I cant see any unlimited broadband usage plans by mtnl. is there some kind of hidden plan? or are you guys referring to 590NU ?
On Thu, 2006-05-04 at 13:46 +0530, Satish Alwani wrote:
I cant see any unlimited broadband usage plans by mtnl. is there some kind of hidden plan? or are you guys referring to 590NU ?
Yup, hidden for the Mumbai serfs. For the time being, it is available only to the Shah-en-Shahs of Delhi - http://delhi.mtnl.net.in/commercial/broadband_tariff.htm
-- Arun Khan (knura at yahoo dot com) Signs of crime: screaming or cries for help. -- from the Brown Security Crime Prevention Pamphlet
On Thursday 04 May 2006 13:46, Satish Alwani wrote:
I cant see any unlimited broadband usage plans by mtnl. is there some kind of hidden plan? or are you guys referring to 590NU ?
Will you please read my entire post? BSNL has come up with a NEW Unlimited access plan. MTNL Delhi has also launched the same plan but at much higher tariff. I wanted to know how MTNL services are as I am planning to get an MTNL ADSL connection /if and only if/ they launch unlimited plans at ~900 bucks a month otherwise its possibly Airtel for me. I dont believe in their /limited/ access plans.
Will you please read my entire post? BSNL has come up with a NEW Unlimited access plan. MTNL Delhi has also launched the same plan but at much higher tariff. I wanted to know how MTNL services are as I am planning to get an MTNL ADSL connection /if and only if/ they launch unlimited plans at ~900 bucks a month otherwise its possibly Airtel for me. I dont believe in their /limited/ access plans.
FWIW, Sify has pure unlimited plans for about 1150/- p.m. @ 256kbps. They are advertising it as 1000/- + service tax(12.24%).
http://www.sifybroadband.com/showplan.php?id=39
Siddhesh
On Thursday 04 May 2006 21:56, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
FWIW, Sify has pure unlimited plans for about 1150/- p.m. @ 256kbps. They are advertising it as 1000/- + service tax(12.24%).
Hahaha. Thanks but no thanks ;). If Sify took over the entire internet and was the sole provider of internet connections even then I wouldn't opt for them :/ Sify is the most Linux unfriendly ISP I've /ever/ seen
:(
On 5/4/06, Dinesh Joshi dinesh.a.joshi@gmail.com wrote:
On Thursday 04 May 2006 21:56, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
FWIW, Sify has pure unlimited plans for about 1150/- p.m. @ 256kbps. They are advertising it as 1000/- + service tax(12.24%).
Hahaha. Thanks but no thanks ;). If Sify took over the entire internet and was the sole provider of internet connections even then I wouldn't opt for them :/ Sify is the most Linux unfriendly ISP I've /ever/ seen
:(
but i have seen people using Linux with sify's Internet connection seamlessly. only thing they dont deliver a good service like MTNL, i mean the speed fluctuates too much, atleast this is what i have seen with those who use it, but that is not related to Linux anyway.
Hahaha. Thanks but no thanks ;). If Sify took over the entire internet and was the sole provider of internet connections even then I wouldn't opt for them :/ Sify is the most Linux unfriendly ISP I've /ever/ seen
:(
Well yes and no.
It is unfriendly in the sense that it does not have the appropriately skilled customer support for Linux and has a very old linux dialer. There were a few issues regarding a new dialer protocol which momentarily locked out linux users but that has been resolved.
Also, there's alternate dialers written for linux (i've written one too, called antidialer) if you don't like the sify stock dialer.
Other than that I don't see anything linux unfriendly in any manner. I have been using sify for almost 3 years now without too many complaints. It has an almost completely hassle-free setup with no additional equipment required at all. Just connect to their LAN and you're done.
Issues with Sify Internet that are not limited to linux users: 1) Sify terms and conditions consider more than 6 hours as commercial usage. They haven't taken action against anyone on it though. Otherwise i would have been disconnected ages ago ;-) 2) Their services is slightly poorer than others during the rainy seasons (especially during thunder & lightning) since their broadband service is wireless based (LANS connected to the backbone wirelessly)
Maybe you could mention a few more to support your statement of them being linux unfriendly.
