. I am not sure if they were throttling me. AT&T Uverse Fiber, which is also available in my neighborhood gives you 1TB of data if you get internet only and unlimited if you include TV. 1TB may sound like a lot, but if I am using 750GB at 25Mbs, I would expect to blow through 1TB in a couple of weeks. It is like dropping a V8 into a Toyota Corolla but keeping the 10 gallon gas tank. You may go real fast but not very far.

Would I choose Google Fiber again? - YES! 

Updating speakers in a 

2013 to 2017

 Ford Fusion SE with 

the 6 speaker  

infotainment systems

• Speakers installed:
  • Front – Polk Dxi6501 – Component system with a 6.5” woofer, 1” tweeter, crossover
  • Rear – Polk DX651s – Two way system with a 6.5” woofer, 1” tweeter, integrated crossover

Goal

Improve the quality of sound not quantity.
I am not trying to impress the teenager across the street or piss off my neighbors. The OEM speakers that came with the car are lacking, to say the least. While the volume is sufficient the quality of the sound is not so great. Because the OEM speakers are fairly efficient due to their small and light coil assemblies, I expected to notice a decrease in volume/efficiency. Note the comparison of the OEM woofer and the Polk woofer.

The Polk is on the right. Bigger magnet does not always mean better but usually it does. The larger magnet generates a stronger magnetic field giving it the strength to more accurately move the cone.
I was looking at some Alpine speakers that looked equivalent and sounded pretty good at Best Buy. The problem is, they were 3db less efficient than the Polks. 3db may not seem like a lot but on average, for every 3db increase in volume, you need to double your amp’s output power. Since lack of efficiency is a known issue, I felt it would be better go go with the Polk’s.   

The results:

While I do need to turn the volume up more than with the OEM speakers, the sound quality is much improved. There is no more bass than before. They are a little brighter but adding one notch in the bass boost and setting the front crossovers to -3db did the trick. The improved sound is really apparent with piano and guitar sounds. While there is not more bass, the bass that is there is a lot tighter. I listen to, jazz, classic rock, blues, classical, and blue grass. All sounded significantly better.

This install:

I used this website to find out how to remove the door panels and access the speakers. These are excellent instructions.

http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/2013-2016-Ford-Fusion-Interior-Door-Panel-Removal-Guide/index.html

Issues I encountered:

1. The holes in the doors for the speakers are around 7” in diameter. This leaves around a 1/4” gap around the speaker. This causes the speaker to not be mounted on an acoustically sealed cavity. Not being sealed allows the bass to be muddled. My solution was a $1 piece of foam core poster board between the mounting bracket and the door’s sheet metal. The poster board is the white stuff around the woofer. It does not have to look nice, since nobody should see it. No.. that is not where I put the crossover box.
   

1. Where to put the crossover box. Crutchfield suggested putting it behind the kick plate, in front of the door. This would require running wires between the door and the car frame. I did not want to do that. I was able to mount the crossover box to the door panel, above the woofer, in front and below the tweeter. I used double sided tape to attach it to the door panel.

1. I wanted to put the tweeter in the same place where the OEM tweeter was but it would not fit. The new tweeter’s housing is ~1/8” larger than the OEM one. My solution was to surface mount the tweeter with the flush mount bracket. I had to drill 2 holes in the wire mesh, one for
   
   the wire and one for the mounting screw. I also needed a longer screw.
   

1. Chrutchfield suggested some foam baffles to protect the speakers from the elements. These had 2 issues. First, since the actual holes in the doors were larger than 6.5”, they did not really fit well. Second, they decreased the volume of space behind the speaker, raising the resonant frequency of the speaker enclosure. Since the interior of my 1.5yr old car was perfectly clean and these speakers are bass challenged, I decided not to use the baffles.

 

Some things to consider:

1. If sound volume is important to you, (You want to impress the teenager across the street and piss off your neighbors), consider installing a 4 channel in-line amp such as the Clarion XC2410. http://www.crutchfield.com/p_020XC2410/Clarion-XC2410.html?tp=115
   
2. If bass is important to you, consider a 5 channel amp like the Clarion XC2510 with a sub-woofer. http://www.crutchfield.com/g_120/All-Car-Amplifiers.html?tp=115#&nvpair=AG_Type|FF5@Channel&nvpair=FFBrand|Clarion
   

I did not want to do these because I did not want to mess with the wiring. The wiring would involve fishing wires from the doors to the kick plates to the amp, along with a wire through the firewall for power. I could do it but I just don’t want to.

Why I purchased for Crutchfield?

I have purchased several head units in the past from Crutchfield. Their support and customer service has been excellent. They will usually include wiring harnesses and adapters with your purchase for little or no charge. Most places charge extra and don’t tell you need them. You find out when you have everything apart. For head units, they usually include instructions for the exact model car I am installing in. They did not have instructions for the speaker installation for my Fusion. Crutchfield is in Virginia. I ordered the speakers late Sunday night and they were at my door in North Carolina, Tuesday morning. This was normal shipping.   I am sure there are other good companies to purchase from but this is the one I am familiar with.