Tag Archive: broadband

SmartBRO Mini Review

June 25, 2010
Internet Service Provider

I have never thought of the day that I will be doing a review for SmartBRO, since I am not a big fan of broadband internet, and as long as there is DSL, I will continue to use DSL. But I need a backup in case we have a blackout, or if I need to go somewhere, so I now have 2 prepaid broadband kits with me. I have both SmartBRO and Globe Tattoo.

It’s raining quite hard today, and as expected, the lights suddenly went off. I am in the middle of playing Cafe World, so I scrambled my heavy behind up the stairs to grab both Smart and Globe USB sticks with me. This is quite a test, since it’s daytime, hence “peak hours”, and it’s raining, which makes the connection unstable. Or so they say.

I plugged in Globe Tattoo first, because when I tried both the other day, Globe was quite fast. But after more than 10 connect and disconnects, I gave up, because the speed is slower than dial up. 45kbps is not reasonable at all. Then I plugged in SmartBRO. I had to connect and disconnect a few times as well, until I got the speed I wanted. It was 70-something kbps, and I was quite content with that, compared to the 45kbps I was getting using Globe Tattoo. I was quite shocked because all the pages loaded pretty fast, including Facebook, Gmail, and the love of my life oDesk. I checked the connection speed to see how high it was, and again, much to my surprise, this is what I saw:

And even now, I just tried to disconnect and connect to see if I will get the same speed:

Not bad considering the bad weather, and the fact that it is still daytime. I can’t say much regarding consistency. Since I don’t intend to use this for a long time. I will test it while playing Cafe World and see how it goes. Will create a separate post for that.

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Goodbye SUN..

January 21, 2010
Blogging, Internet Service Provider, Tech Talk

I have been using Sun Broadband since August of last year, and it has served me. Period. I wouldn’t really say it’s been great, because I get very inconsistent and unstable connection for the past 4 months. I have tried talking to their technical support, but I guess, this is really one of the disadvantages of a wireless connection. I think it is now time to say goodbye to Sun. I have work to do, and everyone knows that WAHMs like me rely a lot on internet connectivity. I know I could be more productive if I don’t have to restart the computer 3-5 times a day. I know I could do more if I didn’t have to wait 1-2 minutes just for a single page to load. My connection speed on average is this:

It IS faster during wee hours of the morning, from 12midnight till around 6 or 7 am. But the past weeks, even at those times, I still get disconnected several times everyday. It is simply not convenient for me anymore. Goodbye to SUN.. I am now saying hello to Bayan DSL.

I will be posting more information about my Bayan DSL connection once it gets installed. I applied today, so I have to wait between a day to probably a week for installation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it won’t be at 20-50kbps on average. Even if it’s not 1.2mbps, I’m happy as long as it’s a steady and consistent 200-300kbps.

P.S.: I didn’t bother with PLDT. The horrific stories I have read online about the poor connection and even worse customer service is more than enough to keep me away.

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