For the past year, we had Verizon DSL, which was fine, although rather slow (downloads were about 90 KB/s on average). The problems started towards the beginning of the summer during a lightning storm. I was at my computer, on SL, and there was a popping noise accompied by my computer restarting. I don't remember there being a lightning strike or anything at that moment, but my only guess is that it was a power surge. When my computer finished booting (thank god it booted, the popping noise was not unlike that of a capacitor taking on too much charge), I noticed the internet was not working. I went down to the basement and saw that all the lights were off on the DSL modem, except for the power light which was flashing, and all the router's lights were off. I unplugged them and plugged them back in, tried other outlets around the house, still the same thing. I called Verizon, they sent a new modem, and I bought a new router.
With the new equipment, we could get back online, but the internet was unreliable. We kept losing our connection (dsl light on the modem would flash green, which means it isn't getting a signal from the ISP). It would come on and off, sometimes just for a few minutes, other times for hours at a time. Also, when it was on it was about half the speed as it used to be. I made multiple frustrating calls to Verizon tech support. Finally I convinced one of them that the problem couldn't be fixed by trivial methods such as turning off the modem and turning it back on, but that there was actually a more serious problem. They put in an order for a technician to come out and find the problem.
The technician came out and said that the line going out of our house needed replacing. You'd think he would then go ahead and replace it, but that would be wrong. Instead, he set up another date for someone to come out and fix it. Are these people really so specialized that one person is trained to diagnose a problem, but then someone else needs to actually fix it? So the line was replaced, and I hoped everything would finally work. Wrong again. The speed seems better, although still fluctuated, and the internet still goes on and off (notice I'm switched to present tense, as this is still the current situation). I didn't bother calling Verizon again, as it's like pulling teeth to get them to do anything other than the basic troubleshooting steps they always go through. Also, I'm now fairly sure the problem is with the internal wiring in the house. Fixing that is something Verizon probably wouldn't cover.
Obviously, this makes SL rather painful to play, which is why I haven't been around as much this summer. Let's take a look.
Now, it's not always like this, just when it's downloading something. So it's like this for maybe 5 - 10 minutes (remember, slow connection) after I teleport somewhere or log in, and maybe 30 seconds whenever a new person arrives. If you're not sure what a ping time of 6476 msec means, it means that if I push a command like 'w' to walk forward, I won't actually move forward until ~6.5 seconds later. The high packet loss rate ensures that a lot of my key presses never even make it to the server...but of course I don't know that until 6.5 seconds later. Add to this the sporadic total loss of internet connectivity, and you have a pretty hostile environment.
Things will finally be fixed when we switch to Comcast cable internet. They are scheduled to install it on September 13th.
2 comments:
I have some horror stories about Verizon myself, some of which I believe are legally actionable.
About two years ago, we switched to Comcast cable with the full package : Cable TV, telephone, and internet.
Things are WAY better with Comcast than they could ever have been with Verizon, and this is why when Verizon sent someone to my front door last week asking us if we'd like to try their new FiOS (or whatever service), I just said "You must be kidding. Verizon is one of the worst companies I've ever had the misfortune of paying money to".
Best of luck to you, I hope your experience with Comcast is as good as mine was.
Oh... BTW: Don't expect Verizon to make it easy to switch, and don't expect them to allow you to keep the same phone number without at least the threat of complaining to the FCC.
My parents have Comcast, so I know that it's a good service. And luckily we just use our cellphones, so we don't have Verizon's phone service and aren't getting Comcast's, therefore don't have to go through the hassle of changing phone numbers.
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