August 9th, 2008
I lived in Tbilisi for about a year when I was in sixth grade. Some of my best childhood memories are from that time now more than twenty years ago. My father's family moved to Tbilisi in 1941, when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. My father was three years old then. He spent his childhood and his college years in Tbilisi. The school I went to in 1986 in Tbilisi was the same school my father attended in the 1950s. For a few months I had my dad's math teacher.
School in Georgia was a breeze. All you had to do to get good grades was show up for classes. Even this wasn't a strict requirement. Our school principal got us involved in gathering scrap metal for recycling. The class that collected the most scrap metal would get a prize. My dad let me in on a little secret: they were gathering scrap metal back in 1950s and, apparently, there was a reliable source of it very close to the school. Year after year the principal would weigh the collected metal, load it on a truck and dump it in the ravine behind the school. When the old principal retired, his replacement continued this tradition. The guys and I headed to the location pointed out by my dad and, without as much as breaking a sweat, found enough scrap to ensure our first place in the competition
Tbilisi had a very relaxed atmosphere for a large city. One could hail a city bus like a cab. The bus would stop anywhere – even in the middle of a busy intersection – and the driver would give you plenty of time to get aboard. It did not matter if you had no money for the ride: nobody ever asked me to pay or bothered to check my ticket. In times of plenty Georgians are generous and hospitable. When I first came to the US I thought Americans were a lot like Georgians.
Not that Americans were particularly generous or hospitable, but, like Georgians, they were incredibly loud and annoying. Georgians were loud and annoying in a positive way: they wanted to engage you in a conversation – subject did not matter - and they wanted you to like them. The first Americans I met at the JFK airport were loud and annoying only so that they can lighten your load by getting hold of whatever dollars you had in your pockets.
Since Georgia's independence in 1991, the country was ruled by a succession of three clowns: the ultra-nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the former Soviet foreign minister and a sell-out to the West Eduard Shevardnadze, and now Mikhail Saakashvili – a US-educated fanboy. Of the three, only Gamsakhurdia was democratically elected. Gamsakhurdia moved harshly against separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and after just one year of his presidency Georgia was consumed by a bloody civil war.
After two years of war, an effort to lead a government-in-exile, and a failed attempt to overthrow Shevardnadze, Gamsakhurdia fled the capital of Tbilisi and hid in a small village in what Pentagon generals would have called a "spider hole". The village was surrounded by Shevardnadze loyalists and Gamsakhurdia committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Some say he might have had help. It was all downhill from there for Georgia's democratic experiment. One has to be nuts to expect democracy from the homeland of Josef Stalin.
Georgia's favorite national pastime is a really fun game: they put a rake on the ground and step on it repeatedly. The goal is to get hit in the head as many times as possible. Well, maybe I am exaggerating just a little. Both Shevardnadze and Saakashvili followed in the footsteps of their predecessor and ran full-speed into the issue of separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Shevardnadze narrowly escaped two assassination attempts and Saakashvili managed to get his 20,000-strong army equipped with Vietnam-era Huey choppers (handed down by the US) into a war against Russia. What exactly he is expecting to get out of this is a question the answer to which so far has eluded the world's top political analysts.
Georgia is not just poor – it's piss-poor. Ever since Stalin, Georgia had a privileged status within the Soviet Union. Georgia's mountains and the Black Sea coast were favorite destinations for the Russian tourist and a bottle of Georgian wine was a necessary attribute of any holiday table. Georgia lacked any substantial heavy industry or mining operations and survived primarily on the tourist trade and regular financial injections from Moscow. Jobs were plenty and pay was good. This is the way I remember Tbilisi in 1986.
Owning an automobile was the greatest desire of most Soviet citizens. A new shiny Lada or - for the really lucky ones – a black chromed out Volga was the pinnacle of financial success. Georgia had the highest car-to-resident ratio of any Soviet republic. Our neighbor used to drive his Volga to a bakery across the street. He would back out of his driveway, cross the street in reverse, and back into the bakery's driveway. Tbilisi was one of few places in the USSR where one could find a school teacher driving a Volga, which in the 1980s used to cost about 15,000 rubles with an average salary of about 250 rubles per month. Don 't ask me how they did it.
The USSR fell apart in a matter of months. The steady stream of federal funding and tourists dried up overnight and Georgia found itself in absolute poverty. Electricity and hot water became luxuries available only on select days of the week and only during certain hours. Russia was no longer willing to provide Georgia with fuel and electricity at bargain basement prices. With easy access to superior products from Italy and France, most Russians lost interest in Georgia's only major export – its wine, Stalin's favorite.
