FIOS Fiasco

After years of frustration with Comcast (see this or this) we finally decided to switch the household over to FIOS.  Here are a few of the annoyances discovered within the first week of ownership...

SPAM

Within days of getting the new account, spam started showing up.  This is despite that we never even USED the email, let alone gave out the address.  How are the evil spammers able to figure out our brand new email address?


STANDARD TROUBLESHOOTING

After having some difficulty with my digital voice line, I followed Verizon's online troubleshooting guide to figure out the problem.  The first step in solving the problem was to power off the equipment.  No, not the router sitting on the desk, the FIOS box outside in the shed.  And, because it has battery back-up, you have to first remove the access panel, remove the battery, and wait a few minutes before plugging it all back together.  I used to think that unplugging the router all the time (a common occurrence with Comcast) was annoying,  but I can now say that having to go outside into the shed to troubleshoot is much worse.