I guess, as all of us here are current Smart Broken subscribers, you probably know what’s plaguing this poor excuse for an Internet Service Provider since last week from this post’s date; the frequent timeouts of their DNS servers.

What I’m perplexed about is this; why is it happening? Do these self-proclaimed technological wizards that handle Smart’s networking equipment and system never prepared themselves for such an occurance? Seeing as their marketing department seems to be so impressed by their work that they keep getting new victims… er, subscribers for their 7x faster than dial-up internet connection. Did they actually think that they’ve set-upped a very stable system that can handle this much load? Are they scratching their hairy bottoms right now trying to figure out what’s wrong with their servers? Or do they just not care, as long as they get their paychecks every month?

Now if you [I'm addressing the SMART people] do know what the problem is, are you doing something to resolve it? And if you do resolve it (and I know that we, your customers, are praying that you do), are you creating measures to ensure that thsi sort of thing doesn’t happen again? Or are these questions too much for your brains to comprehend?

These are just some of the questions that ran through my head trying to understand, in any logical sense that I can find, as to what these people from Smart are thinking right now.

As for our dilemma right now, I actually found a small article on the web about it, and I wish to share the find[ click here ].

So many questions, will they be answered though? What’s your response, SMART people?

Popularity: 37% [?]

Hey guys, just to let you know BBC News today (19 December, 2007) has published the calling that a watchpanel in the UK called Ofcom Consumer Panel had asked the Broadband Carrier in the UK to do something about the “Up to…” thingy that they promise their consumer. You know what the U.K. people are promised speed of “Up to … 8 megabits per second” and they more likely get only a third of that!

By simple computation, those poor Brits are only getting 2.67 megabits per second, w/c is actually 14 times greater than what our “subject” offers! And ask yourself… “Am I getting a third of 384 kbps?” You could test your speed with this link broadbandtest. Post your result as comments, if you don’t mind.

Soo, what is it that the Ofcom Consumer Panel want? Below is the full text.

“An open letter on broadband speeds to the chief executives of the UK’s leading Internet Service Providers

James Murdoch, Chief Executive, BSkyB

Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive, BT Group

Charles Dunstone, Chief Executive, Carphone Warehouse

Olaf Swantee, Chief Executive, Orange UK

Mary Turner, Chief Executive, Tiscali UK

Neil Berkett, Acting Chief Executive, Virgin Media

9 October 2007

As you of course will be aware, there is widespread concern being expressed at the moment about the difference between the “up to” speeds advertised in your broadband packages, and the actual speeds experienced by many subscribers.

As this is an issue of such fundamental importance to consumers here in the UK, I am writing, as Chairman of the Ofcom Consumer Panel, to seek your views about how this problem might be addressed. The Consumer Panel is an independent body that advises Ofcom on the consumer interest in the communications market.

At the most basic level, it seems to us that in any transaction, people need to be able to see:

• What they are buying

• What influences the performance of the product or service they buy

• How to do something about it if, in the event, the product or service doesn’t live up to expectations.

Against these simple tests, we believe that broadband customers are not at the moment getting enough information.

We are of course aware of the technical reasons for the “up to” terminology that you use in particular in your advertising and marketing literature.

I would however like to have your views about how these technical issues might be better addressed in terms of giving clearer information to potential customers.

Some suggestions that we would welcome your view on are these:

1. Advice to potential customers at the point of sale about the speed likely to be available on their specific line (plus an explanation that this will also be impacted by the contention rate).

2. Extend the cooling off-period within your contractual terms to a sufficient length so that the customer can actually experience the speed and quality of the connection before becoming contractually committed.

3. Enable customers who sign up to a 12 or 18 month contract and who experience speeds and quality well below the advertised speeds, and whose problems persist rather than be resolved by a technical solution, to exit from the contract early and without penalty.

I would very much like to hear your views on this problem in general; and your response to the three specific points made above.

I would be very happy to meet with you if this is the most convenient way to move this forward.

I am copying this letter to Ed Richards at Ofcom and Chris Graham at the ASA.

(signed)
COLETTE BOWE

Chairman, Ofcom Consumer Panel” - (I ask forgiveness if I’m doing something wrong in publishing this text)

What do you say? I hope that somebody from the Senate, the Congress, the NTC, the consumer’s advocates or whomever with a bit of influence notice this.

Salamat and Merry Christmas

Othello

Popularity: 40% [?]

