I had the misfortune of availing for a Smart Bro connection, which has one of the worst internet connection services and after sales support I have ever encountered in my entire life.

Being a consumer, I definitely have a list of expectations from every purchases I make be it products or services.

For an internet connection, I only have the following expectations:
1. Seamless and fast internet connection
2. A very responsive after sales support

Unfortunately, these expectations are not met by Smart Bro. Just to enumerate problems I have encountered with them:
1. I have been experiencing intermittent connection since day 1.
2. I had more than 5 service visits from them because of the problems I have been consistently experiencing.
3. It takes them so long a time to respond to my problems and queries. Especially after Reming super typhoon, it took them exactly 3 weeks before they can fix the wireless antenna. AND I STILL GOT BILLED FOR THAT THREE WEEKS!
4. I have been experiencing consistently the same problems and it goes without saying that the real fix for the problem has not been employed.
5. Their after sales support cannot do anything at all and they had to rely on their on suppliers to fix the problems. Technically, they seem to be very dependent on their suppliers.
6. Their call center agents are not knowledgable whatsoever of handling irate calls. They are not really.
7. Their technical support must not be called a technical support but a coordinating support becaues all they can do is coordinate my problems to their suppliers.

Some of the 7 problems I have experienced with them.

So I say, given the power we consumers have, IT IS TIME FOR A REVOLUTION AGAINST THESE COMPANIES WHO MILK OUR HARD-EARNED MONEY WITHOUT REALLY DOING THEIR JOB IN PROVIDING QUALITY PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.

DOWN WITH SMART BRO!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Hi!

I want to host my personal ftp server or web and also running MS SQL Server, like what i did to PLDT MyDSL (Dynamic IP). If i am not mistaken, Smartbro/wifi has shared IP but could it be possible? For now i can ping my IP (203.84.174.118) , but still could not connect to my host pc. I believe everything were configured well aside from canopy configuration. Does it still need of port routing found in their CANOPY or Wifi antennae? Please anybody could give an idea.

Thank you very much.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Since PLDT owns Smart, or it’s one of their sister companies, shouldn’t we be allowed to transfer to PLDT myDSL XPERIENCE if Smart Bro doesn’t work for us?

Just a suggestion, did anybody else try to ask this yet, I’ll ask this next time I go to a service center.

Popularity: 3% [?]

For 12 days I’ve been reporting this stupid DNS error to the Customer Supot of SMART BRO but all they do was record these errors and make those redundant troubleshooting and error reports, and send these over to their “Higher Technical Group” which seems more like “GHOST EMPLOYEES! my goodness! Are they even reading these reports that their customer supots are sending?!? Or do they even exist?!? and i can’t have my rebates din daw kase the requirement was for me to wait for the connection to be restored! eh wala ngang connection eh!!! and i don’t plan on continuing this stupid service! grabe, ang BULOK ng SMARTBRO! BULOK! Capital B!-U!-L!-O!-K!BULOOOOOOOOOKKK!

Popularity: 5% [?]

So nag-reklamo ako sa pagkawala ng internet ko. The connection was there but the internet was simply “unreachable”. So tumawag ako sa tech support ng Smartbro. Ang sabi nila… may activity dun sa base station. Ang sabi ko… ano yung activity? walang masabi ang loka. di daw alam. ayan… sabi ko kung gusto nyang malaman kasi kilala ko yung may-ari nung bahay kung saan naka-base ung cellsite nila. Ayun! check ko daw uli after two hours. After two hours… hahaha! ayos na naman ung internet ko. Suuuss!!! kung di mo pa tatakutin…

Nga pala, for those na gustong pabilisin ung smartbro connection. I think nakuha ko na ung configs.

First: Run gpedit.msc (group policy editor). Ingat lang kayo sa paggamit ng tool na to. Walang sisihan.Ung Windows kasi nagreserve ng 20% ng bandwidth para sa ‘personal’ na gamit nito. E kaso, nangangailangan din tayo ng extra pang bandwidth kaya kukunin natin to. Sundan nyo lang to: Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Network > QoS Packet Scheduler > Double-click Limit reservable bandwidth > Enable > Bandwidth limit% set nyo to 0. Tapos click OK. Di na kelangan ng reboot. Ok na yun.