Regards, Siddhesh
On Friday 05 May 2006 00:07, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
Maybe you could mention a few more to support your statement of them being linux unfriendly.
1. Proprietary protocol so nobody can write a "free" dialer. 2. The momentary lockout that you said. Well, during it the CC actually told people to switch to windows to continue using their services. They were blissfully unaware of Linux users but as time passed by they came to their senses. 3. Their dialer works as root only. Hehe, I dont want any piece of software running on my machine to work as root especially written by Sify psychos. I know there are alternatives available but I dont know if any of them will run as a daemon. 4. No customer support for Linux users. Atleast Reliance powersurfer has _some_ customer support for Linux and they are willing to put your line in "leased line" mode if you have hassles with their 24Online Client. No such issues with MTNL / BSNL or Airtel.
Apart from these issues I cant think of anything immediately relating to Linux. I have also had disputes with them in the past. And the CTO charge their own "maintenance" fee over and above the Sify packages. And perhaps the most serious issue being that people have fried that motherboards, lan cards with Sify connections. Though this can happen to anyone using such cable ISPs. But it seems that Sify is the worst affected one.
- Proprietary protocol so nobody can write a "free" dialer.
There's loads of free dialers out there: antidialer, supersify, easysify, experiencesify, etc. Their current protocol is closed but the old protocol is open for linux users.
- The momentary lockout that you said. Well, during it the CC actually
told people to switch to windows to continue using their services. They were blissfully unaware of Linux users but as time passed by they came to their senses.
Personally, nobody told me to do that. I had to drill hard to get through to the first CC exec. Once I was on to the tech expert I was through.
- Their dialer works as root only. Hehe, I dont want any piece of
software running on my machine to work as root especially written by Sify psychos. I know there are alternatives available but I dont know if any of them will run as a daemon.
Not true. I understand you're probably saying this from some articles posted on the internet. The truth is that if you delete the sifyconnect.log, readfifo and writefifo files from /tmp/ you can run as any regular user. The first run of sifyd as any regular user will recreate the files with appropriate permissions and you're done.
You don't need a daemon based dialer really. The connection stays alive long enough without the "hearbeat" functionality of the stock dialer daemon.
- No customer support for Linux users. Atleast Reliance powersurfer has
_some_ customer support for Linux and they are willing to put your line in "leased line" mode if you have hassles with their 24Online Client. No such issues with MTNL / BSNL or Airtel.
Agreed wholeheartedly. This is truly a major drawback.
Apart from these issues I cant think of anything immediately relating to Linux. I have also had disputes with them in the past. And the CTO charge their own "maintenance" fee over and above the Sify packages. And
The CTO "maintenance fees" are their bread and butter. That is all the money that they get. The tarriff charges all go to sify and they don't give a penny to the CTOs.
perhaps the most serious issue being that people have fried that motherboards, lan cards with Sify connections. Though this can happen to anyone using such cable ISPs. But it seems that Sify is the worst affected one.
I won't comment on that. Again, in all my 3 years with Sify I have never experienced any such problem.
And yeah, I don't work for Sify ;-)
Regards, Siddhesh -- http://siddhesh.tk
On Friday 05 May 2006 00:54, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
Not true. I understand you're probably saying this from some articles posted on the internet. The truth is that if you delete the sifyconnect.log, readfifo and writefifo files from /tmp/ you can run as any regular user. The first run of sifyd as any regular user will recreate the files with appropriate permissions and you're done.
Well so you do agree that their original dialer requires to be modified if it has to be run as a regular user?
The CTO "maintenance fees" are their bread and butter. That is all the money that they get. The tarriff charges all go to sify and they don't give a penny to the CTOs.
How do you know that? are you aware of the terms of contract between them and Sify? I dont think the CTOs will get themselves in such a bad deal. I mean Reliance franchisees don't charge a cent extra and neither to 7star so why should sify?
I won't comment on that. Again, in all my 3 years with Sify I have never experienced any such problem.
You're one of the lucky ones.
