get rid of verizon, seriously. i had it here (in Va) for about 1.5 years, it started out ok, with little problems. but after about 6 months the speed started to go down, and i started getting a lot of down time. calling them would only get me "we'll put a trouble ticket in" every time i called, which was quite often.
i switched to comcast, which has been wonderful for me. it has downtime, but its fixed quickly, and they will work with you if its not on their end.