[PLUG] [OT] You broadband in Pune

[Arun Tomar]

On 03/05/2013 11:51 AM, Ravishankar Rajagopalan wrote:
> Mayuresh wrote:
>> Saw a big advertisements in newspapers today for 50MBPS/50GB connection
>> for around 2000/- pm by above ISP.
>>
>> Their website doesn't seem to have this plan though.
>>
>> I am actually looking for an ISP with reliable connection with no
>> downtime. Not so much interested in such a high speed.
>>
>> Looking for feedback if someone has used this ISP.
>>
>> Mayuresh Have been using Airtel broadband for more than 2 years now 
>> in Aundh, I found their services reliable and speedtest.net matched 
>> advertised speed. It's rare that their connection goes down (BSNL 3G 
>> is my backup but it's hardly used) - they seem to be responsive and 
>> responsible people in this business.
>
> Ravi
>
>
Hi!

I've mostly used all the ISP's in Pune. below are some facts and my 
experiences with them. I"m a very heavy user of internet.
Plz note, i'm stating my personal experiences and opinions about the 
broadband services provided by these ISP's.
FUP => Fair usage policy.

The good:

Currently I have 3 connections:

Tata communications : (384 kbps) using it for the past 5+ years. good 
connection.
Ony problem is that they have some device called DSLAM installed on the 
top of the building, and it goes down during power cuts in the area, as 
the battery backup is very less, resulting in downtime. or if some other 
area on the supply chain is facing issue, then also you might face 
downtime. FUP is applicable, but they don't cut the speed. they'll call 
to upgrade the plan though.

So as a redundancy, I took up

BSNL: (512 kbps) Till the time it works, it works great. if there is a 
technical problem, call the support no. is it gets fixed. that way 
service is good, i guess, might be because they have outsourced it.
anyways, if there is a cable cut or some other problem, you can forget 
about when it's going to start back. i had a 3 month downtime, b'cas of 
some road digging issue, and the technicians could not figure out. and i 
was getting billed, which they didn't refund. finally when i went to cut 
the connection, the branch manager assured me that he'll get it fixed, 
and he did.

Meanwhile, when my BSNL was down, i took up
TTML: (2 mbps)  works great. good uptime. reliable connection. recently 
they have come up with a truely unlimited plan where there is no FUP.

The bad and ugly:

1. Reliance: ADSL , FUP
Gives a dynamic ip. Used to flash a user login page, evertime the 
internet connection was reconnected for whatever reason. It was 
pathetic, b'cas if you try to use on lan of say 20 people, you'll never 
know, who'll get that login page, and if you just close it etc.. then 
you can't access the internet, unless that page pops up again. used to 
disconnect a lot.

2. Hathway: Cable, FUP
Works on cable modem. Have a mac binding issue. if you try to replace 
the router, you've to call the call center and ask them to reset the mac 
address, till then it won't work.

3. You broadband : Some wireless tech.
won't give connection inspite of taking your application and money. Used 
to be very pathetic both the sales, service and customer support. I've 
heard good things now about them from few clients, who are using You 
broadband. I asked for a new connection, this time they told me, that as 
my location was not currently feasible they won't be able to provide the 
same. good, atleast they were upfront this time.

4. Airtel: haven't used personally, as they don't provide service at my 
location.  I've heard that it hardly goes down. But the FUP is pathetic. 
they'll cut down the bandwidth to 128 kbps after FUP no matter what your 
plan is.

In my opinion:

1. Internet connection reliability is location dependent.
2. On field technical staff of most of the ISP's don't know about nat, 
port forwarding etc. If they see linux on a machine, they'll faint or 
run away. I had to ask people to show me a working connection on a 
windows machine, and i'll get it to run on linux.
3. if you are running linux, the famous quote is " sir, it's a linux 
problem ;) ".


Lastly, I use all my internet connections simultaneously (aggregating 
the througput) with load balancing and failover, using our product 
called ISPunity. we released it as opensource so anyone can use it. only 
catch, it only runs on linux. We are redesigning the app, so that it can 
run on a Virtual machine like virtual box or vmware workstation etc. so 
that even people those who don't have linux as the base machine, but 
still want to use all their net connection, can use it.

I hope this helps. mail me, if you have any queries.

Regards,
Arun.