Well, it’s my turn today. Last night couldn’t sleep due to some NASTY bug bites from yard work, check my phone, alerts from the smart devices on the network that they all stopped checking in around midnight, screw, the fiber is down. I mean kinda down. There is laser, but no response from the DHCP, so no IP. I suspect something went sideways in the DMARC/Central office a few miles away, but they still have to “send someone out to check your router.” (I own my router, and it isn’t something your tech’s are gonna touch thank you!)
Call and tech can be there June 15th, ugh, work from home day just became tether to my phone day!
I have a pepwave device and a pre-paid sim card inbound as we speak for cellular backup in the future. Since it is only backup I grabbed the 3g/4g version for $299, not the 4g/5g at $999!!!
Why prepaid? well, cause it’s backup! If it was a full time primary connection I would have grabbed the 5g pepwave and it would be on a solid unlimited plain. As a backup, it might only get used for 2 gigs a YEAR, so prepaid is the way!
Another update on mine. It appears that I am back online hopefully this time for good.
A different (older, more experienced) technician came to the house today. Here’s what happened.
Step One: Instead of coming directly to the house, he first went to the server box a few blocks away and changed the port for my house.
Step Two: After that he checked the box on my house, tested the wires, and decided to change it out for a new box.
Step Three: He finally came inside my house to check and reboot the router and got it going. My usual ID wasn’t showing up on the list of networks but another AT&T ID was showing up. It turned out that is the ID of the new router that I am supposed to be using. The other techs including the techs-by-phone kept using my old ID which may be part of the reason the system was unstable, slow and kept stalling. Now that I am using my new proper ID, the system has continued to work (for now) and it is faster. If it continues to work after 24, 48 and 72 hours then I will consider the situation resolved. Hooray.
Well, they arrived, found a bad fiber splice and fixed it, and it worked for about an hour, and back to “no light”.
Texted the tech and he is coming back out, but the cell backup works!
I will provide people details later, but it’s a $299 device that you can stick anyone’s 4g sim card into and it acts like a modem. For a SOHO you can use your cell phone as a hot spot, But this guy is for medium networks, and acts just like a cable/fiber modem
Having experienced a connection nightmare last week with Verizon I can relate to all of this. We were out for 79 hours from Last Thurs morning - Sat Afternoon. No TV / Landline / Internet.
The most incredible thing is the timing. About 2 blocks from me they are building a new house. The idiots excavating for the foundation cut a main fiberoptic cable for Verizon. (Call before you dig idiots).
Anyway, at the SAME EXACT TIME, our neighbor 4 doors down was trimming some vines above a fence in his backyard. Our drop line was in those vines and they cut it.
Verizon thought we were disconnected because of the excavation and screwed around in the hub box trying to find the issue. In the process, they disrupted the connection between the pole and the box. The next day, they came back and found the cut line and replaced it and we were still out.
Because they were different techs from one day to the next, one didn’t know what the other did in this spaghetti below. Took another 2 hours to patch it back.
All is good right now, as it has been with Fios for the last 12 years. This was literally the first time we lost connectivity, even during Sandy when we had no power and this was not Verizon’s fault.
Verizon Gigabit is incredible. T1 Speed. Love my router and LOVE Verizon. We had Time Warner (at the time, now Spectrum). Went out at least once a week. The second Fios was here and they rang our bell, we switched. The first house in the area to switch and never looked back.
I live in the boonies and kinetic by windstream leaves me a new spare router because of all the lightening we get here. All I have to do is call the tech dept and get it switched on after install. I also have a moxee hotspot. Next month I am switching to Verizon, I have Total by Verizon now which is not bad except they are a 30 day billing cycle instead of monthly and will get hotspot on my phones for backup. Supposed to get fiber soon, this old wiring at the lake is dilapidated and falling apart.
I just had to call and yell at them to re-bury the fiber line. I can’t complain too much, $70 for 1g/1g fiber beats comcast by a mile.
I actually just switched from Verizon contract to total by verizon, I always own my phones and the prices are way lower. I just have it auto bill my CC every month and I never have to worry about it.
We got our fiber last year and our internet woes soon disappeared (Windstream Kinetic fiber optic). One phone line is on the fiber and the second line is still on copper. Although the copper is not as clear, we will continue to keep it as that line does not require electricity to work. Storms often cause power failures and the old copper line still functions during these times.
We have the Verizon hot spot. It’s ok for one computer. The down side is if the computer is connected to the hot spot, then the computer can not connect to the printers on the wifi. We need to find a device that serves as a connection to the hot spot and then into the router.
Most of it isn’t ma bell anymore and battery maintenance is not what it used to be in the Co’s. Yes they should have generators, but that’s assuming they start.
We have a DSL line (wired) and a Verizon hotspot. I have both going to the router (self built) and they are set up dual WAN for failover and load balancing. If one goes down, the other will instantly pick up the traffic. Our commercial access point is then connected to the router so all traffic can access both connections. WIFI is OFF on the verizon box since we use our own access point and the built in wireless is crap for coverage as you discovered. You can do this with some commercial routers also. Sounds more complicated than it is. Of course with only one connection you just want to put the Verizon box in direct mode (bridged) and plug it in your router. You can then either use the built in wireless in your router OR get your own access point. I recommend Ubiquity but there are other good ones. Our wireless can be accessed 1/10 mile down the street.