Next: Change nyo yung QoS config ng canopy nyo. Access nyo to through Internet Explorer http://169.254.1.1. Tapos punta kayo sa Configuration > Quality of Service (Qos) Change nyo ung mga settings.

Tapos click nyo ung Submit tapos click nyo reboot para ma-save ung changes.

Finally: Test nyo sa http://www.dslreports.com/stest ung speed nyo.

Sa akin nag-shoot ng 400 kbps ung speed ko. Walang problema sa uTorrent.

Enjoy po. Kung di po nag-work sa inyo e… magpakabit na lang po kayo ng iba. Hehe!

Popularity: 4% [?]

Anyone knows how to use CNUT in upgrading canopy software/firmware? currently my firmware is 7.2.9 DES…

www.motorola.com/canopy

Popularity: 13% [?]

I run my computer, open internet explorer but nothing appears….. just an error mesage.

What is happening to my inetnet connection?

I went to the Smart Wirelesss Center but its closed because today is a Sunday. This is really frustrating because i go online everyday and today i cant log in to my favorite Online Game ConquerOnline. Nothing works, not mIRC, no IE, no Chikka, noYahoo!.

I am really mad at Smart, already 12 hours no iternet. I tried the basic troubleshooting stuff, checking connections, the power, and so on. I checked the Network connection properties nothing changed, its all the same way it is since those Cable(wireless) Guys installed my internet connection.

And no i have to go to an internet cafe 9 p.m. to open my mail, log in to ConquerOnline, and search what is wrong with my SmartBro connection.

This is a waste of time, money, and my patience. I want to through that stupid antenna thing away, the Smart tower is just 300 meters away from my home, why is there no internet?

I was searching for the SmartBro web siteand i stumble on this site because i thought this was their costumer service/help whatever site for costumers that just found out they have no internet connection, and want to know what the hell happen to their service. The service they are providing is just not acceptable.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’m not an expert and I’m not in anyway affilated with Smart or Meridian. But below is my observation regarding SmartBro since i’ve been using it eversince they first tested it out here in Baguio City, yes, I’m one of the first to have this kind of service and I still have the basic (128Kbps/PhP788/mo) account/connection/service.

So, anyway, I haven’t have any major issues with Smartbro eversince it was installed. And since 2004, I only called them up around 5 times (as far as I can remember) and 2 of them, requesting Port Forwarding and IP Passthrough.

Ok, worst experience.. intermittent connection, which was fixed within 8hrs of calling them up.

Second worst experience, no connection… fixed in 3hrs.

and lastly, server has to authenticate me (https://portal.smartbro.net/) every time I boot back to Kubuntu & Fedora (which was fixed by a simple configuration on my distro).

So anyway, every single SmartBro subscribers are behind a NAT. Meaning, almost everyone here in Baguio uses a single Public IP Address (203.87.200.21). I would understand why they did this, cost… a single IP for everyone is way less expensive than a Dynamic/Static IP for each and every cxn.

We also connect via MAC Authentication and you won’t be able to plug in your POE from one computer to another without first logging in to the Portal Page. It’s much more effective to use a router and set it up to connect via DHCP.

Port Forwarding & IP Passthrough isn’t available. If it is, then imagine how many of us would setup their Apache… hehehe, 1 IP 10-20 Apache’s.. won’t work unless Smart configures a pointer. Don’t bother calling them up since I already did and also emailed them… got the same response, if I need a Static IP or an IP Passthrough (Static IP is much convenient) then I would have to subscribe for a Premium PPPoE service from Meridian Telekoms.

