LiewCF.com

Just like many other Malaysians, my Internet broadband service — TMNet Streamyx — was unreliable in the last week. The Internet connection kept on disconnecting. If connected (lucky!), it was snail speed broadband connection. How to solve the problem? I called the free service number “100″ for 3 times and the technicians troubleshoot my line for 3 times to fix it too.

1st call

My line was very noisy. Called 100 and opened a file. The next day, we received a call from TM technician asking if the line was clear (without visiting my house). Yes, it was clear at that moment. Few hours later, the line noise is back. Streamyx was also down. Called 100 again.

2nd call

The TM technician came in the morning and I hadn’t woke up (typical liewcf’s blogger life style). My brother told me that the technician told him that the phone line was soaking in the water (?!?!). He had clear the water and the line was ok. Good job, fixed in 5 minutes! (although the solution was abnormal)

Again, the broadband connection up for a few hours and down again… Testing our patience huh?

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While TMNet announced the Streamyx Combo package, Celcom (TMNet’s sister company) also launched the “Home, Hop & Away” plan, which combines Celcom 3G and Streamyx broadband services. With the broadband plan, you can enjoy high speed Internet connectivity at home and when you travel.

What is “Home, Hop & Away” package?

“Home, Hop & Away” package is a combination of Streamyx 1.0Mbps (free ADSL modem) + Celcom Broadband Basic (up to 384kbps). Current promotion price is RM108 per month, which RM48 cheaper than subscribing the 2 services separately.

Package sign up can be done at any Celcom branch or TMPoint in Malaysia. The package is open for existing Streamyx/Celcom subscribers too.

Notes about “Home, Hop & Away” broadband package

• The minimum subscription period for the package is 18 months. During the minimum subscription period, you are not allowed to terminate or change the package to other Streamyx or Celcom broadband packages.
• If you are to terminate the Home, Hop & Away subscription before 18 months, you would need to pay RM350 of penalty charge.
• The SIM card provided is dedicated to Internet services only, no voice or SMS services.
• Fair Usage Policy at 5GB per month for Celcom Broadband. If you exceed the 5GB allocation, Celcom reserves the right to lower down your bandwidth speed.
• 3G SIM card modem is NOT included. It costs few hundreds bucks for one.

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This is a guest post by Calvyn from iCalvyn.com. Calvyn is an IT Engineer from Penang. He blogs about Life working experience as a Tech freak.

Currently I am using Maxis 3G broadband basic package (download 384kbps), every month RM68. As you can see, I have written a lot of lousy services I encountered before in my blog. I always look for alternative Internet Service Provider.

Why I did not use Streamyx previously?

Long time ago, my parent has changed the rental fixed line to home prepaid fixed line to cut off the monthly rental fees of RM26. With home prepaid fixed line, simply top up RM50 which may valid for 3 month, and extended 3 month with no outgoing call, calling rate will be slightly higher then normal rental fix line, just like our prepaid mobile phone.

I checked with Kedai Telekom, Streamyx for home prepaid fixed line need to pay additional RM10 per month. Meaning, if a Streamyx Basic Package was RM77 + RM10 = RM87. After the calculation, including prepaid top up, seems like not worth the money. Kedai Telekom does not allow me to switch back to rental fixed line. That is the reason I did not use Streamyx previously.

Streamyx Combo

Recently, Streamyx have one promotion called Streamyx Combo. With the package, I can enjoy a cheaper rate compare to my current Maxis boardband service. The basic package is RM60 (download 384kbps) which comes with a free fixed line (no rental fees) and ADSL modem.

If you are currently using any Streamyx package, you may also change your package to this Streamyx Combo package to save a few bucks.

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According to the TM Net Latest News, Telekom Malaysia Berhad is blocking all SMTP traffic or port 25 for all out going emails from dynamic IP addresses.

Due to the spamming activities by a small group of users, many anti-spam organizations have blacklisted a large number of IP addresses from TM’s network.

As a result, many TMNet users unable to send emails from their private mail server to companies who might using the database from the anti-spam organizations.

Effective 3rd December 2007, TM will block SMTP traffic or Port 25 for all out going emails from dynamic IP addresses. Only outbound SMTP traffic from smtp.streamyx.com and smtp.tm.net.my will be allowed.

For TMNet users who have their own email server, they will not be able to send emails from now on. To solve the problem, TM is providing an open relay server for these users who use dynamic IP addresses: smtp-proxy.tm.net.my

To setup the open relay server, you can refer to the email client guide or mail server guide.

My two cents

With the SMTP or Port 25 blocking, we are no longer to setup own email server to send emails via direct connection. Though, the changes does not affect most users but, for advance users, now we have one less usefulness of fast Internet connection.

I used to send out emails to my mailing list using direct connection for faster mail delivery, now I can’t do it anymore…

Update: Many local web hosting providers have updated their mail server (e.g. mail.domain.com) port from 25 to port 26. While hosting server using static IP address is not affected, but their hosting clients using Port 25 to connect to their hosting mail server to send emails.

Therefore, hosting clients are advised to change port number to 26 to skip the Port 25 blocking. The hosting mail server with static IP address is not affected and still use Port 25 to send out users’ emails.

email, smtp, spam

This is another update about my complaint of frequent disconnection of TMNet Streamyx line. My line is finally up to quality after replacing the phone line with a higher quality wire. No more blinking modem light, no more disconnection!

In the previous update, I told you that the contractor replaced the phone line from phone post to my house. I was wrong. They only replaced the connector at the phone post. The line was still acceptable before I went to KL but it had become terrible this week, even with the new Linksys WAG200G router modem.

My elder brother made another report in Wednesday morning. Surprisingly, the contractor came in the afternoon of the day! This time, they re-wired the whole phone line from phone post goes straight to my phone socket. No internal wiring.

Image: phone line straight from phone post

The wire used is covered by black plastic, which is higher quality (tolerates thunder strikes) than the normal phone wire, according to the technician.

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