Hello,

For the past 9 or so months I've posted about how Verizon Wireless's 
1XRTT "Express Network" wireless data service, while somewhat fast, was 
so replete with coverage issues and IP connectivity problems that it was 
pretty much unusable. (So much so, in fact, that I went back to using one 
of our CDPD accounts since it was more reliable.)

Specifically, the problems were:

1. One major roads in *well covered* areas, Express Network connections 
would drop and require a restart, OR, the connection would "silently" 
drop and hang the laptop so it needed to be rebooted. 

2. Telnet and Secure Telnet (SSH) connections which were idle would time 
out after 5 and 1/4 minutes (and require a re-connect to continue use, 
resulting in lost work in the given idle session).

3. FTP would similarly time out after 5 1/4 minutes, even if a file took 
longer than that to transfer, thus allowing only files which could be 
transferred in under 5.25 minutes to work

4. IPs were no longer addressable for services like NetMeeting and so on.

(See http://www.wirelessnotes.org for a detailed list of issues and 
history of problems.)

I'm delighted to report that after agonizing over this with customer 
service for months, and then with a manager at the data division who just 
chalked it all up to "coverage issues" and gave the "there's nothing we 
can do" routine, and then with corporate who was/were VERY responsive but 
didn't manage to address these issues since May, that FINALLY, after all 
the calls and lists and tests, that most of the above seem to have been 
resolved.

I've driven recently on many of the roads listed on the Wireless Notes 
page (http://www.wirelessnotes.org/verizon-and-express-network-drops ) 
and a LOT of the drops/hangs which were mentioned have been fixed and 
they no longer occur. 

Additionally, telnet and SSH connections no longer seem to hang (at least 
in some 1XRTT/Express Network markets), and I've managed to keep an idle 
SSH connection open for hours and not have it drop.

I still need to fully test out FTP, but it too seems to be able to 
transfer files which take more than 5 minutes. 

I think, unfortunately, that the dynamic IPs assigned with the Express 
Network service are still generally not addressable (or at least many 
ports are blocked), but that was a lesser issue and I still need to test 
it further.

I will be doing some more extensive testing and modifying the "Verizon 
Express Network Dropped Connection List" accordingly; if anyone has an 
opportunity to test the roads/routes in question and finds that a given 
drop/hang has been resolved please let me know.

Additionally, I'd be interested in hearing if people are no longer 
experiencing the idle timeouts for Telnet and SSH, as well as being able 
to FTP files which take longer than 5.25 minutes.

Overall, I'm glad to see improvement -- with any carrier other than 
Verizon I doubt that anything would ever have been fixed.

Regards,

-Doug

d and the number 11 with no spaces@interpage.net
http://www.interpage.net
(510) 315-2750