[HiEv's Place on alt-hacker.org]

[HiEv pic] HiEv's Verizon™ Online Information Section

I've been collecting information about Verizon Online (VOL) for a while now, so I decided to put it all in one place online so that anyone could have access to it. If you see any problems or have any suggestions please let me know in the 0.verizon.general-discussion newsgroup.

Also, if you're looking for information on the recent price drop and speed upgrade you can take a look at my Unofficial Verizon Online Upgrade FAQ. (Last updated on 7/14/2003)

(Note that the bold text in brackets are things that I've added which were not in the original texts.)

Here is a table of contents for this page. Click any link to skip ahead to that section, or just scroll down.


VOL Terms of Service

Here is where you can find the Verizon Online's Terms of Service (ToS), and you can find another copy of of the ToS here.

Pay special attention to "Attachment A: Acceptable Use Policy" at the bottom of the page. That's where the most important do's and don'ts are.

Along with giving further information on various topics, the ToS is somewhat expanded upon on some of these pages:

Note that you agreed to read your ToS periodically when you signed up for your service (see Section 5.)

[Note to non-Verizon customers: The 0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy is only available through the Verizon news server. - HiEv]

Subject: General Guidelines for posting to ALL Verizon support newsgroups.
NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 17:12:15 EDT
From: "Scott Brooks [VZ-Support]" <Scott.R.Brooks(AT)verizon.net> [@ changed to "(AT)" to block spam -HiEv]
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.adsl,0.verizon.announce,0.verizon.discussion-general
Message-ID: PgtDa.19541$JW6.6292@nwrddc02.gnilink.net

General Guidelines for posting to ALL Verizon support newsgroups.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted 6/04/2003 0.verizon.announce
---------------------------------------------------------------------

*Do not personally attack or harass other newsgroup participants*.
*Keep post on topic, if necessary move to another group.*

Please change your name to something other than news.verizon.net.
Do not post advertisements/spam in the newsgroups.
Do not post any copyrighted material in the newsgroups. Instead, include a link to the original document.
Do not cross post to multiple news groups unless absolutely necessary.
Never cross post between verizon.* and non-verizon.* newsgroups.

In order to further understand what constitutes acceptable communications with Verizon On-Line, please review Verizon's Terms of Service. TOS are enforce at all times.

Please note, Verizon does not monitor any unsupported Verizon newsgroups, but reserves the right to do so at any time.

Verizon reserves the right to change/amend these guidelines, anytime without prior notice.

All residential customers either dialup or DSL should have access to 0.verizon
All business DSL customers that do NOT have static IP should have access to 0.verizon
----------------------------------------------------------------------

The following newsgroups have been added to your Verizon Usenet Server if you subscribe to one of the following:

0.verizon.adsl - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online ADSL subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

0.verizon.announce - The purpose of this newsgroup is for Verizon to communicate service related issues to our customer. This group is moderated.

0.verizon.binaries - The purpose of this newsgroup is for Verizon or customers to post binary content.

0.verizon.cablemodem - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online Cable subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group is not supported by Verizon.

0.verizon.discussion-general - The purpose of this group is for Verizon customers to meet and discuss non-technical related subjects. This group is not supported by Verizon.

0.verizon.flame - The purpose of this group is to voice your complaints about Verizon or any subject. This group is not supported by Verizon.

0.verizon.linux - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online Linux subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group is not supported by Verizon.

0.verizon.mac - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online Mac subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

0.verizon.newsgroup.requests - The purpose of this group is for all Verizon Online subscribers to post request for news group additions to our news server. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personal.

0.verizon.security - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common security problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

0.verizon.suggestion.box - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online subscribers to post ideas/suggestions that would improve their online experience. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel.

