[wplug] Verizon FIOS experience with Linux?

[Tom Rhodes]

On Sun, 06 Apr 2008 15:04:29 -0400
"Brian A. Seklecki" <lavalamp at spiritual-machines.org> wrote:

> On Thu, 2008-04-03 at 19:43 -0400, Tom Rhodes wrote:
> > I'll never EVER get any Internet offered by Verizon again.
> 
> Tom:
> 
> I agree.  When you dance with devil, you _wait_ for the music to stop.
> 
> Verizon's DSL DSLAM in the Georgetown (Wasdc0 area) was down for 12+
> hours on Friday and no one thought anything of it.

Haha, wow.  I'm still lost, did you relocate to DC or are you
still in Pittsburgh?

> 
> The FIOS cable television menus are so slow and unresponsive its an
> embarrassment to IT professionals everywhere.  At least Comcast had an
> excuse: The network is asynchronous at the protocol level (DOCSIS). Here
> that only applies for the 15' from your turner to the bridge in your
> basement.

My issue was this:

I requested DHCP connection and asked if their DSL provided it,
they said yes.  Then it came and, well, of course it didn't.
I called, they said it would and that they just needed to alter
my account, call back tomorrow.  Called back tomorrow - no, the
senior engineer on staff said it directly:

Not in that part of the country.

So apparently other Verizon locations can utilize both, DHCP or
that PPPoE.

Now, first off - I have nothing against PPPoE.  The authentication
bit provides for a little bit better security; however, I have a
complex home network.  Adding an extra fail point (auth, extra
software, etc) was definitely not what I signed up for.  And a
1450 MTU.  What?  Are you kidding?  I mean seriously, most packet
sizes are fine but 1500 intermixed with 1450 isn't my idea of
completely compatible (even though, fewer than 1% of users would
ever notice the difference).

I just don't like being lied too, installing extra software, and
making my debugging life difficult.  Picked up Comcast (the only
other choice here in Alexandria, least in this part) and I'm very
happy with the connection speed.  They even had someone in my
apartment, hooking everything up on THANKSGIVING (!) because they
found my issues with Verizon sad and wanted to be the victor of
this home user issue.

> 
> They're the worst possible recopies of both a both government subsidized
> bureaucracy mixed with capitalism.
> 
> They just don't give a shit about anyone or anything.  They'd club a
> baby seal over the head to make a buck.

Yea, I'm part of the Anti-Canadian seal hunt movement myself -
grrr.


-- 
Tom Rhodes