Verizon Fios

The Verizon Fios Story



We had DSL from Verizon and were relatively happy. But two very active
computer users in the household, one with Skype video connected nieces
and nephews, argued for maybe a faster, bigger tube.



So we were the first ones on our block to sign up for FIOS as soon as
the optical thread became available. I argued for the full package,
phone, TV, Internet. I was overrulled. Only Internet. Ah well, I could
live with Dish Network for a while longer. We ordered the Verizon Fios
Internet basic package.



Big mistake- the tubes became clogged very quickly. That evening, Fios
went down. What could it be, must be something- we'll check it in the
morning. Sure enough, we rebooted the router next morning according to
the instructions of the automated Verizon lady and it came back in a
little bit. It went down again. I called.



Our first service visit, how fondly I recall. He increased the loops on
the pole outside, said the light couldn't go around the bends. It made
sense. When the wind blew, it would cause the cable loops to
momentarily tighten and we would lose signal.



Another serviceman was back later that week, in between, Verizon had replaced
their router, he replaced the router we had just replaced, the outside
box and introduced us to 'Moca'.



While the Fios was quick, when it operated, something called the MOCA
(mocha?)-which the installers explained to me as an acronym for
Multimedia, Something, Something, did not always recognize our little
Internet
node. We quickly became a clogged urinal on the pipes. Rebooting the
router might work, or it might interfere with the natural operation of
the Moca.



Fios would work fine, and then go down, come up 45 minutes later
then go down 15 minutes or 2 hours later, randomly throughout the day.
Like copy
machines- if you really needed it- it would go down. It became
impossible to do research, update websites, check on job operations on
distant mainframes, or even surf the web.



We are not even talking about watching a YouTube screamer here- we are
talking about visiting Google or Wikipedia was a crapshoot. But, wait a
random amount of time and the web will come back up. And it will stay
up for a random amount of time. Really need it? Checking on an e-bay
auction final? It's down. Need to leave for an appointment? Up and fast.



So two weeks after they started- Verizon is still not sure exactly what
is wrong, they think that the 'order' is wrong, and of course the
'Moca' but they have replaced the router 3 times, the outside box once,
troubleshot the inside cable (all 15 feet of it, installed by them)
twice, sent 3 service men Saturdays, Sundays, and weekdays (25
of their manhours, 30+ of mine), done a host of network
truobleshooting, and still can't find the problem beyond the Moca,
possibly.



The Verizon inside people claim it's the physical install, the
installers and outside plant people claim it's the Moca, and while the
inside network people see our little node tripping alarms,
they still can't (or won't) do anything about it.



Now a word about the phone service, when we ordered and installed Fios
they switched out our copper for that fiber. It has worked flawlessly.
But thank God we didn't order the TV, without TV or computer, I'd have
gone postal.



In the time it took me to write this the web went from being down to
being up, I read 2 paragraphs on 1 news site, called up another site,
and it didn't even finish loading the pictures before Fios went down
again. How long will it be down? It appears to be anybody's guess. That
was a short cycle-usually it stays up longer to lull you into thinking
that you can actually get some work done.