Tue 1 May 2007
One of the challenges we face in Kuwait is fast and stable internet access. It’s not easy to get, which is why I pay $55/month for 256 DSL connection. I heard the prices went a bit down now though. Now that I have moved to a new area, I still don’t have phone lines (Fiber optics is still future in Kuwait), I had no other option but to use one of the internet services provided telecom companies. For EDGE service with Excellent reported connection status and claimed 220 kbps, this is the PING reply I got last night:
Pinging google.com [64.233.167.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=2152ms TTL=236
Reply from 64.233.167.99: bytes=32 time=3176ms TTL=236
Request timed out.
Ping statistics for 64.233.167.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 2, Lost = 2 (50% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2152ms, Maximum = 3176ms, Average = 2664ms
When was the last time you saw such ping reply time of 4 digits, and from whom? from Google! with 50% packet loss. All I hardly could do is open light text based pages, after long wait! The cost of this service is 14 KD (~=$48) and they intend to be DSL replacements. In a new area at the middle of the night, I don’t expect there should be that much high traffic affecting the network. I also tried the same connection in different areas at various times. My brother changes his mind when he saw it. He was about to grab one him self. So sad really. I can’t wait to get a phone line and enjoy my life again. For now, I have spare time for some quite book reading at late nights, but that still doesn’t bring full satisfaction.
Popularity: 44% [?]
May 1st, 2007 at 6:05 pm
50% packet loss? :o Ouch :/
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:05 am
You’ve lost me. You’ve completely and totally lost me.
On the other hand, books are a good thing. Read. I read an entire book yesterday.
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 am
3baid: Yeah, can you imagine how miserable my life is?
kroms: Why are you lost?
Books are really great I love reading informative books. However when this free time is enforced on you because of lack of internet access, I feel let down a bit. Yesterday, I watched Revolution OS. Really amazing how the whole evolution of open source came into picture, and how Linux started the first enterprise threat to Microsoft. It was a nice night :)
May 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 am
You’ve lost me in technicality. Don’t worry, I’ll re-read this/look-up things as soon as I get home.
Revolution OS sounds nice, I’ll give it a go if I find it.
May 2nd, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hi,
Never mind. It’s too simple.
PING: Packet Internet Groper. A utility that forwards data packets to check the quality of a link or verify the connection of a machine to the Internet.
Google for define:ping and you will know a lot. Do Start -> Run -> Cmd -> Enter
then
ping google.com
thats all ;) Just be careful don’t overuse it. Some sites consider it abuse and will block you.
May 2nd, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Yeah, I use it to check if my internet connection is going berserk or if it’s just my browser. What lost me was double-vision this morning, plus 50% packet loss. It’s all right Bashar.
Sorry.
May 3rd, 2007 at 5:39 am
Ouch, that’s too bad. I pay just about as much for my DSL broadband here in Canada, and it clocks up to 4400 kbps for test servers in North America.
Signal degrades greatly with distance, and it’s only as good as the weakest link in the chain. Atlantic ocean is crossed fairly fast via fiber optics and signal amplifiers, but if the packet gets stuck at some faulty switchboard… well you get the idea.
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:30 pm
kroms: It’s OK :)
Tony: Thank you for hearing my cries. My brother in law is in Canada and he shares this type of (sci-fi) numbers with us…
Fiber Optics is being installed in some new cities in Kuwait, but here is the good news. No ISP has technology to to utilize it ;/
May 3rd, 2007 at 9:35 pm
By the way, as for available speeds, right now the top I saw is 2048 kbps which costs …. hold on tight I’m not joking… 74 KD ($255) per month if you take a full year contract. If single month, then it’s 120 KD ($414) for that month!!!
May 4th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
hahahha you should have seen my face when I realised that 6+7=13 in the box above the comment thingie… obviously i hate maths.
it’s a shame really that ppl have to go through this, but then again the only reason that fiber-optic cables became so cheap in the states was because everyone was jumping on the bandwagon when it first boomed and supply was greater than demand. Gotta loooooove capitalism ;)
But companies in Kuwait can still afford to install them I dont understand why they dont.
The one thing I dread about coming back home is the internet connection, after getting used to the whizzing speeds here I’d probably commit suicide just trying to load a you-tube video back home - even with DSL speeds :(
May 5th, 2007 at 6:19 am
I think EDGE is pretty good in general although I don’t see it replacing dsl any time soon
May 5th, 2007 at 9:42 am
cixousianpanic: Yeah, sorry I have to take you through any questions to post, but without it I got over 40 spam comment per hour!
I agree with you. People in Kuwait would pay quite a lot for reliable fast connection. Many people are paying for the HSDPA 28 KD subscription which is not as reliable as DSL is.
Mark: EDGE is good for areas without coverage and when you are on the go. It should be faster than the speed I am getting, and it shouldn’t be treated as DSL replacement. What is happening is, companies are offering unlimited bandwidth for the price of DSL. Result is, people will use it as DSL and do full day downloads. We are consumer society as you know :)