First we have the ‘God’ issue and now we have this from the Star.

Our currency wrongly denoted

FOR many years now, prices or monetary values used in our country are denoted by the acronym RM and pronounced as Ringgit Malaysia (or Malaysian Ringgit).

However, try picking up an Asian edition of an international magazine or checking our exchange rates via an international financial website, chances are our currency is often denoted as either MYR or MY$, while currencies of other countries (including those of neighbouring ones) are correctly used.

What happened to RM?

ABDUN NIZAR AHMAD,
Kuala Lumpur.

Obviously someone failed to see that MYR stands for Malaysian Ringgit much like JPY stands for Japanese Yen, USD for US Dollar, AUD for Australian Dollar…etc.

As if a preoccupation names isn’t enough, we decide to add stupidity to the list. Sorry Abdun Nizar Ahmad, you score a huge fail.

Also for the record, my issue of the Economist which had a picture of Adam and Eve on it, was also censored with their private parts blackened out. I shudder to think what’s happening in Malaysian museums with Greek statues.

VPN long term payment plans introduced. We are now confident enough to launch long term plans!

The two new packages are as follows:

180 Days = RM135

365 Days = RM255

These have all been updated on our Ordering Page.

To be fair to our existing users who have renewed recently on the 125 day package, for those who have renewed a 125 day package prior to 18 January 2010, they are entitled to top up the corresponding amount to take advantage of the new plans.

Several months ago, I bought a N Wireless Router. I’m not a fan of Belkin routers (although I do use their lightning surge protectors due to their warranty people that do honor claims) as in my past experience, Belkin’s routers tend to hang when under stress from P2P or randomly drop connections. I cannot remember all the Belkin routers I have gone through that have consistently disappointed me but my last Belkin was a Wireless G+ MIMO router which constantly hung while P2Ping.

Now many of you will be wondering why I decided to go for Belkin again after my many bad experiences with their routers? My previous Dlink DIR-655 (which was great by the way), was lost in a lightning surge and I was desperate to find a router that both have gigabit ports and Wireless N.

The only model available in my local shop which had both features was the Belkin N Wireless Router with model number #F5D8233-4 so I sighed in resignation and decided to give another Belkin router a try.

Overall, it wasn’t as bad an experience as I thought it would be with the router delivering N and not choking on P2P which was a pleasant surprise. Gigabit ports worked as they should and the device was black and sexy. Belkin has in its recent products, definitely upped its game in the aesthetics department!

However several fatal flaws still confirmed my beliefs that Belkin still doesn’t have their routers down pat. As in the title, the Belkin seemed prone to mood swings:

1. Router randomly dropped N connections quite frequently. This happened during large transfers and was really annoying since the main point of N is speed…and once you drop a connection, you would have to restart the whole thing again. Frickin annoying when watching movies as well! This to me was a huge deal breaker. Wireless G connections did not experience this problem. Now I used this with an Intel 5300AGN wireless card and an Aztech USB N adapter with similar results so I don’t think it’s an wireless card issue (though I could be wrong). I also found that the speed negotiated with N continuously fluctuated.
2. Router when managing the PPPOE Streamyx connection would sometimes fail to re-negotiate when disconnected requiring a reboot. This is solved by installing a BETA firmware (which had to be searched like nuts and not available for download from the normal site) but it was a horrible experience to look for the firmware. Furthermore, this firmware was released many months ago and still had not moved to the official downloads section with the buggy previous firmware still up. Looks like Belkin doesn’t really focus on firmware development.
3. Router settings are rather rudimentary with me unable to control DHCP as much as I would like for example, the basic static DHCP assignment option is unavailable. Compared to a Dlink, Linksys or even an Aztech the features in the router web interface was sorely barebones.

I then bought a Dlink DIR-825 and suddenly all the above problems went away with a stable 130mbps connection and no hangs confirming my fears that once again the Belkin looked sexy with its sleek back finish and lifetime warranty but when put to the test, she started bitching totally killing whatever love I had for it. However if you are a fan of lifetime warranties, then perhaps you should give this product a look as Belkin apparently do honor their warranties (though prepare to wait for a few months so get 2 just in case!).

Users in southern regions of peninsular Malaysia and also Sarawak may be experiencing extremely slow connections to both local and international sites. There is an official announcement on the 100 helpline that there is a problem although there has been no further explanation as to the cause of the slowdown nor the estimated time of rectification.

We will update you if we receive any further updates.

To the 16 people who have registered themselves with us with their desired username and pass, the BolehFiles server is now accessible with your respective usernames and passwords.

The general login has now been disabled. Remember to let us know how it goes!

If you still wish to participate in this Beta, you are more than welcome to do so. Please apply here.

