Day: November 15, 2012

Trouble in paradise
When I switched to fiber last year, I got a modem without a fixed IP address – wasn’t possible on that type, an besides: I would always get the same address on reboot – except for major network changes.
All went well until July, when a complete overhaul was executed – without notice, so I got a new address, so I had to contact the regristar of the domain to update DNS with the new addresses….A free upgrade from 50Mb to 100Mb, symetrical, for a one-time cost of EUR 10… Not bad. That address would not change, I was told. And when a major overhaul was expected, inclusing an address change, there would be a warning.
In the mean time, the ISP was bought by the big monopolist, and I got a letter that mentioned a chnage in administration. No action required.
Yesterday, about 01:20, connection was broken and restored within a minute. It happens now and than, and has no implications normally. But this time, the connection was restored with another address. No warning, either. So it was not before 09:00 that I found out NOT ANY connection could be made. Not even to the router – and setting up VPN failed as well.
That I got another address became clear when I looked into the situation that night. MAC addresses were still the same, even on the gateway, but the address was chnaged as well. As well as the DNS servers. Phoned the helpdesk, of course they couldn’t reverse the action, nor could they guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again; even worse, it could happen at any time from now on.. And a fixed address could no longer be obtained from them.
This is considered unacceptable, so I looked for another ISP. On the network, there is one more from the beginning: the big monopolist in fact, that offered less facilities for a higher price than the ISP I choose at the time. And for a few weeks, there is a third one – a subsidiary of this monopolist (but with their own standards). And as I found out that my current ISP is bought by that monopolist, there is actually no alternative any more for the facilities I require. But I will have all ports open – and a fixed IP address.
So I made the switch – for Internet, and by that, for HD television, because that requires Internet access as well. I vae a month notice period, so the definitive swtich will take place half December, it will mean a few days without Internet – I can live with that.
In the mean time, my sites weren’t reachable, since DNS contained the wrong addresses. So I asked my registrar to chnage addresses to the new one. This morning, these weren’t included yet, it took until noon today – after which I noticed I passed the wrong addresses, in all hectic of yesterday. That was repaired within an hour, and by and by, the changes propagated to the Internet. And at 16:30, this was the last site to be available again.
Now wait for the bill. EUR 10 enyway, perhaps twice – but that’s my fault. Hopefully, it will last until the switch of ISP (which will cost an additional EUR10 for that (final) change)