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ldiaco · Forum Regular Joined: 24 Feb 2007 Posts: 13

Ok, so here's the deal. Couple of months back I convinced my parents to get Verizon FioS, which is that "super" fiber-optic cable connection. It made sense, cause it saved money, bills for the phone and internet came together, and now were thinking about expanding... and get Fios TV too. Anyways, the day the guys came to install the service and what not, I came over from my college to supervise, and am I glad I did. Long story short, the techs didnt know even rudimentary networking stuff outside of what verizon gave them concerning how to install Fios with their own components, and instead of ripping holes in walls and whatnot, we put the wireless router we bought seperately and on our own, in the basement. Now I know what alot of you are going to say, yes... the house is two stories above ground plus the basement, and I know that signal strength is much better horizontally than vertically, but please bear with me. So, i finally get the linksys wireless router setup. After about a week or mind numbing trial and error, I got the four computers in the house connected to the internet. Now, here is where it begins to get a little weird. First of all, the router seemed to have a mind of its own... its setup configs changed several times without my input, and I had the signal encrypted. After a few months, that just stopped happening. But at the same time, I began to notice that the signal strength between my desktop on the second floor, and the router in the basement, fluctuated alot, from "Good" signal strength at 54 Mbs to no signal at all. It wasnt like moving anything, and I already knew that the signal was interupted thanks to my mom's mega microwave, but the signal fluctuated even without the interference from the mircowave. Anyways, I recently got fed up with that, so using Netgear's powerline adapters, I connected my desktop to the router. The strangest thing though was that while my computer's signal fluctuated, my father's laptop was stable and solid, while the other two computers were also experiencing fluctuations in signal strength. I tried using range extenders, but I couldnt even get that to work. Anyways, that was one problem which I have not tried to resolve and would like any input you have on the subject... Im probably gonna simply keep my desktop pluged in to the router. Second, I am now having trouble with my internet connection even when it is wired in. Im on my desktop, and even with the megafast speed of Verizon FioS, web pages have been opening very slowly. I have tried a speed test or four, and even frin New Jersey to Australia, I am connecting at over 1000 Kbs each way. Having tried many different websites to see if it was the website itself, I came to the conclusion that the problem was on my end. I checked out my router, my computer settings, network settings, replaced my wires, etc. and I still have the problem. I worked with the MTU size and optimized that too, which was when I came up with the idea of pinging Verizon... and voila, 20% of all the packets sent to the verizon IP address were lost. That might not tell you anything important, but I came to the conclusion that this meant the problem was with them. Any ideas on this would be greatly appreciated, and any links to programs that might help to diagnose the issue would be very thoughtful as well. lol. Has anyone ever experienced something like this? Any comments on Verizon Fios in general, like rumors or stuff? thnx, peace paranoid