0.verizon.windows2000 - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online MS Windows 2000 subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

0.verizon.windows9x - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online MS Windows 9x subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

0.verizon.windowsxp - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online MS Windows XP subscribers to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using Verizon Online. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

--
Once again thank you for your business,
Scott Brooks - Executive Support VOL Operations

Contact & Usenet Support Charter:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze35w7d/index.htm
Updated: 06/04/2003


General Guidelines addendums for 0.verizon.* groups

Subject: New Groups! 0.verizon.email.*
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 16:18:56 GMT
From: "Scott Brooks [VZ-Support]" <Scott.R.Brooks(AT)verizon.net> [@ changed to "(AT)" to block spam -HiEv]
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.announce

0.verizon.email.spam charter:

This unmoderated newsgroup is for the posting of spam received by Verizon Online customers which is not caught by SpamDetector. This group does not supersede the abuse@verizon.net or the spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net e-mail addresses. Any uncaught spam should still be reported to the abuse@verizon.net and/or spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net addresses. VOL personnel will monitor this group and take action based on spam posted to the group if deemed necessary by VOL. VOL customers will only receive a response from VOL regarding posts made to this group if more information is needed.

Articles should only be posted to the group if they match the following criteria:

1) The post is in plain text and has no attachments.
2) The post contains only the uncaught spam (tracking information researched by the customer will be allowed)
3) The full header of the e-mail message is included.
4) Follow-ups are set to 0.verizon.email.discussion-general

As with all 0.verizon usenet groups, articles posted to this group should not be crossposted to groups outside of the 0.verizon hierarchy. This group is not officially supported by Verizon Online support staff.


0.verizon.email.discussion-general charter:

This unmoderated newsgroup is for Verizon Online customers to post follow-ups regarding posts in 0.verizon.email.spam and any other e-mail issues customers may be experiencing. Posts may only be made in plain text with no attachments. This group is not officially supported by Verizon Online support staff.

As with all 0.verizon usenet groups, articles posted to this group should not be crossposted to groups outside of the 0.verizon hierarchy.

0.verizon.email.spam FAQ:    [Questions changed to bold for clarity -HiEv]

1) What is this group for?
This group exists for VOL customers to post spam that is not caught by the VOL SpamDetector service.
2) Can I post usenet spam to this group?
Only e-mail spam may be posted to this group.
3) What should I post to the group?
Posts should contain e-mail spam in plain text and with full headers. No attachments or HTML should be posted. Comments including traceroutes, whois information and other tracking information are welcome.
4) Will Verizon Online update its filters based on my posts?
Verizon Online may or may not, at its discretion, create filters and/or blocklists based on spam posted to this group. Customers may or may not be made aware of whether filters have been put in place.
5) I received a piece of spam that is identical or very similar to one already posted in 0.verizon.email.spam. Should I still post it?
Yes, please do. If you receive multiple copies of the spam yourself, please indicate that in your post.
6) This group seems to be the same idea as news.admin.net-abuse.sightings. Why should I post to this group?
Verizon Online is interested in the spam received by our own customers. news.admin.net-abuse.sightings is a great resource but it is not specific to Verizon Online's e-mail service.
7) Where can I discuss a piece of spam I saw in 0.verizon.email.spam?
All discussion of spam should be posted to 0.verizon.email.discussion-general.


-----

Subject: New Group! 0.verizon.wi-fi
Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003 16:25:15 GMT
From: "Scott Brooks [VZ-Support]" <Scott.R.Brooks(AT)verizon.net> [@ changed to "(AT)" to block spam -HiEv]
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.announce

0.verizon.wi-fi - The purpose of this newsgroup is for all Verizon Online Wi-Fi users to have a place to post some common, not so common problems and or solutions that they have found when in using this new offering. This group will be monitored by Verizon support personnel to lend a hand when it seem that all else fails.

--
Once again thank you for your business,
Scott Brooks - Executive Support VOL Operations

Contact & Usenet Support Charter:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze35w7d/index.htm
Updated: 06/04/2003


HiEv's Verizon Problem Help List

Here's a list of various things you can try to help fix a variety of problems while using Verizon:

If it is a connection / speed problem the first thing to check is:

to see if anything is going on with the network.

Please check the following section if you are having trouble with your Verizon Personal Web Space (PWS).