I read this at the Inq7.net just wanted to inform to all smartbro subscriber regarding this, but please don’t be exited.

IT wasn’t too long ago when Globe Telecom was hyping HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) on laptops, which meant Internet anywhere you go — as long as there’s 3G coverage, of course. The same technology Globe is now selling for home use.

Instead of a little USB modem or PCMCIA card, this one uses a wireless HSDPA access terminal that looks like an ordinary wifi access point, which is connected to Globe’s cellular network. Data access alone (at 512 kbps “promised” speed) costs P995 a month; an optional landline makes it P1, 295.

Though Globe officials I talked to won’t admit it, this wireless broadband bundle clearly competes with Smart Bro by rival operator Smart (P995 monthly at 384 kbps according to Smart’s webpage). The obvious difference is you don’t need to hoist a receiver up your roof because unlike Smart Bro, HSDPA access does not require line of sight.

Eventually, every new technology available like HSDPA can promise broadband access, whether wired or wireless. What the consumer can hope for — short of excellent service — is network coverage.

LINK—>http://inquirerbloggers.net/techaddicts/2007/08/29/smart-bro-killer/

Popularity: 10% [?]

my first time posting.. been reading some posts.. i try to understand ‘em but i get confused…

My lan speed had become 10mbps from 100mbps.. what cause this? anyway.. di kasi ako sanay tignan na 10mbps.. lol.

anyway.. people from smart came here.. i didn’t watch them configure coz i was studying for the finals.. but i saw from my browser that they’ve entered the default 169.254.1.1 .. i tried to access it but can’t be displayed.. i’ve tried configuring my ip address changing it to 169.254.1.1 and 169.254.1.2 .. and still nothing happened..

they didn’t go up the roof to fix the antenna.. they only configured through my laptop.. the last one that fixed my connection went up the roof.. i guess these ones were lazy. harhar.

I wanted my connection to be more faster.. but how could i if i can’t access canopy? Please help.

Oh and i’ve read about ung sa torrent?? pero di nakalagay sa nabasa ko kung pano.. can someone explain and teach me? or do you know any links para di na kayo mahirapan mag explain?> thanks

Popularity: 4% [?]

Wifi has a lot of problems… until now. there was a time when i cant connect to the internet and i reported it to their technical staff, it took them one month… and im saying 1 MONTH to visit us, and let me tell you this…. they even asked me to pay the monthly fee! where in fact i didnt even use their services for a month, they even told us that they gonna temporarily cut the wifi… HAHAHAHA! anyway, recently, i called their toll free for technical services and it took me 6 hours to connect me to their technical staff… wooohoooo!!! quality service…! yeah i know you are SMART but i guess those things you do are not smart at all…. tsk tsk…. thumbs down

Popularity: 10% [?]

I’ve installed a router lately and I’ve noticed my DL speed went up. From the usual 30KB/s to 65KB/s, I can now download around 100KB/s to 270KB/s, sometimes it tops 420KB/s depending on source.

(more…)

Popularity: 6% [?]

I would like to tell you a story of my life when i started using SmartBro.

SmartBro gave us a Five(5) days (as i recall) evaluation period and installed the smartbro connection to our house. during those five days, we were glad to have an internet connection at home, there were no frequent disconnection, no lags, downloading a 6mb file took about 30-45 minutes unlike what smartbro promises (384kbps) the download speed went to 56kb./sec but thats ok, im not entirely into downloading files so i let smartbro get away with that one.

so in the first month connection was OK we can connect to the games W/O a problem. on the Second Month started to experience disconnections. when this happens we ping 203.84.191.216 or 10.0.0.1 and we notice a couple of “request timeout” after 10 reply to the ping. this gives us a headache every time we log on to our games or applications on the internet we get disconnected a lot of times. on the third month we had a two (2) days of no connection, we called *1888 they gave some instructions about IP and ping and from the looks of it i think they are trying to diagnose if the problem was in our PC connection at home they were assuming that smartbro connection is fine but in the end of our conversation with that customer care representative it only comes down to “Sir there is a problem with one of our Sub Station they are fixing it ” so i ask them when will the connection resume and they answered “keep on browsing a website to check if connection has resumed”. so basically, calling 1888 is useless cause then you will still have to wait for the connection to resume. bottom line, the problem is with smartbro not with our connection at home.

