Previously wrote about an upgrade and some of the potential issues I thought I'd run into. I also wrote about my call to Verizon where they told me I definitely would not need a second fiber line.
As I suspected, the person on the phone was clueless, despite the information I provided her. Two fiber lines were needed (as the TV runs off DHCP and the broadband I ordered is static), but only one was buried earlier this week. The fiber installers will need to come back for a second trenching (grr!) and line and then the installers will need to come back to install a second termination box. Luckily the trench is more like a thin seam down the yard, but they could have saved us all lots of trouble if they had just run two lines in the same trench. Verizon also screwed up my order, forgot to provision the static IP addresses and told the installers they were out for two things today, but provided them equipment only for one of them. Today was supposed to be the TV install day and the 16th the Business FIOS install. The installers were sent out today with a work order that had both the broadband and the TV, but nothing that showed that it was a static IP install and therefore needed the second box. They opted to do the broadband install (which I am happy about) based on what they had with them.
To make things even more interesting, the installers have been here since 9:30 this morning or so (it is 2:00 now) spending almost all that time just on the phone trying to get the IPs provisioned (it is under some sort of escalation right now). They completed the box install in pretty short order, accomodating my requests on position and wiring. My order confirmation from Verizon had this wonderful section in it:
If you chose Verizon FiOS Internet Service for Business with Static IP, the IP address(s) may have already been assigned and may be listed below. If they have not been assigned, the values will appear empty and you will receive a separate email.
Qty : 0
Starting IP address: -NA-
You will also need to configure:
Gateway : -NA-
Subnet Mask : -NA-
Primary DNS : -NA-
Secondary DNS : -NA-
The second email never arrived.
Of course, if these companies would wise up and realize that you don't need to be a business to want a static IP and would roll a static IP/server-friendly offering into their consumer product line, they'd save money on coordination and allow me to actually have everything under one bill and account.
The installers have been great and professional. I feel bad for the people who are next on the install list today, as their appointment is going to be pretty late.
I'm not even very annoyed, as this was all expected. I've been through enough broadband installs to know that they never go correctly for me at the start. I'm always working in some corner case for these folks due to my unusual (but not unique) requirements. Hopefully this will all be resolved soon so I can switch over from my DSL and get things going.
To be continued ...