Speed and Connectivity:
Make sure your phone lines and cables are secure in their jacks and that your modem is using the cable that came with it.
If you use filters make sure that they are on all phones, answering machines, faxes, etc. except the modem. Do not place them in phone jacks unconnected to anything.
If you have a spare filter you might try rotating out other filters to see if one of them is bad (especially one that is in use often when you have problems.)
Try disconnecting everything from the phone lines except the modem to see if that affects your speed. If it does, try connecting one device at a time and rechecking your speed to see which one is causing the problem.
If you have an alarm system, cable box, etc. that uses the phone line then you will need to put a filter on them as well.
Make sure filters are connected directly to the wall outlet. It should be [phone] -> [phone cord] -> [filter] -> [wall outlet]. If you put the filter between the phone cord and the phone instead it will not work.
You might also try setting your network adapter to "10Mbps/Half duplex" instead of "Auto sense" to see if that makes a difference. (Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Network Adapters -> [your network card] -> Properties -> Advanced -> find and change the speed setting)
Try to reduce the amount of electromagnetic interference near modem and phone lines (like lamps with dimmer switches, speakers, power supplies, electric motors, etc.). This may include some cordless phones as well.
If you are using PPPoE and you are having problems with stalls and freezes when you are online try following the directions here: http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/156
If you are using PPPoE and you can reconnect after a temporary disconnection but cannot get anywhere it might be that PPPoE tried to many times to make a connection and Verizon disconnected you because they flagged this as a problem. You need to talk to tech support to get them to re-enable your account.
If you are using a router, switch, etc. try connecting directly from computer to modem to phone line.
Try power cycling the modem and computer (shut them off for ten seconds then turn them back on and wait for them both to restart.)
If you pass your phone/DSL line through a surge protector, try connecting without doing that.
If you have it handy, you might also try using another NIC or cable to eliminate them as the problem.
If you are using a router or firewall and are blocking pings, try allowing pings again to see if that makes a difference.
If you are using a router you should make sure you are using the latest firmware for it. Check on the manufacturer's web site.
If you're having problems and using a USB connection to your modem, if you can use an ethernet connection instead you should try that. (It's more reliable.)
If you're having trouble connecting to the internet and you aren't using a router, try running "ipconfig /release" and "ipconfig /renew" from a command prompt to see if that helps.
You should try out the Tweak Test and then the Speed Tests here:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/tools (Note: both of those test require JAVA to be enabled)
And Verizon's speed test is available here:
http://www.ba-hss.com/speedtest/ (Note: this site only tests download speed)
If you are still having speed problems you should also check the following link:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/faq/all#4960
There are some speed tweaks and tools available here:
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
I had good luck with TCPOptimizer as well:
http://www.bustedchain.com/tools/tcpip/tcpip.shtml
For problems with sites you can't reach or sites that take a while to start and then speed up, you should check the DNS Problems section below.

DNS Problems:
If you are having trouble getting to some websites you can normally reach, or some pages take a while to open at first but then display fine, and your speed tests all check out fine, you could be having a problem with your DNS (Domain Name Service) servers (also called "nameservers"). To test this, take the domain name of a place you can't get to (like "www.xyz.com") and do a DNS lookup on it here: http://www.DNSstuff.com/. Then paste IP address from the first answer listed there into the URL of the place you are trying to go to (so for example "http://www.xyz.com/dir/index.htm" might become "http://10.20.30.40/dir/index.htm") and try that in your browser. If the IP address works when the domain name doesn't then you have a DNS problem.
To get around this problem you could try using one of the other DNS servers listed below or you could try installing a personal DNS server like TreeWalk (for Windows 2000 and XP) or BIND-LE (for the other versions of Windows.)

Email and Newsgroup Problems:
If you are having trouble with sending email make sure you are using the outgoing.verizon.net mail server. See:
http://www2.verizon.net/announcements/smtp.asp
See also the Email Setup and Limitations section.
If you are using PPP (like WinPoET or RASPPPOE) make sure your MTU settings are correct (probably should be 1492). If this number is too high it may prevent you from sending large emails, posts, or getting to some websites. If you're using Windows you can use DrTCP to set your MTU. It's available here:
http://www.dslreports.com/front/drtcp.html
And here's a FAQ on DrTCP:
http://www.dslreports.com/faq/578
Also, you can use the Tweak Test to see if you want to change your other settings:
http://www.dslreports.com/tools
Try shutting down firewalls, antivirus, and ad-blocking software to see if it makes a difference.
Try using a different news or mail client to see if you still have the same problems.
If newsgroups appear to be missing or you are having trouble getting the list of newsgroups (especially with OE) try removing and re-adding the news server and groups in your news client.
If a newsgroup post appears to get sent properly but does not show up in the newsgroup(s) you might try changing the subject line, since some part of the subject line may be tripping the spam filter.
Some HTML posts may also be blocked when sending to newsgroups because of the spam filter. I recommend against using HTML in newsgroup posts.