If in times of plenty Georgians are generous and hospitable, poverty turns them into a disorganized herd of mountain goats: aggressive and determined but utterly clueless. The post-Soviet transition was difficult on all former republics, but for Georgia it was an absolute shock. What followed was as inevitable as belch after beer: Georgia descended into the depths of a violent civil war. Hordes of destitute nationalists were fighting each other over the scanty leftovers of the glorious Soviet plethora.
Today Saakashvili's government likes to cite statistics about the country's impressive economic growth of 12% in 2007. Even if this figure wasn't a complete fabrication, this growth is more than offset by high inflation, increasing budget and trade deficits, and the country's almost complete reliance on foreign energy. More than 30% of Georgia's 4.4 million residents barely survive below the meager poverty line, while their government spends nearly a billion US dollars on defense every year - incredibly generous funding for an army consisting of just two standard-size divisions. So what does Saakashvili do to improve his country's economy? He starts a war with Georgia's biggest trade partner and major energy supplier – Russia. I am sure this will do wonders for Georgia's economy a year or two down the road.
So what will happen in Georgia now that Russian tanks are on its territory and Russian planes are over its capital? Probably nothing particularly good. Russia will not push very far with its invasion. Moscow already accomplished everything it wanted at this stage: got its tanks on the ground to prop up some friendly separatists and shattered Georgia's plans to join NATO. Courtesy of Mikhail Saakashvili, who handed the Kremlin this easy victory on a silver platter.
Now Russia can calmly negotiate an eventual withdrawal on its own terms (that is if Moscow plans to withdraw at all), while in the meantime bombing high-value military targets across Georgia with impunity. By the time Russian tanks drive back across the border, the only piece of operational hardware left in Georgia's arsenal will be Saakashvili's personal plane on which he will fly back home to the US to join his two sons and continue mooching off his wife Sandra. Yes, it is true: while thousands of Ossetian civilians are being slaughtered by Georgian soldiers, Saakashvili's wife and two sons are safe and sound living in the US.
School in Georgia was a breeze. All you had to do to get good grades was show up for classes. Even this wasn't a strict requirement. Our school principal got us involved in gathering scrap metal for recycling. The class that collected the most scrap metal would get a prize. My dad let me in on a little secret: they were gathering scrap metal back in 1950s and, apparently, there was a reliable source of it very close to the school. Year after year the principal would weigh the collected metal, load it on a truck and dump it in the ravine behind the school. When the old principal retired, his replacement continued this tradition. The guys and I headed to the location pointed out by my dad and, without as much as breaking a sweat, found enough scrap to ensure our first place in the competition
Tbilisi had a very relaxed atmosphere for a large city. One could hail a city bus like a cab. The bus would stop anywhere – even in the middle of a busy intersection – and the driver would give you plenty of time to get aboard. It did not matter if you had no money for the ride: nobody ever asked me to pay or bothered to check my ticket. In times of plenty Georgians are generous and hospitable. When I first came to the US I thought Americans were a lot like Georgians. Not that Americans were particularly generous or hospitable, but, like Georgians, they were incredibly loud and annoying. Georgians were loud and annoying in a positive way: they wanted to engage you in a conversation – subject did not matter - and they wanted you to like them. The first Americans I met at the JFK airport were loud and annoying only so that they can lighten your load by getting hold of whatever dollars you had in your pockets.
Since Georgia's independence in 1991, the country was ruled by a succession of three clowns: the ultra-nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the former Soviet foreign minister and a sell-out to the West Eduard Shevardnadze, and now Mikhail Saakashvili – a US-educated fanboy. Of the three, only Gamsakhurdia was democratically elected. Gamsakhurdia moved harshly against separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia and after just one year of his presidency Georgia was consumed by a bloody civil war.
After two years of war, an effort to lead a government-in-exile, and a failed attempt to overthrow Shevardnadze, Gamsakhurdia fled the capital of Tbilisi and hid in a small village in what Pentagon generals would have called a "spider hole". The village was surrounded by Shevardnadze loyalists and Gamsakhurdia committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. Some say he might have had help. It was all downhill from there for Georgia's democratic experiment. One has to be nuts to expect democracy from the homeland of Josef Stalin.
