Still thinking on the best way to convey that it’s possible to stack up questions/requests and not make the day a continual one of always-more-important interrupts. It was a Valuable Business Lesson I learned one day as a much wee-er Malcolm when my boss freaked out at me at the bank I used to work at after I interrupted him the fifth time one morning for what turned out to be really trivial crap. I’d like to convey the same lesson, but probably not in the same way. I don’t like freaking out at anyone.

Anyhow, on the home front, the router freaked out yesterday but I restarted it a couple times, poked at it and upgraded its firmware to firmware from September 2007. Not exactly indicated by the symptoms but it’s probably a good idea to upgrade it since I’m seeing problems. H mentioned that there was some electrical work in the neighborhood that could have zapped the poor thing. I’ll keep an eye on it and be ready to replace it if need be. It’s about a year and change old.

It seems to be working today. We’ll see how it goes.

VoIP is supposed to be activated today. I’ll keep tabs on that as I can. The number port was supposed to go through today.

• Verizon came by this morning to install the “loop”. After thoroughly explaining the situation, the Verizon guy installed the “loop” to the first (already wired, though I need to double-check it) circuit in my NID. My independence from the stupid phone wire coming in through the wall (and not the NID) is almost complete! I just need to get the hard line for the alarm set up and then I can banish the stupid other line completely.
• The Speakeasy DSL modem is already in “bridge mode”, so when I am able to test it against the circuit provided by Speakeasy, I shouldn’t have to do anything special to get it to work with my computer or my network.
• I did find out that Speakeasy intended to have (despite my requesting not) COVAD installers come in and verify the twisted pair connection from the NID to my house wiring and verify that everything was up and running properly. That visit was scheduled for from 12p – 4p on Wednesday, 1/9/2008. I contacted Melissa at Speakeasy Activation and asked her to cancel that service. Instead, she offered a compromise, which was that I do the wiring/installation within the house, and call by 1/7/2008 to cancel the COVAD visit, and they’ll come out if I have trouble with it. Apparently they’re not used to people doing their own telephone wiring at all, let alone well.
• I also found out that Verizon and AT&T are the slowest at porting telephone numbers from one provider to the other, so that the folks I spoke with didn’t seem to think I had much to worry about my phone line getting ported out from under me before I’m ready for it.
• Also, the lady I spoke with at Speakeasy said that after the come out and provision the loop, Verizon sometimes needs to do additional work, so I shouldn’t be alarmed if the loop doesn’t work right away, and I can carry out the rest of the wiring, but I should probably wait until tomorrow to test it.
• Finally, she said that it was this install, that I or COVAD will do, that is what moves along the VOIP installation and number porting process. So presumably (though I didn’t talk with her about this), I could ask them to hold up the final checks until after I got the hard line provisioned for the alarm system from Verizon.

So anyway, Schedule for phoney things:

• I check wiring/make changes today to make sure the newly provisioned line gets to where I want to put my modem.
• Tomorrow, I test the Speakeasy Modem with that line to make sure it’s installed properly, and to make sure I can hook up properly to the DSL loop.
• Monday, assuming it works out, I call Speakeasy and tell them to cancel the COVAD visit.
• Wednesday, I call my alarm company and tell them about the work on the hard line and give them the new incoming number (for the hard line and for their systems). Also, if my install doesn’t work out, COVAD visits between noon and 4 to install Speakeasy in my home. Regardless, Verizon comes out to provision a hard line for the alarm system. I switch the phone services for the alarm system to the new hard line and test it with the alarm company, finally telling them to cancel test mode and put it back into service assuming that works out.
• Some time later, Speakeasy initiates the VOIP activiation and number port for the existing Verizon voice telephone number.
• Some time even later, I contact Verizon and arrange to have my DSL disconnected. Not sure about the voice line – whether the VOIP number port cancels the service or whether I need to do it manually.

I had to order a new line right away with Verizon. So I did, this afternoon. Install of the new line (new bill, etc. – I explained I’d be moving soon but didn’t want to the security service to be completely cut off) should be complete on 1/9/2008. I will rewire the various stuff inside my house and handle testing with my alarm company.

Work is very quiet today. I think everyone’s expecting an “early release” but no such thing’s come yet. We’ll see. There was one on Christmas Eve.

I bought lunch for my coworkers. It was cheap and what the hell, it’s the Holidays.

misia and I are both worried about how rough it might get for her while visiting her Mom to help out with her Grandmother’s convalescence from a scheduled surgery, but we’ve both resolved to try to reassure ourselves  that it’ll be okay and not focus on obsessing about the discomfort we somewhat pragmatically think we can expect from the visit (or for my part from supporting her from afar about the visit).

I’ve ordered Speakeasy.net DSL and VOIP, which is sort of the reverse of my current situation, where Verizon was running DSL on my normal phone lines.

There will be some complication as I negotiate the need for a “hard line” for my monitored alarm system.

But whatever. I was looking for an opportunity to throw money at the problem, and I am so doing.

Speakeasy will probably end up costing $30 or so dollars more per month, but perhaps there will be better connectivity and less heartache if I do need support. We’ll see.

Regardless, I plan to start using Speakeasy as soon as possible. I checked with them and they said they’d prefer to wait until the work was completed with my NID before I commenced my order. So all otherwise going decently, I hope to be talking with Speakeasy about a dedicated DSL line on Friday.

Look at the sidebar! There may be a links section (on the home page only? will tweak) that includes a link to my shared Google Reader articles, where I’ll put interesting articles I wish to keep track of/share. There’s an RSS of it too if you’re interested.

Work:

• Things at work are settling down and paradoxically getting more frenetic as the holiday vacations get nearer.
• I’m hammering through a bunch of high priority support tickets and other issues, and waiting on feedback for other ones. I’ll probably end up leaving work undone by the time I go to vacation, but my co-worker Jim is likely to be willing to take that on.

