Here's why WISPs and MTU ISPs have a chance against incumbents

CEDX is the IT consulting practice that provides the bulk of revenue for me, and I have Verizon to thank for the latest chunk.  It seems that over the weekend, VZ reprovisioned some aspect of their Manhattan DSL network, and unprovisioned one of my clients in the Shmata business, cutting them off from the world and their VPN tunnel.  Forthwith is an account of my tech's troubleshooting day:

This is a short summary of the Verizon hell I went through.....

I arrived at the client around 10:30.   I verified that the DSL light was on and steady, then rebooted the DSL modem and router.  From the router I could not ping the Verizon gateway on the WAN side. 

I called tech support who told me the line was configured for PPPoE dynamic.  I told tech support that it was supposed to be static.  After being transferred around I spoke to someone at order status who told me that the line was converted from static to dynamic on 1/31/2007 (this circuit has been working as a static circuit for over a year - Craig)  .  I again said that it was working up until last Friday as static.  She offered to xfer me to sales to convert to static.  I went through tech support and got the PPPoE username and password. 

 

After speaking with the IT manager in California he OK'ed me to get a cheap Linksys and configure it as PPPoE.  I tried and PPPoE was not connecting.  I called Verizon tech support again.  This time I was told that "this is impossible" the line is configured for both static and dynamic.  One system was telling him dynamic while another system was saying the line was static.  There is no record of the static IP from the original config. ( A behemoth collapsing under its own weight. ) 

 

This last tech support person I spoke with put me on hold and setup and internal ticket to another group to straighten out the confusion.  At this point there was nothing else I could do, the DSL line will not work until Verizon gets it's internal provisioning correct. 

 

I gave the ticket number to the IT manager in California, he is the primary contact that Verizon will call.  When the DSL line is up it will likely have a different static IP address so the VPN router will need to be updated. 

 

Just a couple of "gems" from Verizon tech support. 

"You are being billed for 7MB dynamic"  I verified with the IT manager that the bill says 3MB static.

 

I asked to be escalated to a higher level of tech support. The response from the Verizon tech was that there was a premier support but I would have to pay for it!!!!  Even Microsoft is not that bad

 

There's a market in Manhattan for doing deals with building management and offering reliable, responsive ISP services that are plus T-1 speeds, either static or dynamic, and making a decent living at it.  If you're a building manager losing tenants or you have tenants that are frustrated at their internet connection options, give us a call and we can help you retain customers and build up some better ones, making your building more attractive.  631-462-0821