Miscellaneous Problems and Suggestions:
If some software seems to be having problems, see if another product solves the problem (like if your news client has problems see if another one works).
If you had installed any hardware or software (including patches) just before the problem occurred you may want to try undoing those changes to see if they caused the problem.

You can also check out the Broadband Reports' "Verizon Online DSL FAQ" here:
http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/vz

If none of this helps then you should call Verizon phone support at 1-800-567-6789. If that doesn't help then you can try going to one of the 0.verizon.* newsgroups and hopefully someone there can find a solution for you.

Subject: Re: message restrictions
Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 14:09:15 GMT
From: "Verizon News Admin" <VerizonNewsAdmin@verizon.net>
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.discussion-general

Group,

I've summarized the current Posting Limits on the VIS Usenet service from a technical perspective. I do not address service _access_ in this message. There are additional legal restrictions related to posting/sending illegal content over the VIS Network or any VIS service. See the TOS/AUP here http://www.verizon.net/policies/internetaa.asp for specifics. In all cases, the TOS/AUP supersedes what is outlined below.

1) Maximum crosspost to five (5) groups.
2) Maximum Text or Single-Part-of-a-Multipart-Binary is 1mb (Software Limitation). [Was 4 MB originally. - HiEv]
3) Maximum number of lines per post is essentially based upon #2 and your encoding method.
4) No binary posts to non-binary groups.
5) No posts to groups not carried on the VIS Usenet service.
6) The VIS Usenet post spam filter will block posts per filter configuration, which will not be published or discussed in any public forum. [No more than 4 duplicate posts to different newsgroups(?) - HiEv]
7) There may be other undocumented "features" of the software which we have not run into yet.

These are the current general technical restrictions, and are subject to change at any time. From there, individuals should adhere to any posting rules set forth in each newsgroup (including subject matter/content, post size or amount in a given period) . In addition, the new TOS further outlines use and access of the VIS Usenet service.

Best regards,

Rick - The Verizon News Admin Guy

Subject: Usenet Service Statistics
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2003 02:39:49 GMT
From: "Verizon News Admin" <VerizonNewsAdmin@verizon.invalid>
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.discussion-general
Message-ID: VzJna.35176$U34.32197@nwrddc02.gnilink.net

Group,

I thought I'd post some updated Usenet service statistics. The daily feed has grown substantially from the beginning of this year, from ~550 GB to it's current ~750 GB. We've also seen a 30% increase in peak download bandwidth since deploying the New York Usenet installation back in February.
The current average statistics are:

Peak Download: 1,236.mbps (VA and NY services combined)

The current feed by hierarchy for the 24 hours on 4/16 consisted of:

Hierarchy Messages Bytes
 alt 2,104,977 712,915,978,525
 comp 13,853 415,622,288
 jobs 40 70,167
 misc 4,048 10,070,717
 news 5,429 26,555,421
 rec 33,657 317,309,270
 sci 5,113 13,062,190
 soc 10,961 34,550,219
 talk 2,915 9,224,715
 all others 753,399 49,329,041,246
 TOTAL 2,934,393 763,071,484,758

(sorry about the formatting!)    [Reformatted by HiEv.]

Best regards,

Rick - The Verizon News/DNS Admin Guy



[For reference, here is the previous Usenet service statistics post. - HiEv]

Subject: Usenet Service Statistics
Date: Sat, 17 Aug 2002 20:00:52 GMT
From: "Verizon News Admin" <VerizonNewsAdmin@verizon.invalid>
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.adsl, 0.verizon.discussion-general
Message-ID: UXx79.3769$P36.2670@nwrddc04.gnilink.net
[Here is a link for Opera 6.x users on news.verizon.net]

[quoted text snipped - HiEv]

Group,

Sorry, I've been away on vacation for the past week and am now just catching up on our service statistics. My post in the "news.verizon.net accepting spam" thread regarding the feed size is inaccurate. Following are the current service feed statistics from 8/16/2002.