the following months were even more stressful. Saturdays and Sundays we play offline games because we keep getting a “disconnected to host” (something like that) whenever we ping smartbro’s IP because we are again experiencing disconnections. when ever we click on Repair on the Network Neighborhood Icon on the taskbar windows was unable to repair. we tried calling 1888 again but something i noticed is that the customer care representative, not the same person we called a month or two before, does the same set of instructions for us and after he fails to detect the problem he does the same thing telling me to wait cause he will try to check the connection on something and then talks back at me and says there was a problem with one of our substation and they are fixing it. it seems to me, everything they say is scripted. the funny thing is the other calls we made after that call (when we get another disconnection) the reasons were “there was an earthquake in taiwan” and “may bagyo sa luzon” these reasons i can understand. I am a Computer Database Programmer and somehow i understand how things would work but somehow im quite disappointed with the current technology that smartbro really has and how they brag about it on TV Advertisements.

Today is July 9 2007, we started Smartbro last december 25-30 as Evaluation and officially started it January 1 2007. it has been Four(4) days since we last played Online Game Ragnarok Online (MY GOD this game can even run on Dial Up Connection). for four days the connections goes back in and out. for every 10 - 15 ping replies i get with an average time of 42ms per reply and sometimes it jumps to 1342ms, we get a 1-4 request timeouts. Call Customer Care ? ASA pa ako. at this moment i have come to realize why i hear news about Customer Going Wild on the phone , people banging their keyboards when getting mad (poor keyboard by the way, they are not to be blame for this).

so i told my sister why dont we just call SmartBro and have our subscription terminated. we are spending 999 Php per month for nothing at all, thats when she told me SmartBro had us when we signed a 1yr contract for our subscription.

I had to give it to SmartBro company, they really are indeed …. Smart
they made a fool out of us, their subscribers, and they got away with it legally.
can you blame me for expecting they would really give us 1yr connection like they said on their promotion? i havent read the contract, if it does say we must pay a total of 1year Connection Bills, then i strongly believe SmartBro has to do its part of the contract , give us the 1year total connection. because when we pay bills, walang labis, walang kulang. we are even thinking about not paying our bills anymore. >_<

right now im thinking about calling not 1888, but the smartbro branch in davao and ask for someone to check us here at home. but then again by the time they get here they will see AHH your connection seems fine, we can browse to Yahoo.com and when they leave it would probably goes back to its putol2x connection. only this time i will ping the IP and i will not close the ping window and show it to them when they get here XD.

Maybe if we pay the 500 peso upgrade on our SmartBro Antenna they would give us a full connection ?

Jean Peter Paredes
SmartBro user
Davao City Philippines
Service Reference Number 1010186852

Popularity: 75% [?]

I noticed an increase in my download speed just last month… Normally, I only got 45KBps d/l speed and that’s max and until recently, it got up to 62-65KBps.

I am on SmartBRO 988 Plan. I guess, they have upgraded their service huh?

Popularity: 7% [?]

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

www.motorola.com/canopy

Popularity: 11% [?]

Don’t pay your next bill!

As subscriber, we must have documents signed prior to application of smartbro. sa tingin ko naman wala, meron ba sa inyo?

Di ba kayo nagtataka Smart Gold subcriber– they filter the applicants. baki kaya dito sa smartbro, hindi. basta process ka lang don sa cashier, wait for 2-3 days to have your internet connection.

Sa akin, the next day kabit agad….

Regarding the application…… sa tingin ko lang wala talagang formal agreement with this from smart to its subscriber…….. ano ba pinagkaiba na Smart Gold subscriber sa atin…. we are both postpaid subscriber of a certain service.

To cut it short….. wala habol ang smart kung di man tayo magbayad ng bill…

Tapos me new service offer ang ibang network…… cheaper pa at me phoneline….

Regarding don sa bill, Disconnection– states that at least one bill payment is missed. yeah! totoo, you’ll lost your connection after few days of your due date once you missed paying.

But to tell you guys, its very easy to reconfigure and get a new IP…… after few minutes you can continue your browsing…

Tapos isa pa guys….. this is a networking connection… thats why some of us shares the same IP. thats irony kasi as third world country… large% of the IP owned and assigned only to US and some countries… kaya patok ang networking…..

Basta….. once you are discontented with the service, don’t pay your bill… you’re just letting them fool you.

Ask me how to reconfigure your connection… and i will help you in anyway i can.

God Bless us all!

Popularity: 16% [?]