Georgia's favorite national pastime is a really fun game: they put a rake on the ground and step on it repeatedly. The goal is to get hit in the head as many times as possible. Well, maybe I am exaggerating just a little. Both Shevardnadze and Saakashvili followed in the footsteps of their predecessor and ran full-speed into the issue of separatist South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Shevardnadze narrowly escaped two assassination attempts and Saakashvili managed to get his 20,000-strong army equipped with Vietnam-era Huey choppers (handed down by the US) into a war against Russia. What exactly he is expecting to get out of this is a question the answer to which so far has eluded the world's top political analysts.
Georgia is not just poor – it's piss-poor. Ever since Stalin, Georgia had a privileged status within the Soviet Union. Georgia's mountains and the Black Sea coast were favorite destinations for the Russian tourist and a bottle of Georgian wine was a necessary attribute of any holiday table. Georgia lacked any substantial heavy industry or mining operations and survived primarily on the tourist trade and regular financial injections from Moscow. Jobs were plenty and pay was good. This is the way I remember Tbilisi in 1986.
Owning an automobile was the greatest desire of most Soviet citizens. A new shiny Lada or - for the really lucky ones – a black chromed out Volga was the pinnacle of financial success. Georgia had the highest car-to-resident ratio of any Soviet republic. Our neighbor used to drive his Volga to a bakery across the street. He would back out of his driveway, cross the street in reverse, and back into the bakery's driveway. Tbilisi was one of few places in the USSR where one could find a school teacher driving a Volga, which in the 1980s used to cost about 15,000 rubles with an average salary of about 250 rubles per month. Don 't ask me how they did it.
The USSR fell apart in a matter of months. The steady stream of federal funding and tourists dried up overnight and Georgia found itself in absolute poverty. Electricity and hot water became luxuries available only on select days of the week and only during certain hours. Russia was no longer willing to provide Georgia with fuel and electricity at bargain basement prices. With easy access to superior products from Italy and France, most Russians lost interest in Georgia's only major export – its wine, Stalin's favorite.
If in times of plenty Georgians are generous and hospitable, poverty turns them into a disorganized herd of mountain goats: aggressive and determined but utterly clueless. The post-Soviet transition was difficult on all former republics, but for Georgia it was an absolute shock. What followed was as inevitable as belch after beer: Georgia descended into the depths of a violent civil war. Hordes of destitute nationalists were fighting each other over the scanty leftovers of the glorious Soviet plethora.
Today Saakashvili's government likes to cite statistics about the country's impressive economic growth of 12% in 2007. Even if this figure wasn't a complete fabrication, this growth is more than offset by high inflation, increasing budget and trade deficits, and the country's almost complete reliance on foreign energy. More than 30% of Georgia's 4.4 million residents barely survive below the meager poverty line, while their government spends nearly a billion US dollars on defense every year - incredibly generous funding for an army consisting of just two standard-size divisions. So what does Saakashvili do to improve his country's economy? He starts a war with Georgia's biggest trade partner and major energy supplier – Russia. I am sure this will do wonders for Georgia's economy a year or two down the road.
So what will happen in Georgia now that Russian tanks are on its territory and Russian planes are over its capital? Probably nothing particularly good. Russia will not push very far with its invasion. Moscow already accomplished everything it wanted at this stage: got its tanks on the ground to prop up some friendly separatists and shattered Georgia's plans to join NATO. Courtesy of Mikhail Saakashvili, who handed the Kremlin this easy victory on a silver platter.
Now Russia can calmly negotiate an eventual withdrawal on its own terms (that is if Moscow plans to withdraw at all), while in the meantime bombing high-value military targets across Georgia with impunity. By the time Russian tanks drive back across the border, the only piece of operational hardware left in Georgia's arsenal will be Saakashvili's personal plane on which he will fly back home to the US to join his two sons and continue mooching off his wife Sandra. Yes, it is true: while thousands of Ossetian civilians are being slaughtered by Georgian soldiers, Saakashvili's wife and two sons are safe and sound living in the US.
The Motivation
I had Comcast as my ISP since 1998, when their broadband service was still known as @Home Network. I had a few complaints about Comcast's Internet service, but it wasn't anything major – perhaps a brief network outage now and then or an occasional slowdown. Still, for about a year now I've been calling Verizon on a monthly basis to find out when their FiOS service will become available in my neighborhood.
With Comcast I would get about 4Mbps down and 2Mbps up and this would be on a good day and not during peak hours. Verizon was promising 20Mbps up and down at all times with their FiOS symmetric plan. I do most of my work from home and this involves a heavy dose of Exceed, X-Windows, Cygwin and other remote desktop bandwidth gobblers. I felt I would benefit from a faster connection.
