For all those seeking a good Internet Service Provider

[Markit]

Am I missing something?

This program only applies to all customers who subscribe to a new BIGTV effective from February 17, 2014 and so on in the Greater Jakarta area .

 

[balibule]

well, they have contact details for dealers in Bali.

A flashy website but not very clear.

 

[Gozer]

@Markit. Yeah, I saw that too. I have a friend who called they said he could get it and he lives in Bali so I assume that the website is not 100% up to date.

My big question is reliability. "Up to 72 mps" is great but if it is down 6 months out of the year what good is it. Just wondering if anyone had experiance with them before I take the risk.

 

[Jaltona]

2 Mbit dedicated Rp 5,000,000 /mo

That's REALLY expensive.

I got Speedy 2 Mbit and the speed is really good, 2 Mbit down and 0,5 Mbit up 99% of the time. However the connection has been dropping a lot lately

Speedy has been good for years but is a disaster now. Everybody is noticing it. It's time to find a new ISP. But which one?

 

[JohnnyCool]

Speedy has been good for years but is a disaster now. Everybody is noticing it. It's time to find a new ISP. But which one?

I've been using Speedy for many years and am having no problems whatsoever. My speeds are 3 Mbs down/0.5 Mbs up.
Maybe your router is on the way out, rats are chewing through your phone line somewhere, or some settings on your network have changed/not optimal any more.
Could also be there are too many people connected to the junction box where you live.

Another possibility, if you use a wireless router in your place for a home network (like a laptop), is that somebody might be piggy-backing on your connection.
While that's possible, it's unlikely (but you never know).

Wireless routers are sensitive to various kinds of interference. Micro-wave ovens, for example. Also, other wireless routers near you could be competing on the same channels as yours.
Changing your channels can fix this.

If you don't have wireless beaming off your ADSL, you could ask Speedy to come and check what's wrong.
Who knows? They might actually turn up before Nyepi. Then again, maybe not.

 

[spicyayam]

Also, change the DNS to Google's DNS on the router: primary: 8.8.8.8, secondary: 8.8.4.4

The routers Speedy give you are junk. I bought a new one for about 400K and definitely the range was a lot better.

There are some apps/programs that show the channel which other devices are using, then select one that is not being used. I read somewhere not to leave the router on the floor.

We had the Indovision and internet coming in together from the roof and the installation guy tied the two cables together. I didn't realize the interference it was causing until we moved house. Actually there are a lot of tips if you try googling them. I wonder how many people complain about Speedy haven't set it up right.

If a branch has fallen on the telephone line somewhere near your house that can cause trouble also. I would get the mobile numbers of Telkom guy and a Speedy guy who you can call directly if you have any trouble.

 

[JohnnyCool]

...I wonder how many people complain about Speedy haven't set it up right.

Setting up an ADSL connection is not very difficult to do by yourself. Takes maybe 5 minutes, or so.
However, you must be brave enough to look into your modem's settings.

Where are they?

Modems are accessed by logging into them. They appear in your web browser when you type in the modem's IP address. A typical one is something like 192.168.1.1
Unless you've already changed something, like the modem's user name and password, the default login could be as simple as "admin" and "admin", respectively.

Once there, you will need to enter your Telkom Speedy user-name and password (which should appear on your receipt from Speedy when you signed up).

There are three citical settings you need to make sure of.
The VPI and VCI entries. For Speedy, they are VPI = 8 and VCI = 81.
And PPoE. (Sorry - I don't have time to explain what these are right now.You just need them.)

Yes, that's scary stuff. But - most modems have an option to set-up your connection automatically, provided that you know your ISP's user-name and password.
How hard is that?

Changing DNS

Changing which DNS your modem uses can definitely improve your internet experience. I'm not 100% sure that Speedy's are as bad as some people say.
However, I haven't used them for years. I choose my own.

Two popular ones are Google's DNS (primary = 8.8.8.8 and secondary = 8.8.4.4), and openDNS (primary = 208.67.222.222 and secondary = 208.67.220.220). Both free alternatives to the one you're saddled with.
They're both good, but there are even more alternatives, if you know how to find them.

There is a small, free software programme called namebench. Once installed, you can run it to find and compare all the DNS's available where you are.
The initial scan can take quite a while, so you have to patient. When it finishes, you can see the fastest ones for where you are, at the time of your scan.
Then change your DNS settings in your modem accordingly (remembering to write down what they were before you change them, just in case).

If you have a wireless router on your home network, or take your laptop to free wifi spots, Inssider can show you what's available connection-wise, and even details about which channels are broadcasting, their security profile, and signal strength.

Namebench:
https://code.google.com/p/namebench/

Inssider:
inSSIDer 4 - The Worlds Best WiFi Scanner

Hope this helps....

 

[donfuego]

Changing DNS

Changing which DNS your modem uses can definitely improve your internet experience. I'm not 100% sure that Speedy's are as bad as some people say.
However, I haven't used them for years. I choose my own.

I was going to comment on that, glad someone did already.

What I have noticed is that switching to other non-Telkom DNS has a slightly negative impact on page loading time since the DNS will be more far away and require more time for the response to arrive. For instance, Google's DNS servers are overseas, which means that for every single resource on a web page, there will be a slight delay. This is almost a no issue for small "lighter" pages but for "big" web pages with lots of content, the difference is not huge but it is noticable.

For me the Telkom DNS have been mostly fine. There are rare occasions though when it is unable to look up a certain web page. So what I do is putting Telkom DNS as primary DNS server and Google as secondary. Like that all addresses are being looked up by Telkom (usually faster) but if the Telkom DNS for some reason doesn't respond or can't find a certain web page, the question will go to Google.

