RBR40 connection drops and low "max rate"

So, FURRYe38 I did pretty much everything you mentioned. In addition, I came upon a really easy tool for monitoring the internet connection. It is just a Chrome browser extension called Internet Connection Monitor, which pings Google every three seconds, alerts you when either or both of the wifi and the router's ISP connection goes down, and keeps a log.

Telling the poor CSR I was doing this seemed to be enough to finally get someone to come out and look at it. And apparently only when a tech is onsite will the engineers in the data center pay attention (somewhat). The tech translating the engineer's texts was pretty comical but finally we did get from the engineer that there was a "bad cross cennction" issue. The tech was amused: he knew what a cross connection would be if there were copper involved, but in terms of the software backbone managing the optical, not a clue. 

Anyway: it worked for the connection. There have been no drops from the ISP for about 36 hours, a record. 

For the Orbi, the story is not quite as positive, but nearly. I only had one drop from the Orbi wifi all day. Another record. Either FURRYe38 suggestions helped or getting a more stable Verizon connection helped or probably both. I'm cautiously optimistic. Thanks for the help.