Peak outbound traffic: ~750 Mb/s (down from 900 Mb/s before off-net block[*])
Articles downloaded: 27,106,489
Bytes downloaded: 5,995,085,737,234

Binary retention: ~11.7 days
Text retention: ~28 days
Inbound feed bytes: 444,020,507,461 (~413 GB!)
Inbound post count: 1,989,525

Feed breakdown by group hierarchy (sorry for the bad formatting):    [Don't worry, I reformatted it. - HiEv]

Group Number of Posts Number of Bytes
 alt 1,630,215 427,287,256,258
 comp 11,632 26,467,905
 jobs 54 104,986
 misc 3,862 10,256,313
 news 7,195 42,557,386
 rec 32,681 89,170,256
 sci 3,191 8,214,712
 soc 7,036 22,009,675
 talk 1,802 5,429,020
 all_others (~900 hierarchies) 291,856 16,529,040,950

Best regards,

Rick - The Verizon News Admin Guy

[*: The "off-net block" refers to when the news server was changed to block access from outside the Verizon network. - HiEv]

Here is an incomplete list of Verizon DNS servers. Ideally you should use the servers assigned via PPPoE/DHCP but these may help in a pinch. The items below are listed in order by IP address. (Crossed off items appear to no longer be functional.)

A text file of just the valid IP addresses is also available here.

Known Verizon DNS Servers
[IPAddr] [Hostname] [GSP - Area]
4.2.2.1 vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.2 vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.3 vnsc-lc.sys.gtei.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.4 vnsc-pri-dsl.genuity.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.5 vnsc-bak-dsl.genuity.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.6 vnsc-lc-dsl.genuity.net Verizon - varies by location
4.2.2.64 (no rDNS) Verizon - Denver, CO
4.2.2.65 (no rDNS) Verizon - Denver, CO
4.2.2.66 (no rDNS) Verizon - Denver, CO
4.2.49.2 dnsauth1.sys.gtei.net Verizon - Los Angeles, CA
4.2.49.3 dnsauth2.sys.gtei.net Verizon - Washington, D.C.
4.2.49.4 dnsauth3.sys.gtei.net Verizon - TX(?)
63.226.138.15 ns3.qwest.net Qwest -
141.150.0.68 gtenj.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Newark, NJ
141.151.0.68 gteph.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Philadelphia, PA
141.151.128.68 gtepi.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Pittsburgh, PA
141.154.0.68 gtebo.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Boston, MA
141.155.0.68 gteny.ba-dsg.net Verizon - New York, NY
151.196.0.38 mail2.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Baltimore, MD
151.196.0.39 home2.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Baltimore, MD
151.197.0.38 mail4.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Philadelphia, PA
151.197.0.39 home4.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Philadelphia, PA
151.197.0.68 qstph.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Philadelphia, PA
151.198.0.38 mail5.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Newark, NJ
151.198.0.39 home5.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Newark, NJ
151.198.0.68 qstnj.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Newark, NJ
151.199.0.38 mail3.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Roanoke, VA
151.199.0.39 home3.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Roanoke, VA
151.201.0.38 mail6.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Pittsburgh, PA
151.201.0.39 home6.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Pittsburgh, PA
151.201.0.68 qstpi.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Pittsburgh, PA
151.202.0.68 qstny.ba-dsg.net Verizon - New York, NY
151.202.0.84 nyc1-qwest.bellatlantic.net Verizon - New York, NY
151.202.0.85 nyc2-qwest.bellatlantic.net Verizon - New York, NY
151.203.0.68 qstbo.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Boston, MA
151.203.0.84 boston1-qwest.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Boston, MA
151.203.0.85 boston2-qwest.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Boston, MA
151.204.0.84 home8-qwest.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Pennsauken, NJ
199.45.32.37 ns.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Reston, VA
199.45.32.38 mail1.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Reston, VA
199.45.32.40 ns1.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Reston, VA
199.45.32.41 ns2.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Reston, VA
199.45.32.43 home1.bellatlantic.net Verizon - Reston, VA
199.45.45.14 nsdc.ba-dsg.net Verizon - Reston, VA
205.171.9.242 DCA-ANS-01.INET.qwest.net Qwest -
205.171.14.195 SVL-ANS-01.INET.qwest.net Qwest -
205.171.16.250 ns2.qwest.net Qwest -
216.111.65.217 ns1.qwest.net Qwest -

