I had forgotten how good it is to have a net connection that doesn't suck

[afuna]

My 'net connection has been erratic the past couple of months: it would slow down and lose packets, but a restart of the modem generally fixed it. However, this last couple weeks it's been terrible! Ping response times reaching over 2000ms when it's normally just 200ms; lots of packets being dropped on the floor (I got 70% once on a not-so-painful day...);

After:
* many calls to our DSL provider
* them fixing something on their end, which helped a tiny bit
* getting an AVR for the modem
* telling the DSL provider that no we are not interested in upgrading because no it's not a bandwidth issue: the connection is okay when it works, it's just that it plain didn't work a lot of the time
* rewiring the phone line twice
* the DSL provider coming in this morning to tweak the last rewiring of the phone line (which had managed to kill our phone connection, not just the DSL -- no dial tone!)

I think we finally have it. Things are actually loading! the modem isn't dying! going to load media-heavy sites doesn't feel like I'm pulling teeth! it's like I'm connected again >.o I am crossing my fingers and hoping that my posting this doesn't jinx everything, but yes. More like this please.

If it stays stable, I want to upgrade our plan. It's a bit overdue for an upgrade anyway :) but it has to stay stable otherwise, ano kami, tanga (what are we, stupid)?

Anyway, I was studying their plans and right now they have: 1mbps, 3mbps, 5mbps up from 1mbps, 2mbps, 3mbps. :D We don't need the 5mbps, but I kinda want to up us to at least the middle plan (would appreciate people not telling me what you can get in your country; I really can't get much better here >_>)

DSL provider seems determined to pull defeat from the jaws of victory though; the worker who came in this morning fixed things, and then left without telling us he'd fixed things. *facepalm*

Comments

[surpassingly]

Wah, what a coincidence -- our internet connection's been absolutely awful the past few weeks. (Is yours PLDT?) I'm thinking of calling them sometime this week when I'm done with my meetings. Problema nga lang ang sakiiiiiiiiiit sa ulo kausapin mga tao nila.

(fffff pulling defeat from the jaws of victory hahahaha ;A;)

[afuna]

Yes, PLDT! Good luck figuring it out :( In fairness, they do seem to have better customer service now than when we first got them -- at least the technicians come in within a couple days of the call instead of the old backlog of weeeeeeeks.

Parang nasa sitcom ako for a while though! Mababait ang mga technicians pero medyo magulo yung communication. Good luck good luck <333333

[surpassingly]

Haha, argh. The old days were the worst. I get frustrated just thinking about them.

Sana matino this time yung repairs! Am glad yours is fixed! (It gives me hope hahahaha.)

[pinesandmaples]

I have "comes included in my rent so I don't have to think about it or figure out what those letters stand for" internet, which is good because I think I'd be screwed if I had to understand the acronyms before I picked a plan!

Which means, yes, I understood about half this post. I'm glad the good things are happening in your interwebs, though!

[afuna]

Heee! Thank you!

[dreamatdrew]

If it's any consolation, your internet connection is STILL better than mine. *sadpanda*

[afuna]

Oh sad panda indeed :(

It was bad enough to have such bad connectivity these past couple weeks; l'd feel sadder if it were to go on longer :-(

*sends encouraging thoughts to your connection -- or maybe a kick in the ass?*

[thorfinn]

Fun, not! :-/ Good luck with things staying stable! :-)

My own fun DSL installation story is that our ISP (who are awesome) has to use telephone techs from "our wholesale provider" (which is code for the ex-government monopoly telco who now are trying to pretend they don't have a monopoly when they do) to deal with copper line infrastructure, so that means installations by random techs who range from great to completely useless. The first two techs in a row they sent out turned up, went away, and we got told our line was now installed... when it wasn't.

It turns out they had installed our line on the house at the front of the block, instead of ours which is at the back of the block, despite having instructions. The third one shook his head sadly when I pointed out the months old cobwebs around the telephone point access box on our house. Lucky there wasn't anyone living in the front house at the time, or they'd have been very annoyed when their phone service disappeared.

[afuna]

...wow. A bucket of fun indeed!

[starshadow_rivaulx]

My internet life started with Infocom, a company that did right by me for all the time I was a subscriber. Great was my lamentation when Pangilinan decided to sell this sweet little company to the Lopez conglomerate, so that Infocom became SkyCable...I had grave misgivings, obviously!

Thankfully enough, SkyCable had the good sense to keep all the original crew and helpdesk people on board, so that the transition was as painless as could be. So they managed to retain me as a loyal customer. I appear to be one of the fortunate people who get actual help from the helpdesk, as opposed to, say, recordings and being passed from one agent to another.

Their best technique is, if there is a major outage, they put it right at the front of the helpdesk recording, before the "press 1 for this, 2 for that, 3 for the other" routine. Good!

[starshadow_rivaulx]

p/s - at least when the repair crew comes to the house, they have the good sense not to leave without telling me what's been fixed! spooky, that quick in-and-out of your techie.

[afuna]

Ooh how is SkyCable btw? I'm waiting for a couple weeks to see whether PLDT is stable enough for me to continue on, and one option I've been considering has been Sky.


Though I need to see whether they've extended service to our area already; last time we checked a couple years ago, they hadn't extended this far out :x

[(Anonymous)]

In Makati, they are excellent! (of course, I live in the same village as certain high-placed Lopezes, so that may have something to do with it?)

But really, in all this time, their connection is both fast and stable. I was very pleasantly surprised to have my basic package (1MB) upgraded to the new basic package (3MB) automagically, when they tweaked their system a few years back.

I'm on a bundle package, by the way - my cable TV is discounted since it comes with the cable internet account.

[starshadow_rivaulx]

Wak! I posted without logging in...all that blather about SkyCable above? That's me.

[afuna]

Heee, thank you for the feedback! I guess I will think about it a bit more! Their 3mbps costs the same as PLDT's 5mpbs; I don't know in terms of reliability if it's okay in our area though. (Right now PLDT seems to have gotten its act together so I am... getting closer to be willing to spring for a higher plan now that the issues have been resolved XD)

[starshadow_rivaulx]

My line of thinking is, if the ISP seems to be stable enough, don't move. There was a while in Infocom's life (and SkyCable too, come to think of it) when nothing seemed to go right, but eventually what was wrong did get fixed (and customers got a token rebate on the bill, which was nice), and I'm more than happy now.

Plus, the matter of being hooked up to the mothership is always of primary importance; after all, what is the point of switching ISPs if the connection is even more spotty than it is now?

*crosses fingers for a continued stable connection.*

[azurelunatic]

Crossing my fingers for stability!

[afuna]

Thank you!