We have been testing our BolehFiles for some time and have been dissatisfied with the way it worked…UNTIL NOW.

For those of you not in the loop, basically BolehFiles aggregates premium accounts for these services and lets you download it to our server without any wait times. For Rapidshare, this is still limited by a data cap limit (as is their policy with their premium accoutns) but other file sharing sites are not similarly restricted (Megaupload, Hotfiles both work fine). So instead of paying tons for multiple premium accounts, you get to enjoy all these accounts at a cheaper price (tentative RM15.00-RM20.00 a month for existing BolehVPN users). Another added benefit is that it will also bypass any restriction on Rapidshare download speed imposed by your ISP as you will be downloading from OUR server not Rapidshare.

Hrm..that is a mouthful, let me put this in simpler words:

IF YOU USE RAPIDSHARE, MEGAUPLOAD, HOTFILES, BOLEHFILES IMPROVES YOUR SPEED AND EXPERIENCE!

We believe it’s now ready for commercial use but wish to let it go under some load before we charge people for it. We thank all our testers up to now who have put up with so many kinks in the system.

We will now be genuinly putting BolehFiles through its paces and having individual user accounts for it. We will be creating this sometime tonight. For those of you who submitted (yes I know some of you submitted months back), the general login will be disabled and you will receive your login details.

If you are interested in participating, you can read more here.

There has been some concern on the security of FTPing a file from your seedbox account and whether FTP has been throttled.

As such, I would like to introduce to you a little known feature of our seedbox which is that it does indeed support the SFTP protocol. We also find that in certain cases, this gives better speed than just regular FTP (possibly due to its encrypted nature).

We recommend WinSCP for this which is easy though FileZilla also supports SFTP. Just install it, load it up, enter in your FTP IP into the hostname and your username and pass and it’s just like any other FTP client. This should give improved download speeds. However WinSCP does not support multipart transfers unlike CuteFTP so it depends which you prefer . Haven’t used CuteFTP in a while though I would assume it also supports SFTP.

As requested, we have increased our font size a bit throughout the site. Hopefully this aids readability. Do let us know!

I’m not sure how many of you are on Prudential insurances but I’ve had two pretty bad experiences with them and unfortunately I still stupidly bit the bait. This is a post to prevent any of our BolehVPN customers from getting into this mess, or at least be aware of what they are getting into. I am not sure how this reflects Prudential agents as a whole but hopefully some of you can learn from my experience.

This plan is in relation with a PRUlink Assurance Plan, PruSaver, Accidental Death and Disablement, Crisis Shield, Accident Medical Reimbursement, PRU disability provider. PRUhealth, PRUmed, Enhanced PRUpayor Basic, Enhanced PRUpayor PSA and a weekly indemnity. This totals up to be a commitment of RM300.00 a month.

For those who are lazy to read and which may seem self evident but:

1) Do not subscribe to an insurance plan you don’t totally understand.

2) Don’t take your agent’s word for it, read the policy, and if you don’t understand it, don’t take up on it.

3) Be sure your plans are TOTALLY transparent without the need for you to check through your agent.

4) Keep investment as investment and insurance as insurance. Don’t mix them up.

Agent #1

Approached me and told me in no uncertain terms that I will be getting insurance benefits, I can get out at ANY TIME with no penalties and on top of that I will be getting 8% GUARANTEED on top of the money I put in due to investment. This sounded too good to be true and I told her that and yet she was still insistent that this was the case. I asked her to provide the policy terms, and she never got back to me so I stopped there and didn’t take up any insurance.

Agent #2

A year later, another agent approached me. I told her that I was familiar with the plan but I rejected it in the past due to the misrepresentation of the agent. She told me she was different and would make sure she explained everything to me. She then told me that a huge proportion of the 1st and 2nd year of the payments will go towards Administration Fees and Service Charges, but after that, my entire contribution each month would go towards my cash value.

As I saw how they could make money this time (the administration fee + the fact that they were holding on to my money) it made sense and hence I signed up. When I asked how much exactly the administration fee would be, I was told that she could not determine it straight away as each customer was unique and could only be confirmed later on. At this time alarm bells should be ringing, but I told her ok, please let me know as soon as possible. It didn’t help that she was also rather attractive. Men are weak. I also stupidly agreed to pay one year in advance to help her reach her target when she very nicely asked me (yes, stupid me). Apparently, she’s also the top seller in her region so I thought I could place my trust in her.

