Connectivity

I had some difficulties connecting to the internet from our home this past week. What used to be a reliable connection via Smart Bro turned into an excruciating experience that started when I was in Iloilo City to close a training program for MIGEDC. There was this "cannot connect to PPP server" message appearing every time I attended to connect. And this Thursday, after having enough of what I perceived was undeserved disservice I decided to call the Smart hotline to at least have a grasp of what has happened to my connection. I was not alone in this predicament as another colleague, who happened to live in Quezon City, experienced similar difficulties. The Clairvoyant also pitched in one night last week when her own Smart Bro unit could not connect, leaving her with no internet as she navigated through a conference call she took at home. She decided later to take her other conference calls scheduled almost every night in the past week at her office.

I was informed by the customer service person that there was nothing wrong with their 3G services. (Note: It's this 3G connection that is supposed to be the preferred one as it is capable of delivering up to 2Mbps connection speeds.) One conclusion and recommendation was for me to see if this condition continues in the next few days and if it happens in other locations. Another was for me to change my settings and to use the GPRS connection instead. I asked the person what speeds would this connection give me. He replied that this setting would provide a maximum 384 Kbps. Hmmm...that didn't seem to be what I signed up for when I purchased my broadband unit. But what the heck, maybe the connection will return one day and hopefully soon. Fortunately, it seems to have returned this afternoon (otherwise, I could not be writing this blog now).

Meanwhile, I decided to purchase another broadband unit, this time from arch-rival Globe. It was supposed to be a quick purchase, so appropriate to the quick decision I made. The Globe service center, however, made it another excruciating experience, one that was something for the books in terms of what should not be done when you have a lot of people queued up for purchases or payments. It was a classic lesson in queuing theory where the servers took so much time to process customers that many of those in queue decided to leave. We were among those who left empty handed. Fortunately, I spotted the mall booth selling prepaid units for Globe Tattoo. I got one although grudgingly (I wanted a postpaid unit with an unlimited plan.) and took it h0me where it gave me a decent connection this afternoon. So far, so good. I hope it provides me a good connection sometime later again when my Smart Bro doesn't deliver.

I decided though to use my Smart Bro for this connection and voila! I had my good connection again. I do hope it stays this way most of the time and that my back-up won't fail me, too. Otherwise, I might be forced to get another unit from another company. Indeed, perhaps we should get a DSL service for our house soon. That will assure us of the fastest and maybe most reliable service for our internet purposes.