Thursday, November 17, 2005
Smart Wi-Fi
Okay, Smart Wi-Fi's up and running here. Here goes an attempt to clear some shit up about it.
All right. First off, it's nowhere near as reliable as regular DSL. Wired connections will ALWAYS be more reliable than wireless connections, at least for now. Perhaps later they'll improve in this area, perhaps not. If Globe decides to come out with its own wireless broadband service, then we'll see competition. Otherwise, Smart will maintain its monopoly on wireless broadband, and we all know where that'll lead.
Second, it's almost as fast as a regular 256kbps DSL connection. Average download speed (tested at different times in the morning, afternoon and evening) ranges from 25 to 30 kilobytes/sex sec, perfectly acceptable considering the antenna IS limited to 256kbps. Certainly not as fast as the upgraded 384kbps PLDT MyDSL, but not bad, considering this is relatively new technology. For us, anyway. I still think we should've gotten regular DSL, though. Especially since it's recently been jacked up to 384kbps, which should give at LEAST a 10KB/sec boost to download speeds.
And before you ignorant schmucks out there start bitching about how it's "supposed" to yield transfer rates of 256 KB/sex(DAMNIT) sec, I'd like to direct you to this place. Might as well run a few speed tests of your own while you're there.
Next off, service and tech support. Doubtless some of you have already heard me bitching and whining about the linemen's stupidity. It's true. The first people who came over (three days after the promised installation date) were complete idiots, and couldn't even figure out they were pointing the antenna in the wrong direction. The second batch was a little better, and they actually managed to get the thing working, even though it took a little longer than it should have. I haven't tried calling up the Smart tech support line to see how dumb THEY are, but judging from experience with tech support call centers in general, I'm willing to bet they're complete fucktards.
Connecting can be a real pain in the ass. Typically, you'll need at least three minutes to be able to start using the connection. You'll need to go through their portal, log in, may be required to type the letters you see on an image (like most security verification procedures out there; but this one seems awfully easy to bypass compared to others I've seen), then you have to disconnect, then reconnect.
Yes, you heard me right. Before you can get down to business, you need to let go of the LAN connection, then bring it back up. It'd be little more than a slight inconvenience, IF it were easy to connect to the system in the first place. For some reason, the antenna can be really... how do I say, difficult, at times. That's one reason I still can't get the fucker working right in Windows 98 or Ubuntu.
It's annoying, and inconvenient. Whereas folks with DSL can get online in about two seconds, this shit requires three MINUTES to connect. And that's being generous. Sure, you can get online in about a minute if you're lucky, but sometimes it'll take five or even ten minutes to connect so you can login and reconnect afterwards.
If you ask me, it'd be a better idea to sign up for DSL and tolerate the time it takes to get a line. AVOID Smart WiFi until it gets better (unlikely, given Smart's monopoly at present), or you have no other choice. Get a normal DSL line even if it takes a week for you to be completely set up. Seriously, it's better to wait for DSL and get a good, reliable (not to mention significantly faster, being 384k now) connection than to get hooked up in 3 hours (more if you get a particularly stupid contractor doing the work) and suffer from lackluster service until you wake up and realize the wait associated with DSL may not be that bad after all.
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posted by Prankoys JJC at
11/17/2005 07:05:00 PM
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Thursday, November 17, 2005 |