After trying to get these figures for a few months (the agent who was previously so available during the sales period was suddenly a lot more difficult to reach), I told her that I really wanted to know my administration fee and arranged a meeting with her. Prior to this meeting, I talked to another Prudential agent friend who told me that these admin fees should actually be in my policy and that the break even point was after SIX YEARS and not TWO YEARS as she represented. I quickly whipped up my neglected policy book and sat down to make sense of the rows and rows of charts…I then realized the meaning of these charts…

Basically, out of RM300.00 a month, RM220 goes into insurance + investment and then RM80.00 goes into a PRUSaver investment.

However from the RM220.00 portion, on the 1st year, 60% gets eaten up by service charges, then 50% in the 2nd year, 40% in the 3rd, 30% in the 4th, 10% for the 5th and 6th and only on the 7th year do you actually break even after which you’ve already been bled dry.

In real terms, out of RM300.00, for the first year, I only got back RM88 for the insurance portion and RM76.00 (not including any appreciation) for the investment. This totals up to about half of my insurance value disappearing. Out of the RM3600.00 I put in each year,  I get only RM1,968 in the first year, RM2,232 in the 2nd year and which continues on. I do appreciate that I’m getting about some protection but if I die, I get something in the region of RM100,000 which to me is not a significant amount considering the amout of money I”m pumping in each year.

Even for the RM80.00 portion, which is NOT guaranteed and is basically a unit trust, 5% of it also gets eaten up by ‘service charge’.

During the meeting with my agent, I told her that I wanted a re-explanation of the administration fees as she had not gotten back to me on it. I wanted to give her an opportunity to see if she could explain herself out of it before revealing what I had read. She then drew up a chart for me, which indicated that after 4 years, there would be no more admin fees. After she had completed her explanation, I told her that I had read the policy and it said 6 years. I also reminded her that when she was selling it to me I distinctly remembered 2 years being the ‘break even’ point. She told me ‘Oh, maybe this policy has been customized to you.’ I decided to keep my cool so that I could go home and recheck the policy again which confirmed my fears…I’ve been duped. I then asked her how was previous performance of the PRUSaver investment portion of the fund, I was not given an exact figure, instead I was told ‘it did well’ and that it would be difficult to check the price at which I bought the units for. I concluded the meeting on a good note, wanting to make sure I got my facts right before making any accusations.

I went back, sat down and thought about it and relooked at my policy and didn’t see how this could be anything else besides a misrepresentation. I gave my agent a ring and told her straight that I was very upset and that I felt cheated and I wanted to terminate my policy. She said that her supervisor told her it was for 4 years and she would have to recheck this tomorrow with her supervisor. I told her that this was a HUGE mistake and that the difference between 2 years and 6 years is pretty big. A customer should be able to trust his agent and it’s the agent’s duty to ensure that the information she gives is accurate. Yes my bad for not reading through the 100 page policy but it was just unbelievable that it could be so blatant. I was naive.  She thanked me for bringing to her notice this fact and I wondered straight away how many of her other customers were under the same misconception. I’m still exploring options on how to redeem the most out of this situation but I have accepted that the payments I have made are probably irrecoverable sunk costs and consider it an expensive lesson.

There is no other way to check your ‘cash value’ besides getting it from your agent. The lack of transparency, combined with misrepresentation led me to have a very bitter taste in my mouth.

I also saw some increasing rates and service charges as you aged (which is expected but was also not explained to me) and I still can’t fully figure out and at this point in time I can’t be bothered to. I just want out.

So let me repeat!

1) Do not subscribe to an insurance policy you don’t totally understand.

2) Don’t take your agent’s word for it, read the policy, and if you don’t understand it, don’t take up on it.

3) Be sure your plans are TOTALLY transparent without the need for you to check through your agent.

4) Keep investment as investment and insurance as insurance.

A term life insurance with a pure charge every year is much easier since there is no messing with ‘investment’ and cash value and much easier to understand. After all, why give your money to an insurance agency to invest for you and let them take a guaranteed 5% off your money and then you getting the leftovers if they make money or not on their investments? Keep insurance as insurance and investment as investment.

All seedbox accounts should be up and running now. Please let us know should you have any issues.

New seedbox plans are now out as well and are available from this page.

Regardless whether you’re using a GUI or Non-GUI account, you would have to restart your rtorrent if you haven’t done so already.

To do this:

1. Download Putty from here (you may download the Windows Installer version)
2. Start Putty. Under hostname put your FTP ip in
3. Login using the same username/password as your ftp
4. Type screen -r to verify that no rtorrent is currently running. If it says there is no screen to resume, that means no rtorrent is currently running and you should move  to the next step.
5. After that type screen -S YOURUSERNAME rtorrent This is case sensitive so that’s a capital ‘S’.
6. Then press Ctrl-a-d (altogether) and then it will say screen detached
7. Type exit