SoCal Verizon

Anyone else having slow connection problems? I’m dropping packets, and some sites (e.g., National Review) are timing out. I’ve also had to reboot my modem a couple times today (I’m on FIOS). There’s a half-hour wait time for help on chat.

[Update a few minutes later]

Here is the chat session so far:

Chat Subject:Slow Throughput
Your Question:Slow connection.
A Verizon Service Representative will be with you shortly. Thank you. (17:37:58)
Agent Kapil has joined. (17:38:13)
Kapil : Chat ID for this session is 08291149279. (17:38:13)
Me (17:38:24): Dropping packets, have to repeatedly reboot modem.
Kapil(17:38:29): Thank you for contacting Verizon HSI Technical Support. My name is Kapil and I am the technical support analyst assigned to help you. Please stay online for a few moments while I review the information generated by your trouble ticket.
Kapil(17:39:05): As you are having a FIOS account. Please stay online with me while I connect you to our FIOS department.
This session is being transferred. (17:39:15)
17:54:53 Estimated wait time is 5 mins 15 secs. We apologize for the delay. You are 22 nd in the queue.
Me (17:39:55): 36m wait time? That tells me I’m not the only one…
Me (17:46:33): OK, time is jumping around.
Me (17:51:39): OK, now what how much time?
Me (17:52:27): If there are still 21 ahead of me in the queue, it’s hard to see how it will only be three and a half minutes.
Me (17:54:19): Hello?
Me (17:54:24): I have a life.
Me (17:54:53): Now the time is back up to five minutes. No, six. This is ridiculous.
Me (17:57:01): OK, now it’s back to 21 minutes.
Me (17:57:37): If I were just working, I might keep an eye on this, but I have to make dinner.
Me (17:59:06): This is pointless. I have no idea how long it will be until I get help. Closing this effing chat window, so I can get back to life.

10 thoughts on “SoCal Verizon”

  1. Who knows if it is related, but in Az (on Comcast cable) I’ve been noticing frequent hiccups in the last couple of days to a week: long load times, loads that hang and have to be refreshed etc. Haven’t had to reboot the modem though.

  2. Come to think of it, I have had to reboot my Comcast modem a few times lately. But sometimes I just disconnect and reconnect the router and that seems to do the trick. I’m not exactly sure where the problem is.

  3. My local ISP has been giving me grief for a couple of weeks, they’re supposedly coming to check it out tomorrow. As I’m in a rural area, the network uses Motorola Canopy radios with dishes just like satellite TV. They had to replace my radio last year to the tune of $350, on top of $60 a month for about 2 Mb/s of bandwidth. Good thing I have a cellular Internet dongle as a backup, but that’s another $35 a month. At least they answer the phone pretty quick and the people are actually a couple of towns over, not in India.

  4. (unhacked) android wifi hotspot saves the day for me now and then, no need for a cell dongle. not sure its actually legal though ..

  5. You can try swapping out your DNS settings in your adapter properties for a public domain DNS address and see if your routing improves.

    Ah the joys of best effort networking.

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