Has anybody use the Reliance WiMax (Broadnet) services? I am

more interested in their services in Mumbai. Good, Bad, Ugly? Apparently they install separate antenna for each connection. The size of this is as big as a laptop monitor or such, thats what the marketing exec told me.

I have been using it for many months now at Kharghar. The plan I have chosen gives me 25 to 30 kBytes of download and upload speed. There is an outdoor antenna which is powered over ethernet. It is placed on my rooftop. In my case, I am using a 4 port router and configured it to obtain WAN IP address over DHCP. Using NAT, I can share this connection to multiple PCs at home. For user-authentication, they provide a web interface which work beautifully on Firefox. Unless you authenticate, all web-requests are re-directed to their authentication server.

Earlier they used to sell 2mbps connections, but when I approached them many months ago, they told me that that scheme had been terminated. Then I had been promised 300kbps bandwidth. For unlimited data transfer, I pay around Rs.1150/- per month(including taxes). This connection though expensive, is reliable most of the time.

    What I want to know is - 1) compatibility with Linux Boxes

If you configure your Linux machine to obtain IP address on its network interface via DHCP, you don't need a router and can use any GNU/Linux distro.

2. does it work during the rainy season? Considering that rains in

Mumbai or Panvel is slightly on the extreme side ;), does it work fine during the rainy season? I guess the same applies to the DTH setup even.

During rains too I have used this system without problems. But I can't confirm whether it works reliably over an extended period of time during heavy rains. I am afraid of toasting my router in lightening, and hence keep it disconnected from the wire during heavy rains. I have faced no major problems except some irritants (see below) which I can live with. At least their service is hundred times better than Sify's. The experience with Sify and their local cablewalla contacts were pathetic, to put it mildly.

    Only reason, I am thinking its worth a try is because I won't

have to depend on availabilty of power and such because I will be responsible to provide power to the setup which I can in case of load shedding as well.

This is a major advantage compared to any wired connection. Especially if you provide services to your clients in real-time, something like this is necessary.

Now the irritants with Reliance Wi-max:

1. Their DHCP connection is not very reliable, at least on Linux machines. The strangest part is, whenever I use a Windows machine, I get an IP allocated to me immediately. But it takes about 5 to 10 minutes to get an IP on my Linux box (it used to run SuSE 10). Even on my router, I have to carry out following procedures in exact order to get an IP fast: a. Switch-on the power to antenna. b. Wait for two minutes. c. Switch-on the power to the router. d. Wait for at least one minute. e. Check whether IP is allocated or not. Most of the time you get an IP. But if you fail to get it, go to web based admin console of the router and click on buttons meant to renew DHCP release and/or re-new. Then you get the IP and the connection remains rock solid for the rest of the session.

2. On some rare occasions the connection fails after some usage. If that happens, then there is no way I can get authenticated again immediately. Whenever I re-try authentication by submitting the web form, I get the message of authentication failure. This problem gets rectified automatically after half-an hour. It seems they have placed some mechanisms to prevent password-guessing-attacks.

Raghu