The Deal with the Devil
The cool thing about FiOS is that your bandwidth is entirely yours – you don't share with all of your neighbors. While you may not get exactly the advertised 20/20 performance with FiOS symmetric, even having consistent 18/15Mbps down/up is a huge increase in performance. So you can imagine my excitement when on one sunny Friday afternoon in early August a Verizon sales guy knocked on my door. “Sign me up, Scotty!” was my immediate response.
Well, maybe I did not sell my soul to Verizon quite this fast. There was one issue I had to clear up. I have a small Web server at home, which I use to connect to my data when I am in the office. I absolutely need this machine to do my work and it has to be running on the standard port 80. Knowing how ISPs feel about port 80 I asked the sales guy if this port is being blocked. He assured me that Verizon is not blocking any ports and that I should be able to run my Web server without any problems.
I also wanted to make sure that the built-in firewall on the Verizon router can be completely disabled, so it does not interfere with my SmoothWall firewall. The sales guy assured me that I can completely turn off the built-in firewall, DHCP, etc. and have the router function as a simple cable modem. “Sign me up, Scotty!”
The Installation
A week later, early Monday morning as expected, the installation technician showed up. After running the cables and hooking up the hardware he was unable to get network connectivity. As it turned out, the fiber line to my house was not activated. The installation guy had to stay on the phone with Verizon tech support for a couple of hours until they enabled the connection.
It quickly became apparent to me that the built-in firewall in the Verizon router cannot be disabled. The best I could do was configure a static NAT with global port forwarding. DHCP for the internal network also could not be disabled. Since all of the Verizon set-top TV boxes have to communicate with the router (to get program listings, on-demand, etc.), the router could not act as a “dumb” cable modem. So, clearly, Scotty from Verizon took care of bulshitting me to make a quick sale.
The Port-80 Trap
After spending the rest of Monday trying to figure out why I could not access my Web server from the outside, I finally concluded that Verizon is blocking port 80. As it turned out, all I had to do to find this out was to check Wikipedia's article about Verizon FiOS. Feeling reasonably pissed-off I got Verizon customer support on the phone and told them everything I thought about their sales staff.
The funny thing is that Verizon's customer service folks seems to be well aware of the port-80 issue and, as the service rep told me on the phone, I am not the first one to complain about this. So Verizon is aware that their sales contractor (Verizon outsourced their door-to-door sales activities to an outside company) is deliberately misrepresenting their product but Verizon is not doing anything to stop this illegal practice. Moreover, the Order Form the sales guy had me sign mentioned nothing about the port-80 limitation.
This was an opportunity for me to show some pride and dignity and go back to Comcast, which I still haven't disconnected. But the promise of 20/20 network speed obviously has clouded my judgment. I found out that, if I sign up for the FiOS Business account, I will get a static IP and no ports will be blocked. The cost of the Business network plan is substantially higher: $100/mo for 20/5Mbps and a single static IP; or $140/mo for the coveted 20/20Mbps and $20 for each additional IP address. In comparison, I was paying only $55 for my Comcast Professional network plan.
“Fine, sign me up” I said. I might as well have had “Jackass” written on my forehead. When I really want something, I don't allow my common sense and higher brain functions to interfere.
Switching to a Static IP
The really screwed up thing about calling Verizon customer support is that, if you are not signed up for their phone service, the automated voice response system will not be able to pull up your account information. All of your calls will be bounced from one support rep to another for 10-20 minutes before you finally get the right person on the phone. This will happen every single time you call Verizon. It does not matter which number your call. You will be jerked around even if you have a business account and are calling their business tech support number (888-553-1555).
So, witching to a static IP – how hard can this be? My residential service was installed on Monday. The next day I told Verizon to switch me to the static IP plan. By the end of Tuesday I got my IP and network configuration info in the email. Cool, even though the email did not mention the required static DNS information. I reconfigured my router and... nothing was working. I assumed (correctly) that the static IP I received probably was not activated yet - why email it to me then? - and so, after working well into the night trying to get my network going, I finally gave up and decided to wait until the next day.
Bright and early on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a loud knock on my door. Half asleep, stumbling down the steps while trying to pull my jeans on, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a Verizon van outside my house. The Verizon installation guy happily informed me that he is here to install my FiOS service. Without saying a word I opened the garage door and pointed him to the Verizon switch and UPS unit installed by one of his colleagues on Monday. The installation technician spent the next four hours sitting in my driveway talking on the phone with Verizon, trying to figure out what happened.
