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. 
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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