And yeah, I don't work for Sify ;-)
How can I be sure of that? :P
On 5/5/06, Dinesh Joshi dinesh.a.joshi@gmail.com wrote:
Well so you do agree that their original dialer requires to be modified if it has to be run as a regular user?
Its a bit of a configuration hack. And probably not a publicized configuration hack, I have to admit.
How do you know that? are you aware of the terms of contract between them and Sify? I dont think the CTOs will get themselves in such a bad deal. I mean Reliance franchisees don't charge a cent extra and neither to 7star so why should sify?
MY CTO is a very good friend of mine. He's exploring other broadband services (Reliance I think) since this one is earning him peanuts. All he gets is some commission for new connections and the Rs. 150 extra per connection that he charges.
Siddhesh
On Friday 05 May 2006 12:07 am, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
Hahaha. Thanks but no thanks ;). If Sify took over the entire internet and was the sole provider of internet connections even then I wouldn't opt for them :/ Sify is the most Linux unfriendly ISP I've /ever/ seen
And that is the good part. They are the worst and the quality is what VSNL delivered on dialup 8 yrs ago. Outage is measured in weeks, the call center zombies dont know anything at all about pcs. U are sitting behind a proxy....
Rgds JTD
And that is the good part. They are the worst and the quality is what VSNL delivered on dialup 8 yrs ago. Outage is measured in weeks, the call center zombies dont know anything at all about pcs. U are sitting behind a proxy....
Agree wholeheartedly about the callcenter zombies. But I still maintain that the quality that you talk about is an exaggeration. The longest outage I have seen in my 3 years was 4 days during the 26 July rains. That was because the wireless unit was shut off due to fears of thunder and lightning.
Speeds are erratic, meaning that while you have days when you'll get 160-180 kbps, there will be other days when you get 350-400 kbps speeds. Its not nearly as good as MTNL Triband I guess since I have heard lots of great things about it. Same thing about Airtel too.
And yeah, probably aside the fact that I have to modify the dialer a bit to let it run without root privileges Dinesh is yet to tell me any "linux unfriendly" characteristics of sify.
Siddhesh
PS: The thread is getting too long and pointless I guess (and I take part of the blame for it). This is the last post from my end for this thread as I've put all my points forward.
On Friday 05 May 2006 09:46 pm, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
Agree wholeheartedly about the callcenter zombies. But I still maintain that the quality that you talk about is an exaggeration.
4 WEEKS. At my inlaws place in Shivaji park December 2004. No exaggeration. Add 4 hours of my online training of sify zombies. And no ping - "highily security" according to zombie girl in chennai.
On Saturday 06 May 2006 09:09, jtd wrote:
4 WEEKS. At my inlaws place in Shivaji park December 2004. No exaggeration. Add 4 hours of my online training of sify zombies. And no ping - "highily security" according to zombie girl in chennai.
Whats the infatuation of ISPs with ping? I mean wasn't the ICMP designed for debugging networks? :/
On Sat, 2006-05-06 at 19:43 +0000, Dinesh Joshi wrote:
Whats the infatuation of ISPs with ping? I mean wasn't the ICMP designed for debugging networks? :/
Way back in spring 2001, Yahoo! was unreachable for about 24+ hours due to a massive Distributed DoS ping attack. Yahoo! put in the effort to block only the illegit requests but many sites decided to drop ICMP echo requests (e.g. www.redhat.com, www.att.com).
On Saturday 06 May 2006 15:26, Arun K. Khan wrote:
Way back in spring 2001, Yahoo! was unreachable for about 24+ hours due to a massive Distributed DoS ping attack. Yahoo! put in the effort to block only the illegit requests but many sites decided to drop ICMP echo requests (e.g. www.redhat.com, www.att.com).
lol...isnt that kinda stupid? I mean you can't really guard against a DDoS no matter what the protocol is...
On Friday 05 May 2006 10:04, jtd wrote:
And that is the good part. They are the worst and the quality is what VSNL delivered on dialup 8 yrs ago. Outage is measured in weeks, the call center zombies dont know anything at all about pcs. U are sitting behind a proxy....
lol...isn't NATing illegal for ISPs? Isn't there some kinda law which says that each PC must be given a public IP ?
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