The static IP was finally activated sometime in the afternoon. I was able to configure the network and my Web server was now operational once again at a $140 loss to my monthly budget. Thank you, Verizon! Oh, wait a minute, I don't get any channel listings on my TV. The installation guy had to spend another four hours on the phone to determine that the switch from residential to business plan for my network has not been completed yet. He said the router should be able to pull channel information from the network in a few hours. This was a minor issue and I wasn't too concerned. More importantly, my server was up and running and my network speed was remarkably close to what Verizon advertised.
The Great Confusion
When on Thursday morning I still did not see any program listings, I called Verizon again. After jumping through the usual hurdles for about fifteen minutes I finally got someone on the phone from the business tech support department in the correct state. As I suspected, Verizon uses Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVC) and the support guy said that he was getting a PVC configuration error on their gateway while trying to analyze my network connection. This could easily explain why my TV service wasn't completely operational.
A ticket was created and this was about it for Thursday. Around two o'clock on Friday afternoon, when I was in a middle of a telecon on my VoIP phone, my network went dead. I used my cell phone to call Verizon and the customer support lady informed me that my account has been disconnected for non-payment. Wait a minute, I said, I just got it installed not four days ago! Eventually we figured this out: my residential service has been disconnected. The line running to my house has been deactivated and there was no record of me signing up for a business account.
I had no network and I could not do my job, so I spent the rest of Friday annoying the hell out of Verizon customer service. By the end of the day I had my network service restored and my TV was working correctly. Transition from Comcast to Verizon cost me about $100/mo extra, about two days'-worth of downtime and about 18 hours of personal time invested to sort through the mess Verizon's inept support “analysts” created.
In retrospect, I probably should have stayed with Comcast and I still may switch back. I will keep my Comcast service for a month or two to see how the Verizon gamble plays out. I have no doubt that there will be more surprised. Like when I get my first bill...
I had Comcast as my ISP since 1998, when their broadband service was still known as @Home Network. I had a few complaints about Comcast's Internet service, but it wasn't anything major – perhaps a brief network outage now and then or an occasional slowdown. Still, for about a year now I've been calling Verizon on a monthly basis to find out when their FiOS service will become available in my neighborhood.
With Comcast I would get about 4Mbps down and 2Mbps up and this would be on a good day and not during peak hours. Verizon was promising 20Mbps up and down at all times with their FiOS symmetric plan. I do most of my work from home and this involves a heavy dose of Exceed, X-Windows, Cygwin and other remote desktop bandwidth gobblers. I felt I would benefit from a faster connection.
The Deal with the Devil
The cool thing about FiOS is that your bandwidth is entirely yours – you don't share with all of your neighbors. While you may not get exactly the advertised 20/20 performance with FiOS symmetric, even having consistent 18/15Mbps down/up is a huge increase in performance. So you can imagine my excitement when on one sunny Friday afternoon in early August a Verizon sales guy knocked on my door. “Sign me up, Scotty!” was my immediate response.Well, maybe I did not sell my soul to Verizon quite this fast. There was one issue I had to clear up. I have a small Web server at home, which I use to connect to my data when I am in the office. I absolutely need this machine to do my work and it has to be running on the standard port 80. Knowing how ISPs feel about port 80 I asked the sales guy if this port is being blocked. He assured me that Verizon is not blocking any ports and that I should be able to run my Web server without any problems.
I also wanted to make sure that the built-in firewall on the Verizon router can be completely disabled, so it does not interfere with my SmoothWall firewall. The sales guy assured me that I can completely turn off the built-in firewall, DHCP, etc. and have the router function as a simple cable modem. “Sign me up, Scotty!”
The Installation
A week later, early Monday morning as expected, the installation technician showed up. After running the cables and hooking up the hardware he was unable to get network connectivity. As it turned out, the fiber line to my house was not activated. The installation guy had to stay on the phone with Verizon tech support for a couple of hours until they enabled the connection.
It quickly became apparent to me that the built-in firewall in the Verizon router cannot be disabled. The best I could do was configure a static NAT with global port forwarding. DHCP for the internal network also could not be disabled. Since all of the Verizon set-top TV boxes have to communicate with the router (to get program listings, on-demand, etc.), the router could not act as a “dumb” cable modem. So, clearly, Scotty from Verizon took care of bulshitting me to make a quick sale.
