configuring broadband/PC power protection/cable-satellite TV in India...

ks_bluechip

My broadband problems (of last 1 week) got resolved yesterday! I have been transferrred to a new MTNL Tel Exchange opened near here, at Vasant Vihar, Thane. Apparantly the transfer of some phone lines from Cherai Exch to the New Vasant Vihar exchange was the cause of the BB problem to start with! So hopefully its now sorted out. The Broad Band is working today at a roaring speed!

PS: I wish MTNL/BSNL had sent a letter to its subscribers, informing them of the planned shift dates? That could have saved me some worry and panic reactions (like reconfiguring & saving DSL settings )

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Aishah

'The Man' is coming tonight - so yes, will pass on choice comments, on the other hand he is a very quiet studious individual, very polite so I feel tactful comments might be more appropriate. One thing he ought to know is if the light is orange or green.. it is the DSL light. He has another CD.. means USB connection then. I will ask re ethernet.
KS - wouldn't a letter or notice be nice?? Just not in the head of BSNL however. No consideration for users who pay, I just hope The Man comes early tonight not like last time didn't leave till 10.45 p.m. I was dying to go to sleep at that point!He does all these connections after his office hours evidently.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

WayFarer

Hi AiShah this link may be of interest to you :

http://broadbandforum.in/bsnl-dataon...-configration/

ks_bluechip

Aishah ..... There is still a long a way to go ..... for us to become a *Developed* country ... (and, I am not a pessimist)... KS

Aishah

LOL, KS, and it's just the right country for us optimists to enjoy living in, isn't it?? There's always that enticing prospect that good results will come soon! And they do - in the end..

brownboy66

(sigh)......couldn't you just throttle IT companies on occasions? The world over green means go/ good while red means stop/ error/ danger - so why chose amber for a status light? Why not make it pink and really confuse the hell out of people!

PS - my broadband is really bad today. Very slow and intermittent. Trace routes seem to indicate its the handover from Flagtel to UUnet in the states.

ks_bluechip

My MTNL Broadband in Mumbai is also very slow since y'day evening .... I heard from a friend, that he saw a news item on TV, that some under-Sea data cable is broken and so MTNL/BSNL & Relcomm (but not all coys) internet speeds are affected. More so in Delhi. Has anybody else seen this TV news items? any more details available?? .... KS

brownboy66

I think you might be right ks. Mine has been going slow over the same period - but now its rocketing. Have done another traceroute - and the route to IM is different. Usually it goes VSNL to Teleflag - onto bbnet then the datahosting centre where IM is. Now its going VSNL - teleglobe - sprintlink - bbnet. The thing is - the response times from this route are better than the old route!

ks_bluechip

Hi brownboy: How do you route trace? And does knowing that useful?? Can one change that at user otion??? BTW: I am a layman ... if its too technical .... don't tell me.

brownboy66

not a problem at all KS (and I'm sure if Dilliwala were here - he'd be insisting that I answer).

Doing a traceroute is more a piece of mind exercise (you can't practically change the route your information takes). I tend to use it mostly as a fault finding exercise to rule out a problem with my PC, ethernet connection to the router, the router itself, the exchange, then the ISP.

If the connection problem lies in one of those areas above then there is something you can do about it (check your own connections, reboot the router, phone ISP helpdesk, that sort of thing). If its beyond the ISP - well, at least you know not to phone the ISP and complain to them as there is probably nothing they can do.

To give you an example - you're router will have within it two numbers for "DNS" settings. These are domain name servers - and are used on the internet to resolve an address like "www.indiamike.com" into an actually numerical address (in the case of IM - its 75.126.163.232) - which is what a browser is actually looking for. All internet service providers have 2x domain name servers - the reason being that if the first one fails, there is a backup and people can still browse. If an ISP is doing their job properly - the servers will be in geographically different locations (no use having both in the same location if say, there is a fire, flood, earthquake and it takes out both servers).

For MTNL - the recommended DNS settings are for one server in Delhi and one in Mumbai. On occasions when my MTNL connection has not been working - the Delhi DNS server is visable, but the Mumbai server has not been reachable. I can only conclude that all Delhi MTNL internet traffic is routed via Mumbai - so if the link to Mumbai is down then no internet access for delhi MTNL users.

So in relations to the current MTNL performance problem - past traceroutes I've done have shown the link to the US is carried by a telco called Teleglobe - then onto bbnet in the US. Teleglobe is an ex-canadian telco that was purchased by VSNL a couple of years ago (so obviously - BSNL/ VSNL are trying to use their own network as much as possible to get to the US). Current traceroutes are showing traffic going from Teleglobe to Sprint - and then BBnet. Can only conclude that Teleglobe might have a problem into the US - so have to link into Sprint to land traffic there (no telco likes paying another telco to use their network - so I can't imagine VSNL would use sprint by choice).

The traceroute programme I use is called 3d traceroute - its a freeware programme that also does a few other things as well.

Hope this helps.

brownboy66

ok ks - you were right. Just found a story (funnily enough in NZ) about a cut undersea cable into the Mediterranean.....

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/st...tid=1048 9884

according to the article - the loss of the cable has meant a 50-60% loss of internet connectivity out of india.

Nick-H

Yep... saw the story yesterday on vinuthomas.com.

Connection to European sites is dismal to zero.

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IndiaMike Mod Team (The Grumpy One)

Aishah

Following this with interest - I've had terrible trouble with connections until the last half an hour. Both dial-up and GPRS shocking. In the meanwhile I have lost all my Outlook synchronizing with Hotmail (don't know why) and will download when dial-up speed increases. It was down to 21.6kbps. GPRS is now sort of normal. Broadband man not showing up yet - supposed to have been here at 6.00p.m. Anything to do with what's being posted here??

ks_bluechip

Ok great that's explained then .... I was finding Indian sites like ICICI Bank / ICICI Direct etc. very fast .... but IM and Yahoo-Mail, ValueResearchOnline etc very very slow!

BTW: brownboy ... I am still reading (and even understanding quite a bit of) your "route trace" post. Tell me where to download that utility and instructions to use that... KS

Nick-H

You have it in Windows already!

Run --->Command

and enter

C:\> trcroute nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn

No fancy graphics, but the information is there.