Home Geek:

• Need to budget for a new Wireless Access Point. Probably one of the new Netgear RangeMax ones.
• Will keep the DSL modem I bought at Staples and return Verizon’s when I switch to Speakeasy. Worst case: I get boned out of whatever Verizon charges for modems if they refuse to take the new modem back and insist on charging me (though I’m pretty sure they can’t do both, legally, but am not entirely sure). The one from Staples was only $80 and I like it quite well, so I’m quite willing to keep it.
• Hopefully soon my posts will not regard DSL in the slightest. And the crowd goes wild!

• Basically we’ve got bandwidth from between dialup and less-than-dialup. misia’s computer, when on, hogs all the bandwidth we have available, so this morning in order to make this post, I had to ask her to stay off the computer so I could post. Given the bandwidth situation, I’ve been trying to stay off the network and let misia, who needs this sort of thing for, you know, work, have what there is of it. Given that I’ll be going on-call on the first of the year, though, it would be nice to be able to use high-speed internet from home.
• The new Verizon modem arrived. It works the same as the old one, but I still packed up the old one for return.
• I finally found our incoming phone lines. Basically, they’re not going to the “network interface device” (aforementioned grey boxbolted to side of house), but are coming directly to posts (metal things on an insulator) screwed to my basement ceiling. The reason I had no signal, dialtone, whatever from the network interface device is that that’s not the line coming into my house.
• I connected my newVerizon modem to the posts at entry to the house and that didn’t help the situation either.
• The Verizon phone tech is still scheduled to come to the house on Thursday. I am going to ask for a work from home day (or a personal/vacation day to be moved around)  so I can meet the guy and tell him what’s up. I plan to ask him to either move the cable that’s actually supplying my house with phone/DSL signal to the NID box, or reassigning the signal to what’s going to the box. I’ll handle the indoor wiring. In fact, if he can make all the incoming wires go to the NID, that would be awesome, despite the rewiring I would then have to do inside the house.
• If Verizon’s doings don’t help the situation by the end of next week (and perhaps sooner, I’m not sure), I will probably activate a dedicated Speakeasy line to the house too. I really can’t afford to have this state of things continue.
• I remain frustrated that even with the fact that the budget’s doing fine and I do have some money to throw at the problem, there’s no way that throwing money at the problem would do any good, unless maybe I could bribe the Verizon tech, but I don’t even know who it is, really.

In non-DSL news, things are doing well. We’re not sure if anyone’s showing up for the tamales party (due to the threats of horrible inclement weather), but we’re having fabulous tamales anyway.

• This weekend is our tamales party! Yay! Sunday Sunday Sunday!
• I am looking for a cheap source of soursop/guayabano nectar. I have been buying it at H-Mart for $1/8.3oz can, which is pretty expensive. I shall delve. Reason? It makes absolutely fantastic Batidas with the Cachaça I like, and I’m not always in the mood for just a Caipirinha. Not that I’m a regular drinker. It’s still pretty irregular for me.
• I am going to go out to dinner with misia tonight, then I’ll stick around the area while she goes home, then go to the Blade Runner Final Director’s Cut showing in my area. I hope it’s fun! My co-worker/friend Rob should be able to give me a ride home afterwards.
• For the past few days I’ve been coming to work without my personal laptop and without my passwords wallet, so my LJ account is not accessible to me, just sayin’. This means that if you really want me to get some information, you should e-mail me, which you should have started doing by now anyway, so whatever. But I can’t read or comment on locked posts at all. This should change back by next week.
• The ADSL issue continues. Am waiting for the new modem. Will deal with the modem when it comes.
  • Have asked Verizon (non-DSL) repairs to come look at the outside “Network Interface Device” (the grey box bolted to the back/side of my house). There appears to be vaseline in the phone jacks in there, and no signal is getting to my modem plugged into the active phone jack. The repair guy is scheduled to come by on Thursday.
  • Have acquired a jack with which to test the outside “Network Interface Device” anyhow. I’ll just wire it up to the posts that are serving the line that goes inside my house and test from that. Don’t know whether post 4 or 5 is tip or ring, but since it’s only two choices, I’ll try one mode and then the other. And I already have a punchdown tool.
  • I still have to test another inside phone jack to see if it’s the jack near my modem/router. Will do so with new modem I bought on Wednesday.
  • Regardless of all testing planned and actualized, the DSL still works, just not very well, so for now (and for the past few weeks before I actually did a speed test), it’s frustratingly slow but tolerable (and still faster than conventional modems).
  • If the new modem from Verizon doesn’t fix it, or the work on the outside Network Interface Device doesn’t shed light, I will probably switch to (more expensive but should actually work) Speakeasy. This’ll be on a dedicated line, which is already as far as I know wired, so it’ll need enabling, and I hear Speakeasy is less irritatingly obnoxious and stupid than Verizon is.
• Last night, instead of doing the DSL stuff, I was instead implementing the second part of my cable management plan.
  • I used a couple of 8″ 3-prong extension power cords to free up spaces on my UPS and get rid of the last power strip I had on the rolling TV entertainment center.
  • I installed a new network switch on the entertainment center and made 5 Cat 5e Ethernet cables out of an old longer cable, and made just one network wire link to the network switch I had hiding under the apothecary’s chest. I love my cable stripping/crimping tools even though I don’t use them very often. I had a little trouble recalling the proper wire order in the jacks, but tested them all and they’re all doing fine.
  • I still have to do the actual cable tie/cable wrapping (with the spiral wrap), need to find, acquired and install an appropriate wire basket for the transformers and the wire slack, and since I’ll be loaning my Wii out to a friend for a couple of months, will have to redo some of that when I get it back.