FIOS, Sigh-os
September 29, 2007 by cynthia
I’ve spent much of the day troubleshooting a goofed-out FIOS connection. It’s a tribute to Verizon, I suppose, that I had so much trouble believing my FIOS connection was at fault.
About two, three weeks ago, started getting funky time-outs when FTP’ing, the Web browser seemed to get really, really slow or even stop a couple of times, and all of a sudden my e-mail would show all kinds of server time-outs for no good reason. At first I put it down to the Web’s inevitable mini-hiccups, then to postprandial access (everyone and his uncle seems to like to go online just after dinner, which can tax the system). Then I began wondering if my system had a virus…
And so this morning I started troubleshooting in earnest. Slow and dropped connections on three platforms (Mac, Windows, Linux), four browsers (Firefox Mac & PC, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera), three computers and two connex (100Mbps Ethernet and WiFi). Hit up mytest.net: Connection has dropped from 15Mbps to 5Mbps on the download (not counting timeouts) and from 2Mbps to about 1.6Mpbs on the up, consistent on all computers.
Obviously a network problem, so I called Verizon, got a GOOD tech with the very appropriate name “James Webb,’ (c’maaaaaan–he’s gotta be making that up, right?), and we dove in.
Sifted through settings and protocols with a fine-toothed comb, pinged and traced until we were blue in the face, tried the line with and without a router in the middle. No change. Conclusion: Something’s screwy in Verizon’s network, and they’re getting it fixed.
In the meantime, I’m gonna stop trying to upload files and validate websites, and go make some glass. (yeehah!)
Afternote: Someone forgot to turn the juice back on after the final tests (i.e., my connection needed renewal on Verizon’s end when I finally reattached the router). Called Verizon again to do that, and the new rep suggested that if I went to fioshelp.verizon.com I could do it myself. Went there, and the site crashed.
Well, at least I’m not the only one with Web problems today. 
What are you, some sort of speed freek. Come on… if an acoustic coupler at 300 baud (remember a buck-a-baud?) was good for you in ‘78 it should be good enough for you now, eh? And FIOC?? Wazzamatta with POC?
And THEN you go and crash their site.
I’m seeing a pattern here… first troubles with Skype, now Verizon. What next?
OK… I’ll reward you. I just read this last night in a collection and found it on Jim Baen’s site:
http://baens-universe.com/articles/When_Sysadmins_Ruled_the_Earth
Enjoy.
GcB
Cool…enjoyed the read, thanks. Reminded me of a couple of guys I know. I’ve always said the Internet is the world’s only truly self-healing organism.
Speed freak? You’re talking to someone who couldn’t get a fat pipe to her house, so concatenated 6 ISDN lines and played “how big can you get your cache” games for a year before finally moving to a place with broadband. Who once dropped a T1 to the house…serious addiction, fella.
And, actually, I haven’t mentioned what I did with the Vonage connection…
I remember talking with my late Dad (when he wasn’t, as they say, “metabolically challenged”) telling him how I was getting this Way Cool 9600 baud modem. He just shook his head and said when they designed the No. 5 ESS (he was lead engineer) at Bell Labs they never figured anyone would EVER want to go over 1200 baud.
I re-read the story again last night. That one’s going into my “be able to play it back in my head” collection.
So, what DID you do with (to) Vonage?
GcB