[PLUG] Internet connectivity with Verizon MI424-WR router

[George Langford <george@georgesbasement.com>]

Twice in the last few months the ActionTec MI424-WR router supplied
by Verizon with my FIOS service has been unable to connect to the
Internet.  Both times I utterly struck out with the phone technicians
available through the (800) 640-4155 and (888) 553-1555 numbers.  All
they want to do is (1) reboot the router; (2) reset the router to
factory settings; or (3) send me a new router.  As (2) involves going
in and setting up 128-bit WEP all over again, I never do that.

In October the problem was that the router wanted to give my wife's PC
and our laptop the same IP address on the LAN.  It had never done so
previously, so after striking out over the phone, I set the IP addy's
myself on the two 'puters so they'd be different.  Problem solved.

Today I found that overnight I had lost all Internet connectivity, and
while talking to the phone technician, I noticed that the router was
rebooting itself over and over again with no activity on my part. The
technician assured me that Verizon could not possibly be doing that
remotely.  All this time the TV's set-top boxes were working fine.

The router interface said that the broadband connection was down, but
the phone technician assured me that again, it must be all at my end.

Even after I shut off the modem for fifteen minutes before rebooting
it, the spontaneous reboots continued, until it finally made a good
connection, which has stayed up for a half hour or so.

During the reboots, I noticed that the system log in the router interface
was using an August 31, 2007 date, even for current updates.  That date
was _before_ my FIOS installation was started.  After the successful
re-connection, the system log started showing the correct date and time,
but gave no clue as to what had been going on.

The impression I get is that someone at Verizon was experimenting with
the broadband connection or with the router's firmware, whose version
number remains the same now as it was last October.

The questions that come to mind are:

1. Did anyone else experience a similar lack of connectivity today ?
2. Can I lock in the current firmware version by turning off the
    automatic updates feature without compromising something else, such
    as security ?
3. Where on the Verizon website is there a place where I can look to
    see where Verizon is reporting problems on the FIOS system ?

Thanks,
George Langford
george@georgesbasement.com

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