This is the 4th time my Network Extender has had an outage long enough to call Vzw Tech Support. Took 53 minutes to get someone to pick up the phone this time. Level 4 Tech Support. Have a solid red GPS light and a flashing red SYS light.
Only resolution in the past has been for mysterious "Network Team" to pull the ticket and fix the issue. My router indicates two sites, sg.vzwfemto.com and gps.vzwfemto.com are contacted. Initially, sg.vzwfemto.com is contacted 1 time but then never again. gps.vzwfemto.com is hit over and over again, about 2 times every minute. sq.vzwfemto.com pings in about 80 mS, but have seen as high as 174 mS. gps.vzwfemto.com pings all day at 76 mS. QoS (when up) is over 99% all day long, too.
This time they tried to say it was my problem, not using the GPS antennae external. This has never been a problem in the past and I see from other posts GPS does not sync until after SYS is good.
This product uses a VPN connection to a Vzw sever. I suspect, especially since the VPN server needs to be rather local to hold down latency, and that Vzw has had numerous problems in the past, that a capacity issue exists with available VPN hosts. This, coupled with poor software design (tries sg.vzwfemto.com once and gives up) means that nothing will happen until the Network Team blips your connection and then magically, it works again. Vzw currently refuses to give this access to Level 4 Tech Support, so you CANNOT get this problem fixed over the phone. This is not carrier grade hardware, with four 2 or more day outages since I bought it.
Update 1/9/2011 - Vzw Network Services fixed this around 1:30 PM MST. Only Network Services can link to your Network Extender and their VPN Host and reset dead connections or assign a new one. According to Vzw Tech Sppt, they realized the need to get Tech Sppt this access so the problem can be fixed over the phone, like 99% of other problems are. They will try to blame this on your GPS connection but if you were ok in the past, don't be fooled - Sync light needs to be solid blue BEFORE GPS will sync.
Update 1/10/2011
Vzw Network Extender still will not connect on its own to VPN host, meaning any blip in internet connectivity, power dropout, or programming push from Vzw (which is what probably started this on Friday the 7th) will cause the unit to be non-functional.
Vzw is supposedly sending a replacement unit. The original one had a manufacturing date of 8-2010.
Replacement unit received. GPS sync'd BEFORE Sys light went solid blue, in about 15 minutes. Original unit purchased right after they became available, and VPN Host availability was probably very good. Now, suspect uptick in purchase rates not kept up with on the host side. Since unit needs to reconnect after every network or power blip, this is an issue.
Also, Vzw policy of billing you for even a warranty replacement unit, and then crediting back when bad unit is received, can be very bad if time span is across the end of a billing period. Good way to get a bill 2 to 4 times the size of what you are expecting.
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