I am sure that you all had the sales talk about how uverse has double the bandwidth thanks to it being new technology and fiber.
Well, I had 2 dsl lines (ecommerce business) so it perked my ears.
Ok, so lets switch dsl line #2 to uverse. (dsl#1 major usage, dsl#2 misc usage).
I was told a person would call the schedule the install and answer my outstanding questions. (like about latency differences)
First, I never received a call to schedule the install. Instead, I received a robot call informing me that installer was on his way. I was able to change/delay the install date by a few days.
Up to the day of the install, I was expecting to see a truck running fiber to the commercial building. Nope... I saw only an at&t tech with a new uverse box in his hand. Friday morning install.
I asked about fiber, and he said that the fiber connection is about 3900 ft away. He disconnected the 2wire box dsl#2, plugged in the new toy, made some calls and he was done. Oops, somehow the static option was forgotton on the order.
Ok, so, place a quick call, and then 3 calls later, the static block is received/added to the box. Amusing is that I am adding the ip block to uverse box via phone instruction from at&t tech, while an at&t tech is just arriving onsite to do the same thing.
(I started to wonder about their work order system and communication)
Printed all the fun static packet filters/application settings from the old 2wire dsl box, so that I can apply it to the new uverse connection.
Oops, this new uverse box does not have packet filters/etc support for static addresses? My previous generation dsl box did. Why no perimeter security?
Hmm, well, lets research this more.
Monday night, dsl#1 line goes dead. (note, that the uverse install on the dsl#2 line was the previous friday)
Tuesday morning, call at&t to figure out what is going. I am told that a disconnect order was implemented on the dsl#1 line since uverse was installed. And, a call back from at&t confirmed that they can not stop the processing of the disconnect... she would have to wait till the next day, to see if she can reconnect that dsl since at&t is discontinung dsl in my area. She said no promises on being able to reconnect.
However, she said that she will call me the first thing the next day, since she understands that I am dead in the water due to the dsl being down, no working uverse solution yet, and my operations boss is furious since she has idle employees for an unknown amount of time. (btw, I never did hear from her again)
Ok, my servers/smtp/web on my old static ip are dead, my workstations are dead, they have no internet. Devices on the internet can not find me. Employees can not do their work. (remember, this is ecommerce)
So for the rest of tuesday, I was macgyver with patch cords and duck tape. ;) I was also calling uverse tech so that we could get the uverse usable. He did identify and order a newer rg box that should fix issues. By end of day, I was able to get barely operational.
At&t scheduled the tech to arrive late afternoon/evening, so that he could implement the new model box that would fix the static/firewall and an outstand routing issues. Oops, this at&t tech did not even bring a box, since the box is not compatible with this uverse wiring. He did bring sympathy.
Hopefully, by this weekend, with the install of a 3rd party router, physical wire changes, and more configuration changes... I will have everything back to pre-uverse level of functionality.
I warn you... if uverse comes knocking at your door, please be extra carefull about the accuracy of the uverse order, and that the disconnection of the old services is on the right timeline.
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