The Port-80 Trap
After spending the rest of Monday trying to figure out why I could not access my Web server from the outside, I finally concluded that Verizon is blocking port 80. As it turned out, all I had to do to find this out was to check Wikipedia's article about Verizon FiOS. Feeling reasonably pissed-off I got Verizon customer support on the phone and told them everything I thought about their sales staff.
The funny thing is that Verizon's customer service folks seems to be well aware of the port-80 issue and, as the service rep told me on the phone, I am not the first one to complain about this. So Verizon is aware that their sales contractor (Verizon outsourced their door-to-door sales activities to an outside company) is deliberately misrepresenting their product but Verizon is not doing anything to stop this illegal practice. Moreover, the Order Form the sales guy had me sign mentioned nothing about the port-80 limitation.
This was an opportunity for me to show some pride and dignity and go back to Comcast, which I still haven't disconnected. But the promise of 20/20 network speed obviously has clouded my judgment. I found out that, if I sign up for the FiOS Business account, I will get a static IP and no ports will be blocked. The cost of the Business network plan is substantially higher: $100/mo for 20/5Mbps and a single static IP; or $140/mo for the coveted 20/20Mbps and $20 for each additional IP address. In comparison, I was paying only $55 for my Comcast Professional network plan.
“Fine, sign me up” I said. I might as well have had “Jackass” written on my forehead. When I really want something, I don't allow my common sense and higher brain functions to interfere.
Switching to a Static IP
The really screwed up thing about calling Verizon customer support is that, if you are not signed up for their phone service, the automated voice response system will not be able to pull up your account information. All of your calls will be bounced from one support rep to another for 10-20 minutes before you finally get the right person on the phone. This will happen every single time you call Verizon. It does not matter which number your call. You will be jerked around even if you have a business account and are calling their business tech support number (888-553-1555).
So, witching to a static IP – how hard can this be? My residential service was installed on Monday. The next day I told Verizon to switch me to the static IP plan. By the end of Tuesday I got my IP and network configuration info in the email. Cool, even though the email did not mention the required static DNS information. I reconfigured my router and... nothing was working. I assumed (correctly) that the static IP I received probably was not activated yet - why email it to me then? - and so, after working well into the night trying to get my network going, I finally gave up and decided to wait until the next day.
Bright and early on Wednesday morning I was woken up by a loud knock on my door. Half asleep, stumbling down the steps while trying to pull my jeans on, out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of a Verizon van outside my house. The Verizon installation guy happily informed me that he is here to install my FiOS service. Without saying a word I opened the garage door and pointed him to the Verizon switch and UPS unit installed by one of his colleagues on Monday. The installation technician spent the next four hours sitting in my driveway talking on the phone with Verizon, trying to figure out what happened.
The static IP was finally activated sometime in the afternoon. I was able to configure the network and my Web server was now operational once again at a $140 loss to my monthly budget. Thank you, Verizon! Oh, wait a minute, I don't get any channel listings on my TV. The installation guy had to spend another four hours on the phone to determine that the switch from residential to business plan for my network has not been completed yet. He said the router should be able to pull channel information from the network in a few hours. This was a minor issue and I wasn't too concerned. More importantly, my server was up and running and my network speed was remarkably close to what Verizon advertised.
The Great Confusion
When on Thursday morning I still did not see any program listings, I called Verizon again. After jumping through the usual hurdles for about fifteen minutes I finally got someone on the phone from the business tech support department in the correct state. As I suspected, Verizon uses Permanent Virtual Circuits (PVC) and the support guy said that he was getting a PVC configuration error on their gateway while trying to analyze my network connection. This could easily explain why my TV service wasn't completely operational.
A ticket was created and this was about it for Thursday. Around two o'clock on Friday afternoon, when I was in a middle of a telecon on my VoIP phone, my network went dead. I used my cell phone to call Verizon and the customer support lady informed me that my account has been disconnected for non-payment. Wait a minute, I said, I just got it installed not four days ago! Eventually we figured this out: my residential service has been disconnected. The line running to my house has been deactivated and there was no record of me signing up for a business account.
I had no network and I could not do my job, so I spent the rest of Friday annoying the hell out of Verizon customer service. By the end of the day I had my network service restored and my TV was working correctly. Transition from Comcast to Verizon cost me about $100/mo extra, about two days'-worth of downtime and about 18 hours of personal time invested to sort through the mess Verizon's inept support “analysts” created.
In retrospect, I probably should have stayed with Comcast and I still may switch back. I will keep my Comcast service for a month or two to see how the Verizon gamble plays out. I have no doubt that there will be more surprised. Like when I get my first bill...
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