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Oct. 4th, 2005 18:52![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torquillThree weeks to the day, and finally the sweet, sweet water bandwidth is flowing.
We got accidentally canceled by a zealous Amerion tech on the 6th of September. The order went through at SBC on the 13th, and our DSL went out. We were informed it would take up to five business days for the reinstatement order to go through.
One week later, we called because it wasn't back up as promised; Amerion said that SBC had lost the order, and reissued it. That would take a second week to take effect.
After the second week, we called because we had a link light, but we couldn't get out. Amerion agreed that they couldn't get to us either, but couldn't figure out why. A second prod made them call SBC. SBC said there might be a line problem, and they'd open a ticket.
The next day had a phone tech with no equipment show up at our place to fix the "line problem"... until we showed him there wasn't one here. He promised to go back to the central office and have a look at the frame. Nothing more was heard -- and no updates hit the SBC trouble ticket -- for at least 12 hours.
We called Amerion again the next day, a Friday, and they said that the trouble ticket had been reopened at SBC, and we should expect a tech to show up with computer and testing equipment on Saturday. No one showed on Saturday, and we got no calls. A call to Amerion after hours showed that no one there knew what the heck was going on, and that maybe the unequipped tech on Thursday had been the promised service call.
Come Monday, we called twice. Once to check on the SBC status, where Amerion said that instead of leaving me on hold for a half hour while he talked to SBC, he'd call me back. (This is how you learn what not to do...) Once three hours later because there was no call, to discover that SBC had closed the trouble ticket and said everything should work now. Amerion was stumped as to why it didn't.
We were starting to look suspiciously at the ancient DSL modem, which was flashing its transmission/receive light occasionally but not telling us what it was doing. My brother had brought over other DSL modems, before discovering that our current old Alcatel has a web-based config -- something we had never known. He called Amerion a third time that day to find out what the values should be for such arcane details as VPI/VCI and encapsulation settings, and received numbers that the modem wouldn't even accept as valid.
Today, Tuesday, I tried to winkle the VPI/VCI numbers out of SBC, and was finally told that they didn't have them to give. Back to Amerion. The tech there gave me the same odd numbers that my brother got, but then did a common-sense check and suggested a different set that looked more like what we had. I tried that second set, their standard ones for PPPOA... and abruptly heard a "PIP!" as a ping hit the outside world.
Our first ping in twenty-one days. Hallelujah!
A few cable changes later, we're back on at our accustomed speed and reliability level. The weasel has started up his bittorrent again, and I don't have to log back into lily and my IM accounts every half-hour as the connection goes stale. All in all, things are returning to normal. The torture is (for the moment) over!
We got accidentally canceled by a zealous Amerion tech on the 6th of September. The order went through at SBC on the 13th, and our DSL went out. We were informed it would take up to five business days for the reinstatement order to go through.
One week later, we called because it wasn't back up as promised; Amerion said that SBC had lost the order, and reissued it. That would take a second week to take effect.
After the second week, we called because we had a link light, but we couldn't get out. Amerion agreed that they couldn't get to us either, but couldn't figure out why. A second prod made them call SBC. SBC said there might be a line problem, and they'd open a ticket.
The next day had a phone tech with no equipment show up at our place to fix the "line problem"... until we showed him there wasn't one here. He promised to go back to the central office and have a look at the frame. Nothing more was heard -- and no updates hit the SBC trouble ticket -- for at least 12 hours.
We called Amerion again the next day, a Friday, and they said that the trouble ticket had been reopened at SBC, and we should expect a tech to show up with computer and testing equipment on Saturday. No one showed on Saturday, and we got no calls. A call to Amerion after hours showed that no one there knew what the heck was going on, and that maybe the unequipped tech on Thursday had been the promised service call.
Come Monday, we called twice. Once to check on the SBC status, where Amerion said that instead of leaving me on hold for a half hour while he talked to SBC, he'd call me back. (This is how you learn what not to do...) Once three hours later because there was no call, to discover that SBC had closed the trouble ticket and said everything should work now. Amerion was stumped as to why it didn't.
We were starting to look suspiciously at the ancient DSL modem, which was flashing its transmission/receive light occasionally but not telling us what it was doing. My brother had brought over other DSL modems, before discovering that our current old Alcatel has a web-based config -- something we had never known. He called Amerion a third time that day to find out what the values should be for such arcane details as VPI/VCI and encapsulation settings, and received numbers that the modem wouldn't even accept as valid.
Today, Tuesday, I tried to winkle the VPI/VCI numbers out of SBC, and was finally told that they didn't have them to give. Back to Amerion. The tech there gave me the same odd numbers that my brother got, but then did a common-sense check and suggested a different set that looked more like what we had. I tried that second set, their standard ones for PPPOA... and abruptly heard a "PIP!" as a ping hit the outside world.
Our first ping in twenty-one days. Hallelujah!
A few cable changes later, we're back on at our accustomed speed and reliability level. The weasel has started up his bittorrent again, and I don't have to log back into lily and my IM accounts every half-hour as the connection goes stale. All in all, things are returning to normal. The torture is (for the moment) over!
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no subject
Date: 2005-10-05 05:18 (UTC)That being said, ping me when you next see me online? I have a favor to ask.