Subject: DNS Caching Information
Date: Sun, 28 Jul 2002 06:34:49 GMT
From: "Verizon News Admin" <VerizonNewsAdmin@verizon.invalid>
Newsgroups: 0.verizon.discussion-general
Message-ID: dgM09.12701$9U4.2723@nwrddc01.gnilink.net
[Here is a link for Opera 6.x users on news.verizon.net]

Group,

There seems to be a number of questions floating around regarding the caching of domain names on Verizon DNS servers. This message is intended to clarify DNS caching and answer the group's questions, but does not go into excruciating details such as delegated authority, etc.. If someone in the group finds a glaring error in this message, please feel free to reply to this post with the correct information.

When a VOL customer connects to the VOL network to access the internet, the customer obtains a system IP address and primary & secondary DNS IP addresses as part of logging on. The DNS servers are configured as caching servers, and their only purpose in life is to resolve domain names and sub-domain names to IP addresses. When you open your browser and type in the address (for example) www.somedomain.com, the following happens:

1) Your system sends a request to your primary DNS server (pDNS) to resolve www.somedomain.com into an IP address. If pDNS already has the IP address for www.somedomain.com in it's cache _and_ the TTL (Time To Live) for www.somedomain.com has not expired, it will return the IP address to your computer (go to step #5 below as steps 2, 3 & 4 are unnecessary).

2) If pDNS does not already have the IP address for www.somedomain.com, or the domain's TTL has expired, pDNS will query a DNS ROOT server (not managed or owned by VOL) to get the IP address of the Authoritative DNS server for the somedomain.com domain. If somedomain.com is registered, the ROOT server will return to pDNS the IP address of the DNS server on which the somedomain.com domain is configured. The IP address of the system returned from the ROOT server is known as the Authoritative DNS server address.

3) pDNS then queries the Authoritative DNS server for www.somedomain.com. (The Authoritative DNS server is most likely managed by a company other than VOL.) If the Authoritative server actually serves the www.somedomain.com host record for the somedomain.com domain, it returns the IP address and TTL to pDNS. pDNS now has the somedomain.com domain and www.somedomain.com host record "cached".

4) pDNS returns the IP address for www.somedomain.com to your computer.

5) Your browser goes to the IP address returned from either steps 1 or 3 above.

As you can see from the example above (I hope), the VOL DNS cache server (pDNS) only caches names and addresses. If only one customer resolves www.somedomain.com, its entry will stay in the pDNS cache until the BIND (DNS) software is restarted or the DNS server is rebooted. Every time www.somedomain.com is resolved after the initial resolution occurs, it will be resolved from the pDNS cache entry. Now, if the TTL for somedomain.com is set for 24 hours (24-48 hours is common), and a customer tries to resolve www.somedomain.com 24 hours and one second _after_ step 3 above, steps 2 & 3 above must be performed again because the TTL expired for the domain. Likewise, if the company/person who is authoritative for www.somedomain.com changed the IP address to a different IP address one second _after_ step 3 above was performed, the VOL DNS server will have the old IP address in its cache for the next 24 hours. There's nothing VOL can do about this since this is the way DNS operates.

Ultimately, domain names do not propagate through all DNS servers. A DNS server only caches a domain name when it's asked to do so via resolution request, and will hold on to it as long as the DNS software is running. Just about the only thing that will force a change/update to the cached domain in the VOL DNS server is when someone resolves the domain after the TTL has expired, at which time the VOL DNS server performs steps 2 & 3 again (whether the domain was changed or not).

One other important note... It's my understanding that some Microsoft operating systems will cache resolved domains on your local system, however I'm not exactly sure just how long the OS will keep the resolved name cached (does anyone in the group have more information on this?). If you do an nslookup and the VOL DNS server seems to keep returning an old IP address even after you know the TTL for the domain has run out on the VOL DNS server, you may be getting a response which is cached on your local system. If you think this may be happening, you may want to get a utility that you can use to do a "dig" against the domain. A dig will force a query of the VOL DNS server and the Authoritative server.

