racoma.com.phJ. Angelo Racoma on technology, economics, writing, problogging, and getting things done

My DSL connection has been really slow for the past two weeks or so. Some colleagues of mine who also use SkyDSL are also reporting similar problems. Thing is, we people rely on the Internet to work, do business, and earn money.

Here’s an email I recently sent to SkyDSL customer service. If you have been experiencing slow speeds on your SkyDSL or Bayantel DSL (essentially the same) accounts, please don’t hesitate to call them up or send email. Their address is csdip@bayantel.com.ph .

Dear Bayantel/SkyDSL,

I’ve been having very slow speeds and unreliable connections on several of my SkyDSL accounts since about two weeks ago. I’ve been getting very high latency and low speeds, and this has badly affected my productivity (most of my work is Web related). I called up 411-2000 but the CSR I talked to said there were no outages or maintenance operations being done on the network. Still, I’ve been getting bad performance, regardless of machine (both PCs and Macs) I use, and on two locations.

Here are some details.

On both my apartments, I use Sky DSL bundled in with my telephone subscription. One 768kbps and one 384kbps.

768K – username (xxxxx). tel no (xxx-xxxx)
384K – username (xxxxx). tel no (xxx-xxxx)

Both of these are along Maginhawa St. in Teachers Village East Quezon City.

Here is a sample traceroute output (to gmail.google.com, one of the sites I find quite slow these days). I was asked by the CSR to send these over for your analysis.

Traceroute has started …

traceroute to gmail.l.google.com (209.85.139.107), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
# 192.168.2.1 (192.168.2.1) 7.345 ms 2.492 ms 2.396 ms
# 202.78.96.116 (202.78.96.116) 32.113 ms 35.902 ms 34.489 ms
# 202.78.97.157 (202.78.97.157) 28.060 ms 32.474 ms 22.195 ms
# 210.4.2.195 (210.4.2.195) 24.580 ms 23.940 ms 22.066 ms
# so-1/1/0.ig3.lax1.alter.net (63.114.59.105) 330.247 ms 334.106 ms 325.866 ms
# 0.so-7-0-0.xl1.lax1.alter.net (152.63.112.250) 328.786 ms 392.810 ms *
# 152.63.57.78 (152.63.57.78) 329.267 ms * 328.802 ms
# 0.so-6-0-0.br1.lax7.alter.net (152.63.112.41) 327.186 ms 321.951 ms 327.682 ms
# lap-brdr-01.inet.qwest.net (205.171.1.145) 206.683 ms 202.827 ms *
# bur-core-02.inet.qwest.net (205.171.213.109) 203.963 ms 211.153 ms 205.584 ms
# sea-core-01.inet.qwest.net (67.14.1.186) 216.476 ms * 218.024 ms
# * sea-edge-08.inet.qwest.net (205.171.26.74) 222.415 ms 218.789 ms
# * 65.121.106.86 (65.121.106.86) 242.668 ms 240.028 ms
# 72.14.239.12 (72.14.239.12) 1467.341 ms 1513.570 ms 1480.514 ms
# 72.14.233.37 (72.14.233.37) 1465.196 ms 1461.246 ms 1466.459 ms
# 209.85.250.69 (209.85.250.69) 242.306 ms 209.85.250.65 (209.85.250.65) 1511.369 ms 209.85.250.69 (209.85.250.69) 241.461 ms
# * 72.14.239.190 (72.14.239.190) 242.521 ms 72.14.239.194 (72.14.239.194) 1513.615 ms
# * pr-in-f107.google.com (209.85.139.107) 1503.991 ms *

And here are some speedtest.net results.

The first one is using the Bayantel server in QC:

Download speed: 763 kbps
Upload speed: 701 kbps
Latency: 106 ms

The second one is using a Hong Kong server:

Download speed: 50 kbps
Upload speed: 41 kbps
Latency: 580 ms

This third one is using a San Jose, CA server:

Download speed: 132 kbps
Upload speed: 126 kbps
Latency: 243 ms

Notice the big speed difference. With this, I think we can perhaps initially rule out any problem from my end to your end (meaning between my computer/s and Bayantel) because connection from here to the Bayantel server (using speedtest) is fast. But connection to the rest of the world is slow.

I hope you can help out with resolving this problem. This is particularly unfortunate to people like myself who rely on the Internet to do work and business. And I have had several colleagues complaining of lost productivity due to slow speeds.

Regards,

Angelo Racoma

There several things that have gone _live_ as I write this. But let me just talk about one of them (the others deserve some major noise, so I’ll announce them later when they’re already running smoothly). Remember I recently applied for SkyDSL’s DSL+WiFi package? My account is active now, but not without some hitches.

I applied at the BayanCenter by filling up a form (just my name, telephone number and signature, actually). I was an existing DSL subscriber, after all. After a day I got a call from Sky DSL’s technical staff and they gave me the username and password to my account. Username was actually my telephone line’s account number, and the password, a randomly-generated number. They advised me to wait for activation, but I tried and tried logging in via the airborneaccess.net Horizon account manager, to no avail.

So I called up Sky DSL’s customer service (411-2000) to follow up. They said I should click the *Blast WiFi* link on the airborneaccess.net homepage to sign up. I realized that the username/password combination they gave me was for registration and not for WiFi access itself. They should’ve told me that in the first place! I guess the same process goes for PLDT DSL and Smart BRO subscribers.

(Incidentally, did you know that you can access Airborne Access using Blast prepaid internet cards? Just append @wifi to the username.)

So after activation, I tried checking my account via the *Horizon* link. Still, it wouldn’t accept my username and password. I was increasingly becoming frustrated. But then I tried checking using the *Wingspan* link (for prepaid), and lo and behold–I was able to gain access. Apparently, Airborne Access treats SkyDSL subscribers as something similar to pre-paid accounts rather than the unlimited Horizon accounts. I just got confused, since my previous _promo_ account with SkyDSL was a Horizon account.

I was able to use my account at a public Airborne Access hotspot this afternoon, and I can say I’m glad to have an unlimited account again–without having to pay the regular Horizon rates. Boo yah!