Port 25 / SMTP Lockdown is also implemented in all ISP’s and in all consumer accounts (business accounts are not affected). In sending out emails, you need to set your Outgoing Mail Server to Smartbro’s server (sorry I don’t know since I don’t use Smartbro to send email). If you need Smartbro’s POP3, then you don’t have to configure anything. But if you have a 3rd Party or Business/Personal POP3 account, just set it up as usual and just change the outgoing mail server or smtp server… If you want to bypass this.. then you have to subscribe to an IMAP service provider or use Google’s GMail… Why Gmail? Well, as you know, they use an SSL-enabled SMTP connection via port 587. So setup your outgoing server to point to smtp.gmail.com, make sure you check SSL and set up the port to 587… Remember.. it’s Port 25 Blocking/Lockdown.. not Port 587. And also yes, you may use other SMTP providers as long as they don’t use port 25.

What else, BitTorrent? You don’t need to ask them to open ports for you since they’ve implemented Port Triggers and as long as a specific port has been opened by an application from any account, that port would remain open even on the outside… Just be patient with BitTorrent since SmartBro’s NAT need time to resolve those connections… I’ve been using KTorrent and micro(uTorrent) and I havent’ had any problems yet.

Streaming Media will never be affected. SSL/FTP/whatever connections will also not be affected as long as you’re not the server.

As I see it, you just can’t serve pages, games, database, content, etc. And if you want to, use a free service provider…. http://www.110mb.com/ since they offer 2GB space, 1SQL, and Gigs of Bandwidth per month.. They also offer FTP & HTTP uploading with unzip features… Better check them out.

And if you have a connection problems, please don’t jump immediately into conclusion that the service sucks… if you’re using Windows, then expect that you may have consider reinstalling a program, restaking tcp/ip, and resetting winsock. Always try pinging an IP address.

And for those of you who’ve had very unpleasant experience due to a genuine connectivity problems, then by all means, call them up and ask for rebates and they’ll be more than happy to give them to you. Yeah, I did get a few days service extension. Also try asking them to personally take a look at the canopy and your computer…

One last thing, SmartBro needs to have a direct line of sight to a cell tower, falling leaves may cause technical problems. Better use a more stable connection like DSL or Cable (which has their own downsides due to old wirings and shared connections) if you keep on getting bad connections.

Maybe I’m just lucky I rarely get connectivity issues… even during the hurricane which toppled BillBoards and uprooted trees. – Dax Solomon Umaming

Popularity: 58% [?]

I’m from Baguio City a smart bro user for a month now… My internet speed is just good for browsing the internet.. i cant play online games(I get so Laggy when paying and even disconnected), cant download 50+megabytes of data(its very very slow) when downloading it goes like this at start of download it starts at arround 40+kbps/sec then suddenly goes 27kbps/sec going 21kbps/sec then 19kbps/sec untill it reaches 5kbps/sec drops to 4kbps/sec then back to 5 and i only completed 10% of the download.. sigh… dont even know what is the problem why its like this.. I applied for this sh…t so that i could browse the internet and play online games i know that i can not get a 100% lagless or flawless gaming experience with this smartbro but i didnt expect it to be this SH..TY!!! I called Customer support but didnt get no solutions…their technicians just said try light games.. i tried low types of games like RAN online coz this game has low graphics comparing to RF online.. but still so laggy my character and other characters doesnt even move now.. so i gave up online gaming for now and stayed on PC games.. I can still use my internet for assignments and browsing.. but still i’m not satisfied with this service… I’m just gonna call again and let them come and see for themselves and hope they dont worsen my connection… but i’m hoping that i could get some expert advise in these forum maybe your advice can help me fix this… BTW heres my email add just incase someone could help.. nephelim_01@yahoo.com

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hey guys,

so i’ve had my smartBRO wireless installed a month ago, and everything is good with the connection up until now. Yesterday night there was a brown out in baguio city and it seems that the connection is disconnecting a certain amount of minutes and i don’t know if its a problem with server or with the frequency. I’ve never had this problem before up til now. Has anyone encountered this situation?

Next would be the NAT or portforward rather for Bittorrent programs and such, does anyone i mean anyone know how to open these ports so they are open and the dl is faster? i use the program azureus and never does the icon turn green for NAT. any suggestions?

One more things, is there any possible way to get a faster kbps dl rate, because i never had this problem in the states. all you gotta do is mess with the router config for uplink burse and downlink burst. any suggestions for th three will help. thanks

Popularity: 3% [?]