Sorry for such a long post. There's a lot of other things that could happen depending on more factors than I wanted to get into here, so this post is not meant to be the definitive DNS guide. Feel free to ask additional questions or point out any glaring errors.

Best regards,

Rick - The Verizon News Admin Guy

Personal Web Space (PWS) Information and Help:

The Site Builder FAQ is available here:
http://www2.verizon.net/myaccount/manage/sitebuilder/faq.asp

Former Bell Atlantic customers (mostly east coast):
Web access via- http://mysite.verizon.net/username -or- http://members.verizon.net/username
FTP access via- ftp://username:password@ftpmysite.verizon.net:21

Former GTE customers (mostly west coast):
Web access via- http://home1.gte.net/username
FTP access via- ftp://username:password@ftphome1.gte.net

(Replace your Verizon username where "username" appears and your password where "password" appears.)

If the permissions on your public_html directory get messed up, you can use FTP to rename the public_html directory created by the Site Builder to something else, then you can create a new public_html directory with your own index.html and other files.

If you post images to Site Builder using their tool and the images seem to get "lost," try looking in "sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/" in your PWS for them. (ie. If your alias is "xyz" and the image is called "abc.jpg", you could try looking in "http://mysite.verizon.net/xyz/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/abc.jpg".)

Also, some people have had trouble getting into PWS accounts that they have created and now get a username/password error. If this is happening to you you could try following these steps:

First...login to VOL via the login page and change your password online. A few minutes later you can follow the same procedure to change it back to your original password (thus sparing you having to change passwords for email, DSL access, etc.)

Test the successful "take" of your password using the following instructions (you should be able to access PWS via FTP now):

Host name: ftpmysite.verizon.net
User ID: your standard VOL login name (self explanatory)
Password: also self explanatory...same you use for everything else once you've changed it or changed it back
Port: 21

Then, reupload everything to your webspace using the same FTP instructions above. There should be a "public_html" subdirectory in your webspace. Put your uploaded files in that subdirectory.

(Thanks to ELR for the above instructions.)

Miscellaneous Verizon Information

Spam Detector:

Verizon's Spam Detector FAQ is available here:
http://www2.verizon.net/myaccount/spamdetector/faq.asp

Here is the email address to send unwanted spam to:
spamdetector.notcaught@verizon.net

Here is the email address to send email incorrectly identified as spam to:
spamdetector.update@verizon.net

You should forward the whole email to those addresses.


Email Setup and Limitations:

To set up your email just follow the directions here:
http://www2.verizon.net/announcements/smtp.asp

In brief, just set incoming.verizon.net for your incoming POP3 connection and outgoing.verizon.net for your outgoing SMTP connection. Both require authentication (user ID and password) to be enabled.

You can also access your email via. Verizon Online NetMail on the web at: http://netmail.verizon.net/

Maximum outgoing email size is about 8 MB, which means the maximum size of an attachment to a small text email is around 6 MB. (UUEncoding or MIME make the attachment larger.)

Maximum incoming email is 20 MB, assuming you have that much space free in your account.

The maximum number of addresses (including TO, CC, and BCC) is 100, and the last limitation is 500 recipients in any one-hour time frame.


Verizon's Global Service Provider (GSP) States:

Verizon has taken over or is taking over for Qwest and Genuity as GSP in the following states:

Rhode Island - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/ri_changes.asp
Maine and Vermont - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/me_vt_changes.asp
New Jersey - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/nj_changes.asp
Pennsylvania - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/pa_customers.asp
Delaware and New Hampshire - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/delaware_newhampshire.asp
Virginia - http://www2.verizon.net/service_updates/virginia_service_changes.asp

(Note: Since all of these links had died I'm now redirecting to the Internet Archive version of these pages.)


Verizon's Remote Dial-up Numbers:

The dial-up numbers for Verizon can be found here:
http://www2.verizon.net/resource_center/dialin.asp
http://www2.verizon.net/dialin/ (old link)

Or you can just download the PDF of the Verizon Online Dial-up Phonebook for the US from here:
http://www2.verizon.net/resource_center/vol_phonebook_11-02.pdf

Note that if you are using DSL you may need to purchase the Remote Dial-up Internet Access add-on service to use those numbers. See here:
http://www22.verizon.com/forhomedsl/channels/dsl/pop-up+remote+access.htm
Some older "grandfathered" accounts will have this already.

