OT How to spend 20 minutes

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micky 9 years ago

How to spend 20 minutes.

I want to look into Verizon optical cable, FIOS, so I google and get to a webpage, fios.verizon.com which has Option 2 Build you own [plan]

Sounds great. I try that. It wants my address so I give it a nearby phony address and the clever thing says No Good. So I give it the address of a n'bor who I don't think has FIOS and it gives me 5 possible rates for internet, depending on the speed. Great.

I click in the wrong spot and say I want TV too, though I don't, but I can't find any way to change what I said, and of course this will confuse things.

So I go back a screen to start over, but when I try that, I'm back where I just was.

I go back one more screen, and this time, when i go forward, I get a page that says because of my location, I can't get FIOS TV, even though I know I can here, even though it was just willing to sell me tv, and even though I didn't enter a location this time. (All of my phony locations were on the street I live on and would be within 2 blocks of where I live.)

I look into deleting cookies, delete all the cookies with Verizon or FIOS in their urls, but no matter how many, I'm always back getting the message that No FIOS TV at my location. As you may know, must of the information in cookies is not intelligible. I would delete the cookie that says what my location is but I have no idea where that is.

I call Verizon. Then, even though I'm using the phone number from the webpage marked "Need Help Ordering" it asks the same questions as if I'd called their general number, If you're a business customer. If you're calling about cellphone service, If you want to pay you bill, etc. Wait time, at 9:30PM is 25 to 40 minutes.

I figure another computer won't have this problem, so i pull out the laptop and go to fios.verizon.com . The page looks a lot like the page I saw before, some colors, same font, it gives the same rate for one fios plan, but it has a different room and a different woman (one who is using a laptop (get it!)) and it doesn't have Option 1 and Option 2, no reference to building my own plan. I don't mind that she's not in the kitchen like the first womenn and that she's using a laptop but I want to build my own plan!!!

I get another laptop and it gives the same result.

I go back to the first laptop and I google fios build your own plan. I find some hits but not the one I want. Eventually I notice that on the original computer I cannot highlight those words because they are part of the picture and not actually text, so of course google doesn't find them. Maybe I could find some other unique identifier but I decide that posting here will be a better way to spend my time.

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Iggy 9 years ago

replying to micky, Iggy wrote: You do come up with some weird stuff. But, welcome to your blind fool innocence and the government surveillance illegally preying upon each and every one of us. Yes, since the dawn of computers. IP addresses were not some server's way of separating users, not until the turn of the century did servers "care" about individual users.

No, it doesn't matter if you're going through any modem with a "MAC Address". For the morons that still don't know nor care what S.M.A.R.T. means, yes I've personally tested "the conspiracy theory". It got me a visit by the FBI and Capitol Police...I single-handedly got Joe Lieberman out of office and saved his life.

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trader_4 9 years ago

Nor does an IP address separate users today. It's simply the address assigned to devices that are connected to the network, it originated in the early days of ethernet. So, yes, the fact that you have a specific IP address in the PC you're using identifies the network interface in the computer, but it does not identify who's using the PC at the moment. It's kind of like a phone number, it identifies the phone, but it doesn't identify who's using it at the moment. And if you had a multi-user OS running on that computer, you could have multiple users all going through that same IP address. So far you're the only one I've encountered who has a problem with it, but that's not surprising.

I wonder if Micky tried clearing the browser cache when he was having his problems?

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Iggy 9 years ago

replying to trader_4, Iggy wrote: No, I'm not a Public Library and no-one's been anonymous at those for decades anyway. Would it matter that your significant other or dog used your computer at your house? No, whomever would still just come to your house. To the wrong people, you're completely known and fully tracked as soon as you connect and until you disconnect.

No, I'm the only nonconformist you've encountered. I blocked IP's 20+ years ago on a private website and today any IP can be blocked on every level on-the-fly. It's how Opting Out Of Advertisements, Cookies and Targeted Advertisements work.

Clearing the Cache may have done it, but only until the algorithm matched the modem IP to recent history. Thus, why he got no options with the laptops. Depending on the level of surveillance (can't get much higher than Verizon) Micky would have to use a different ISP and modem. The algorithm will clear, but that could take as long as a month.

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