Today is DSL day. Last night I thought that I would see if the DSL would work. It didn't. I was expecting that it wouldn't work the next day either. Well, when I woke up this morning I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it did. With very little fuss I was able to set up an account and get it all set up. Yay!

It was OK for a few hours.

Then it started to get slower and slower. Packets were starting to get dropped on the floor and eventually it was unusable. Traceroute and mtr showed a lot of packet loss at the first hop which is the other side of the DSL modem. So, off to technical support we go!

I spent about an hour going through the usual technical questions. Yes, that network interface is set up properly. No, I don't have windows proxy installed. Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, after doing that for about an hour I got sent up to "The Network Group" whatever that is. I ended up talking for a while about the problem with a competent tech rep who ran me through traceroute and ping and the packet loss was enough to bring in another guy since it looked like some kind of line problem.

We talked for a while. We tried making sure there weren't any bad phones plugged in, changing the arrangement of how things were plugged in and a few other things. It didn't seem to help. Then he asks "So, do you have a screwdriver and a flashlight?" OK, that's an interesting question. He told me about the Network Interface that was located somewhere in the building that contained the connection between the phone company's lines and the lines inside of the building. There's apparently a place to plug in phones at that network box. Testing the modem there would show whether or not it's a problem inside of the house or outside of the house.

So, off I go on a trasure hunt! I take the modem, some tools and a flashlight and go to the basement in an attempt to find the network box. I find it just outside of the door to the basement. It's easy to open with a screwdriver. There are five phone connections inside. I start opening them up looking for the connectors. First one? Nope. Second one? Nope. On the third try my phone conversation with the DSL guys is cut off and the modem light goes green. I found my line.

So since the modem seemed to work from the network box it appears that the problem is inside the house. Good in the sense that I might have a good idea where the problem is. Bad in the sense that it's my responsibility to fix.

Anyway, this could all be wrong since the modem is working fine from inside the house this morning. Damn intermitent bugs.

I spent the weekend down in Connecticut helping my good friends, Liz and Eric, moving into the house they just bought. Lots of fun except for the part where I twisted my knee. Don't do that. It hurts. It still hurts.

I finally got the new hot water heater installed today. They brought it down from the store, installed it, started to test it and discovered that the threads where the hot water come out weren't quite right and it was leaking. They had to go and get another hot water heater and install that one instead. To make a long story short, there's finally luke warm water coming out of the tap. Some of it was kind of brown and stinky at first but it seems OK now. I guess that's what happens when you don't run hot water through the pipes for a few days.

Today one of my work mates at Red Hat got printing working in Mozilla with CJKV locales. It's very pretty.

Verizon says my ready date will be the 31st of October. Will it be a trick or a treat?

This might be the strangest spam I've ever seen:

From: kang 
Subject: Re: WHO RUN USA ?

DISCOVER wrote:

> WHO RUN USA ?

The United Stakes is run by a giant salamander
His name is Hal
Hal the Salamander

We spend (waste) over 300 billion tax dollars a year on the Military
Because we couldn't think of anything better to do with it.

Hal lives in a Mayonaisse Jar under the rear tire of a Beige Montego
    

Wasted another hour and a half on the phone with Verizon and my previous provider. My previous provider thought that the line had been released. Verizon disagrees.

Today's words of wisdom from AOL Instant Messenger:

19:42:39 Memphis2321: hey man boobs

That's right. Boobs. Think about it.

Today I got another DSL modem from Verizon. I wonder if they are planning on using me as a distribution center or something.

Spent some more time on the phone with Verizon. They made some headway. Sounds like Rhythms put them off for another week. And it turns out that it's an FCC regulation that says that Verizon can't just remove Rhythms from the line. I'm wondering how much it costs to have another phone line installed for the DSL.

October 4th:
I talked to someone at my previous provider. They've still got that ticket open with Rhythms. No update, though.

October 5th:
After calling my previous provider and still not getting any traction ( "Can I get a contact at Rhythms so that I can try and get this done myself?" "I've opened a ticket. This should be done soon." Is that an answer to a question that I asked? No. ) I got sick of waiting for my previous provider so I started beating the bushes at Verizon. I talked to a very nice lady at Verizon Local who was able to find all my account information and thought that maybe, just maybe, that the line had in fact been released. A glimmer of hope. She said that I would get an email stating whether or not the line would be released some time in the afternoon. Good. Time spent on the phone: about 30 minutes.

I was on the way to pick up my brother who came into town with a band that is based out of the same town that he lives in, Ithaca, New York. He and I had a nice lunch together, drove out to see our Grandmother who is staying at a retirement community in Peabody, and drove back into the city.

He and I were going out to see the band that he came with into town. Before we left though I decided to check my email and found, strangely enough, an order confirmation from Verizon. ( Huh? ) It didn't say whether or not my line had been released. I was, needless to say, suspicious.

At least the band kicked ass.

October 6th:
I called up Verizon DSL to find out what the deal was with my order confirmation. I told him my story. He sounded confused and verified that the line had not yet been released. I asked him for information on where to go and he said that I should call the Public Utilities Commission. I kid you not. After he said that I cut the conversation kind of short. It's kind of scary when a private company says to you "you'll have to go to the government or a quazi-government organization in order to that this straightened out even though it's a problem on our property." Uh-huh.

Instead I called back Verizon Local since I did actually get some action and what seemed like good advice from the woman on the previous day. She spent some time looking at the account and I asked her specifically "I can't seem to get this released. What do I have to do to escalate this so that I can get it released through Verizon?" She started doing research again in her organization, called me back, and started to tell me that I needed to get that done through my previous provider. She asked me about a contact at Rhythms. I told her that I was unable to get one. I told her that my only contact was through the reseller that I had gotten the service from. So she took the technical support number from me that I had for them and said that she was going to call them. OK, cool. Make it happen. I don't care what it takes.

<Pause>

I get a call back. She managed to get a name and a number at Rhythms. I am stunned. She said that they aren't open on weekends, though so she's going to work on this first thing on Monday morning. She leaves a name and way to get in contact and when she's going to be working on Monday. We'll see how it goes.

There was a point where I was doing sit-ups while waiting on hold. Ever try to cradle a phone while doing sit-ups? It's fun.