Refraining from a long diatribe about PPPoE, I'll just say that adding a dial-up era session layer over a modern, nailed-up connection technology is... stupid.
MOST, if not all, of my problems with my CenturyLink DSL (former Qwest area, using Qwest infrastructure because I have a block of static IPs) stem from the PPPoE layer. Today, since about 3AM, I've had my connectivity interrupted no less than 20 times - all at the PPP layer. The line is fine, and the modem shows a train timer of well over 24 hours. In every case, it's taken anywhere from 60 seconds to 20 minutes before the PPP negotiation finally succeeds and I'm back on the air (I have logs FULL of PPPoE "action failed", "unrecoverable error" and "State change InitSent -> Dead" messages). Ironically, this has happened to me TWICE while I was in the middle of "chat" tech support with CL reps - the same reps that told me that since I was chatting with them and online, there was no problem. Apparently "intermittent" isn't in their vocabulary?
Granted, I have my modem in bridging mode and the PPPoE endpoint is not the modem, but the ONLY thing I can get from the so-called "tech support" is "power-cycle the modem" "what do the lights look like" "we have to send you a replacement modem since the line test fine".
NO. I want someone that understands PPP, PPPoE, PAP/CHAP, and how they integrate with CL's DSL to look at why their PPP infrastructure just keeps going brain-dead for minutes to hours at a time and simply refuses to allow a PPP link to be established. When every single other component from the lines to the modem to my switches to my servers are 100% operational, it seems ridiculous to have my connectivity remain at the mercy of a legacy session authentication technology - that's failing far more often than it should.
To the point:
Is there ANY way to get in touch with someone technical at CL that perhaps understands/manages/maintains the infrastructure that DOES all the PPP/PPPoE silliness and maybe get them to troubleshoot it? This isn't the first time I've been here, but it's getting close to being my last. The front-line people won't pass me on to anyone higher/more advanced - they claim they are perfectly capable of handling my problem, but then continue to insist that I power-cycle the modem - and replace it when that doesn't magically make everything better.
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