 

[JohnnyCool]

Google Public DNS, openDNS co-locate with the main ("top") internet exchange points around the planet, to automatically shorten the routes between DNS's and networks available to them.
They use what's called Anycast routing, to make sure your connection "talks" to your nearest data centre. In theory, this should mean web pages load faster, maybe more reliably, and so on.
Given the complex nature of the internet, location of exchange points, etc, things may not always be "optimal".

However, other factors which could slow down your connection include your actual modem (its settings and where it is physically), the presence of malware/virus on the main computer, the web browser you use...lots of things.
If large web pages with lots of content take forever to load, the "problem" might be a browser issue, the site itself might be poorly constructed, your browser's web cache might have redundant entries
(flushing the cache sometimes can work wonders).

All things being equal, a clean modern computer with a decent modem/router, up-to-date operating system, good web browser, should be able to deliver an acceptable internet experience.

In the case of Telkom Speedy, issues can arise if the copper wiring to your phone has been damaged, the splitter between the phone line and computer is fucked,
you're on the border of the nearest connection point, a "technician" at the office has assigned you a faulty (or flaky) line, there are too many people in your immediate area trying to use the same junction box at the same time, etc.
And last, but not least, if you're using wireless sevices on your home network, somebody might be piggy-backing on your connection (that's a security issue).

Third-party DNS providers like Google Public DNS or OpenDNS may be faster for you.
Namebench will let you know if they are.

My latest speed tests (an hour ago) show the following:





Have "fun" tweaking your internet happiness.

Then there OpenNIC DNS servers (Namebench will probably pick these us during a scan).

My nearest OpenNIC DNS servers…

128.199.248.105 (SG) - Singapore
118.88.20.195 (WA, AU) - Perth
111.67.16.202 (VIC, AU) - Melbourne
106.186.17.181 (JP) - Tokyo (?)

 

[ronb]

I would think that means that if you can find service provider that can send to you at this speed (no such services exist in Bali) then the TV is capable of receiving it.

 

[allobrogica]

Someone asked before but I didn't see any responses... Is anyone uses Gecko Internet and what have your experiences been? What wireless technology are they using?
Also, anyone in Canggu area using a fiber connection that you are happy with?

 

[allobrogica]

Regarding general performance using bali providers: I have found that some times routes to/from providers in Indonesia kinda suck to some parts of the Internet. It's not a matter of Indo infrastructure, it's often just poor Internet routing decisions. In cases when I need a particular download in a hurry, I find I can get much better throughput but manually routing my traffic (using a VPN) such that it appears on the other end to come from Singapore (not Indo). If I do a download from an Indo IP vs the SG IP, I can get much better performance via the SG IP. Doesn't matter what provider. I've tested this with 4 Indo providers. Of course, my VPS that I route through in SG is extremely well connected globally, so it has very shorts hops to other places. To clarify: the download is still coming all the way to my machine in Bali, it just that since it routes differently I get much better performance some times. If your local connection is still crummy, this method won't help you.

 

[spicyayam]

You can find more info on Gecko on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/geckoid Most of the comments seem positive, but who knows if they delete negative comments. One comment mentioned you get a Russian IP address, but since you have a VPN it's not going to be a problem.

 

[allobrogica]

Yeah, i looked through all those comments. But as you said, being only positive made me curious. Well I don't always use a vpn. I also question the rationale of a company providing services in Indonesia but using russian IP space its customers. It's not a good idea from a general Internet perspective and just seems to be not in good faith. I wonder what Indonesian authorities would think if they knew an ISP was essentially faking all of their customer's access to look like its coming from Russia instead of Indonesia even though the ISP is operating in Indonesia. Looks like they are using Telkom backbone infrastructure otherwise, but not verified yet.

 

[donfuego]

So basically what you get is a permanent russian VPN connection? That sounds odd indeed. Technically it should give you terrible performance since all CDN's will redirect you to servers in Russia.

 

[odez999]

Gecko is expensive experiment ....
Anyone tried this new BOLT 4G scheme ?
I tried WIGO .. and it was crap .. 3 days ok .. 4 slow like shit ... etc etc ... ( .. behind sunset carrefour).....
Still on "smart" and it is slow as always ...

 

[ronb]

After 7 years in Bali using many Internet Providers, we have now been on Telkom Speedy for 1 month, and compared to all the others, it's heaven. Download speed 3 Mbps and no download quota limit. It costs about 800,000 per month. In Australia or other western countries this service may seem unremarkable, but here the others are so poor. The 24 hour tech help is really good.

 

[JohnnyCool]

Glad to hear something positive about Telkom Speedy for a change.

It is far from "perfect", but if you have decent telephone line, it's hard to beat.
I've been saying that for years.

Below are some random speed tests I did earlier today.

Jakarta



Singapore



Perth

 

[Markit]

"but if you have decent telephone line, it's hard to beat."

YOU BASTARDS!!!

 

[Jaltona]

Glad to hear something positive about Telkom Speedy for a change.

It's crap these days. I've been using it for years and never had a problem. However a few months ago they decreased the cost of their packages and increased the speed and since then it's been a nightmare for me at home, for me at work and for my friends who use it. I've tried changing my modem, changing my DNS server and I know it's not a problem with my PC because it affects my laptop and mobile too. Sometimes the connection is great and fast but it drops out so often.

I've called more than a dozen times and I've had a technician out once. He told me the cables for Telkom Speedy are so old - that's it.

I called Globalxtreme but there's a 3 juta set-up charge. I called D-Net but their minimum package is 2.5 juta per month. I called Biznet but they don't have coverage in my area. It seems from the thread below Gecko isn't the way to go. Anybody have other ISPs to recommend?