Supposedly you can also use the MCI/Worldcom POP connections around the world:
http://global.mci.com/about/network/pops/
I am not positive about this information, but some users claim to have used this successfully.

If you are interested an a dial-up only account you can check for availability here:
http://www.verizon.net/pands/dial/packages/


Verizon Downloads:

The way-too-well-hidden section to download files from Verizon, including the latest version of WinPoET, NukePoET (to remove WinPoET), and a Westell modem firmware upgrade, can be found here:
http://www2.verizon.net/downloads/downloads.asp

There are also some Westell A90 and B90 modem firmware upgrades available here:
Windows PC - http://www.westell.com/pages/verizon_down_pc.jsp
Macintosh OS v8.6 - v9.0.4 - http://www.westell.com/pages/verizon_down_mac.jsp

And some other Westell software and documentation is available at these links:
Various downloads - http://www.westell.com/pages/verizon.jsp
Westell 2200 User Guides - http://www.westell.com/pages/model2200/userguide/userguide.jsp

Also note that for the firmware upgrades you will need to connect directly to the modem (no router) to update the firmware and that you may also need to shut down any firewalls.

Personally, if you are using WinPoET, I would recommend switching to RASPPPOE instead. It's a bit more reliable and it takes up less resources than WinPoET. It's available here:
http://www.raspppoe.com/

If you choose to install it you should only disable WinPoET when you do the install. That way you can switch back to WinPoET if you ever need to call the support line.
Also, it is an improvement over the built-in WinXP PPPoE, in that it allows you to set your MTU to 1492 and a few other things that the MS version do not. See FAQ 3 at the above site.
** Note: If you are using a router or are in a DHCP area you probably will not need WinPoET or RASPPPOE.


Westell Diagnostic Monitor Software:

If you want to take a look at the statistics on your Westell modem, to see what speed you are currently set for, or to see how much line noise there is, there are some diagnostic programs available to allow you to do this.

Here's the link for the Westell diagnostic program for the Westell A90-210015-04 and B90-210015-04 modems:
http://www.westell.com/pages/verizon.jsp

And there is another version for the Westell ADSL bridge models A90-36R515, B90-36R515/516, and C90-51x.* models here:
http://mbrowser1.webhop.net

(Look on the back of the modem to find your model number.)

Note that if you are using a router you will need to bypass the router, connecting the computer directly to the modem, to use these diagnostic programs.

After installation, launch the program window and press CTRL+ALT+F7 to view the line statistics.

I would recommend avoiding playing with the settings, and if you do, make sure you can put them back. If you change the settings the wrong way you may lose your connection.


IPClient.exe and IPMon32.exe:

If you install the Verizon software from the CD you may end up with Visual IP Insight (IPClient.exe and IPMon32.exe) running on your system. Some programs may identify these as spyware.

Both programs are totally unnecessary for your internet connection and may be uninstalled without causing any problems. I recommend removing them.

The programs are supposedly to allow Verizon to monitor the quality of your internet connection, however they are apparently not used by Verizon. See:
http://www.visualnetworks.com/products/prod_ip.html

For more information about the IPinsight EXEs take a look here:
"Verizon Online DSL FAQ» Is IP insight really needed?" - http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/1247


MotiveSB.exe, Mpbtn.exe, and MotMon.exe:

There are similar programs to the IPinsight stuff (above) called Motive SmartBridge (motivesb.exe, mpbtn.exe, and motmon.exe) that some Verizon software installs. I also recommend uninstalling these if they are installed on your machine(s). They're more useless support programs that may actually cause problems. Here's a Motive press release on the Verizon deal to provide this software:
http://www.motive.com/newsevents/pressreleases/pr.asp?id=191


Verizon History:

If you're interested in how most of Bell Atlantic and GTE merged to become Verizon you can find a nice history of the company available here:
http://investor.verizon.com/profile/history_002.html

The Verizon name is the trademark of Verizon Communications.
(Last updated on February 25, 2004)