Troubleshooting...

The Verizon technician came by today. He was thoroughly impressed with my internal wiring (not). He did run a temporary line from the network interface box on the outside of the house into the back room to plug the modem directly into the computer. He didn't know how to work with Macs so I had to finish the configuration when I arrived home. He said to call him if the sync light dropped with the "new" temporary wiring. Shortly after I connected it up it dropped so I called back. He then asked I disconnect the entire house and see if that made any difference. In that mode it dropped again. So tomorrow he will swap cable pairs back to the central office and we will go from there.