Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2

Hi All,

I switched to Verizon FIOS few months ago and I really regret it. FIOS supposed to be the best but it is not working properly. My internet connection drops for 10-30sec about 10 times in 24h. This is really bad because it drops my IPSec VPN, my VOIP phone, and all my connections. I called FIOS support thousand of times, they replaced everything (cables, router, OTN), they escalated the problem to their network department but could not figure it out what is wrong and closed the ticket everytime.
I talked to my neighbors and looks like all of them have the same problem. I am monitoring my home connection from two external datacenters and it happens on both in the same time. Here is a sample summary output from a ping command:
09-06-29-11-01-08--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 891 received, 1% packet loss, time 899059ms
09-06-29-13-31-09--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 891 received, 1% packet loss, time 899028ms
09-06-29-14-01-09--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 891 received, 1% packet loss, time 899018ms
09-06-29-14-46-10--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 888 received, 1% packet loss, time 899021ms
09-06-29-15-01-10--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 887 received, 1% packet loss, time 899029ms
09-06-29-15-16-10--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 889 received, 1% packet loss, time 899011ms
09-06-29-15-31-10--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 887 received, 1% packet loss, time 899026ms
09-06-29-15-46-10--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 889 received, 1% packet loss, time 899002ms
09-06-29-19-01-08--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 694 received, 22% packet loss, time 899016ms
09-06-30-02-30-59--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 881 received, 2% packet loss, time 899239ms
09-06-30-05-45-54--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 882 received, 2% packet loss, time 899095ms
09-06-30-16-30-43--my_ext_ip.log:900 packets transmitted, 865 received, 3% packet loss, time 899171ms

You support is appreciated.
Regards, _Bill.

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1 Solution

Correct answers
Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2

Problem was fixed after Verizon replaced the PON card!!!

Thanks a lot Mathew @ Verizon! Great job !!!

View solution in original post

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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
KenAF
Specialist - Level 2

What is the make and model of your router (including revision)?   Are you a heavy user that does a lot of p2p, or would require a large NAT table for some other reason?

 

The Actiontec routers have a relatively small NAT table (compared to some of the newest third-party routers), and in some cases, they may reboot (causing a connection drop) if you reach/exceed the number of supported connections.  The overwhelming majority of customers never run into these limits, but if you a heavy user, then it is possible that you may.

 

The Westell 9100EM router, available to FiOS customers in former GTA service areas, has a much larger NAT table so it would not exhibit this problem.

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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2
My router is an Actiontec (model MI424WR-GEN2, Firmware Version:20.9.0, Hardware Version:E). I am not using p2p at all and I don't have a large number of computers. I don't know if the router is the culprit because I replaced it with my old router (soekris hw) and I was having the same issue.
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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2

This issue is VERY VERY frustrating and in top of this, Verizon technicians could not figure out what is going on. These are all the tickets I opened since I installed the service (04/23/2009) and all of them have been closed because they were "unable to reproduce it":

07/13/09 VADQ04HAKP-just opened

06/16/09 VADQ04B5RQ

06/03/09 VADQ048DXU
05/29/09 VADQ047B68
05/19/09 VADQ0455LL
05/13/09 CVRP131768580
05/12/09 VADQ043TTM
04/../09   VADQ042DGV
04/../09 VADQ0429TL

I hope someone from Verizon is looking to this forum and be able to forward it to the right techs.

Here is another link to this issue posted on dslreport.com: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22683202-fiber-tech-Verizon-FIOS-intermittent-connection-drops?r=956#22697520

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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2

Latest statistics are available here: http://slice.forte-gts.com/logs/stats.txt

I am using a basic shell script to monitor the connection: http://slice.forte-gts.com/logs/ping-monitor.txt

You have to customize it with your information (your external ip, etc.)  This script runs on Linux and generate a log almost every 15min for 24h+.

To start use: nohup ./ping-monitor.sh &

To check the logs use: egrep -e "[1-9]+%" *.log

Please let me know if you have any questions.

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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
matrixpc0
Enthusiast - Level 2

Problem was fixed after Verizon replaced the PON card!!!

Thanks a lot Mathew @ Verizon! Great job !!!

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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
CapnTrips
Contributor - Level 3
OK. I'll bite. What is a PON card?
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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

Basically the pon card is the device that controls the links to the differnet cities and neighborhoods. It is what helps distribute the signals to the proper areas  sort of like a switch, lot more complicated, but thats it in a nutshell

Message Edited by spacedebris on 07-29-2009 10:05 AM
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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
CapnTrips
Contributor - Level 3
So it's NOT something in my house (ONT, STB, Router, etc..)
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Re: Verizon FIOS intermittent connection drops
youngazn
Newbie

I'm having the exact same problem. Random drops for only a few seconds. However, none of the neighbors have FIOS so I have no idea how to determine if it is a PON card issue. Whats the best way to proceed in my situation?

Thanks

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