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From: Philip J. Rosch (no email)
Date: Thu Dec 04 2003 - 21:35:12 EST
There are a lot of cruisers using Verizon's standard service to access
E-mail and surf the internet so I decided it might be appropriate to talk
about a few of the eccentricities I've observed as a long time customer with
a modicum of technology skills.
The first and most pervasive problem is whenever something goes wrong people
naturally assume it is their problem and not Verizon's. This ain't
necessarily so!
Sometimes when you click on the "qnc/qnc/#777" dial applet, it will ask you
for a password. You put in the qnc and it still asks you for a password ad
infinatum. When this happens simply close the dial applet, count to 10 and
launch it again. More times than not it will simply come up as if nothing
was wrong. Why does this happen? I have no clue, but it ain't you,
Kemosabe!
Next is the no web page found screen as you surf along. Simply hit refresh
a few times and it will likely work unless there is a real problem with that
site.
If you are using Fourelle Venturi 2.1 compression and your 802.11b wireless
local area network won't work. Close Venturi and do a ctl/alt/delete to
bring up the task manager. Flush the VENTC and VENTCFG tasks. Now your
network will work. Why? No clue, but I opened a trouble ticket with
Verizon (Ticket #1458384) June 21st and they never got back to me.
If Venturi gets a big X through the V, double click on the taskbar icon,
open it, go to the system control tab, and hit "stop", then "start". This
will stop and start the compression service.
If you are connected and can't get to anything, close Venturi, close the
dial applet, then restart Venturi and the dial applet. Sometimes you might
need to boot also. Why? I have no clue...
As an aside, there are two parts to making the compression software work, a
client piece of code on your computer and a server side piece of code on
Verizon's servers. As you move from Maine to Key West, there are different
servers and players involved in the equation. Some are technically good,
some are merely adequate. You will occasionally have problems that may last
a day or two, usually with a "business partner's" network. I'd suggest
keeping an additional ISP if the mail really has to get out. Remember to
turn off the compression software because it only works with Verizon.
If you are roaming with a "solid" light on your phone, don't expect data
connections to work. If you are roaming with a blinking light on your
phone, this means you are in a business partner network. In this case data
connections might work, then again they might not. I have no clue why.
If you are ethically challenged, you'll find many ISPs don't monitor
concurrency of connections. This means a friend with lets say a Bellsouth
account could be logged on doing his or her thing and you could log on also
using the same account and password. If you are using Outlook you could set
up a mail profile with the SMTP or POP3 incoming mail set to your ISP and
the SMTP or POP3 outgoing mail set to the "borrowed" ISP's mail server.
Verizon's for example is mail.airbridge.net and Bellsouth is
mail.bellsouth.net
Another issue is PayPal and Venturi really don't like each other. I can't
use PayPal predictably with Venturi running, but if I close it, it works
fine. Go figure.
Those of us who slog along at 14,400 bps are clearly in the minority. Many
web site developers forget we exist and therefore don't test their products
on very slow connections. Those developers who put timers in for functions
are likely to set the lower limit to 28,800 bps and our stuff may time out.
You'll see more and more of this as cable and DSL become the lingua franca
of access.
One last and ironic observation is I can't get my www.verizonwireless.com
URL to come up and show me my bill. It gets stuck when they ask me for my
Zip Code and won't budge. When I use a friend's DSL it works fine.
If I sound like an unhappy customer, I'm not. Verizon gets the job done
reasonably consistently from Maine to Key West and compared to the old days
of analog MetroMobile, and NYNEX, these are truly good times.
Fair Winds and practice safe computing! That's why they call it a
"confuser"!
Regards....
Phil Rosch
Old Harbor Consulting
M/V Curmudgeon MT-44TC
Currently moored in Fort Pierce, FL
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