BolehVPN: Freedom Through Security

Now google won’t load properly and barely any site loads without difficulties except local sites. Actually even their own website loads pretty badly!

To top it off, they are going to make their tech support hard to reach for a month! I know who I’m voting for during the next election.

Dear Valued Customers,

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) wishes to inform its customers that that our Internet Contact Centre systems at 100 are currently undergoing a number of system changes and enhancements to facilitate the improvement of our contact centre telephony infrastructure capabilities as well as upgrade our systems and processes.

In the interim, as it is necessary to migrate significant amount of data over to the new system, we wish to inform that it would require TM to set in place a period of downtime as our contact centre representatives would have a very limited access to our systems at this time. Therefore, customers calling TM’s Internet services Contact Centre may experience difficulties in getting their calls through to be served by our customer service representatives. As a result, there may be some delay in attending to your enquiries and requests pertaining to Internet services during the stipulated period.

The exercise is expected to complete by 30 May 2009 and we endeavor for the new system to be operating at full capacity as soon as possible. Alternatively, customers may reach us via e-mail at help@tm.com.my. We wish to assure you that our Internet services Contact Centre would be back to normal after the said period.

TM apologizes for any inconvenience this may have caused and would like to assure customers that we are upgrading our services to enable us to provide you with a world-class support experience and the highest level of customer service.

Don’t bother calling 100 as I tried and got a serving of:

1. Some recorded message with a female speaking absolutely horrendous English
2. Tells you that all their operators are still busy
3. Cuts you off after a few minutes

Take a look at my ping report:

Pinging google.com [74.125.67.100] with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=273ms TTL=45
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=46
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=274ms TTL=45
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=395ms TTL=46
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=294ms TTL=45
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=272ms TTL=46
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 74.125.67.100: bytes=32 time=271ms TTL=46

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Here are some updates from TM:

Dear Valued Customers,

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM) is pleased to inform its customers that the restoration works on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) near Chongming, China connecting Malaysia to the United States has been completed.

Meanwhile, there is a delay in the restoration date for the Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 3 (SMW3) cable network between Tuas, Singapore and Penang linking Malaysia due to technical problems at the repairing stages. Due to the delay, full recovery of SMW3 cable network is now expected to be on 17 April 2009.

However, to date, TM has already recovered 97% bandwidth capacity for its Internet traffic to Hong Kong and North America.

TM Internet and IP services as well as other critical business applications linked to the US and Hong Kong has resumed normal operations since 10 April 2009.

We would like to thank our customers for their patience during the affected period. Customers can call TM at 100 and select “Internet Services” or e-mail us at help@tm.com.my for any Internet related problems.

Which basically means:

1. Connections to US should be not too bad
2. Europe still sucks till 17 April 2009
3. Which ACTUALLY REALLY MEANS: Streamyx still sucks

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There is a service interruption in the Klang Valley area for Streamyx customers. TM has confirmed a problem via their help line and as usual the ‘restoration is in progress’ message is given with no ETA.

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The 115.132.x.x range which I have been locked to is TOTALLY hopeless:

Now just to make sure it wasn’t a line problem, I pinged our Malaysian hosted website:

Pinging bolehvpn.net [202.75.55.245] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=66ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=64ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55
Reply from 202.75.55.245: bytes=32 time=62ms TTL=55

Ping statistics for 202.75.55.245:
Packets: Sent = 15, Received = 15, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 62ms, Maximum = 66ms, Average = 63ms

Singapore also returns a good result:

Ping statistics for 202.79.222.13:
Packets: Sent = 104, Received = 104, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 70ms, Maximum = 87ms, Average = 72ms

Now pinging gmail.com returns not so great results:

Pinging gmail.com [209.85.171.83] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=338ms TTL=237
Request timed out.
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=337ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=338ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=338ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=333ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=334ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=335ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237
Reply from 209.85.171.83: bytes=32 time=336ms TTL=237

Ping statistics for 209.85.171.83:
Packets: Sent = 33, Received = 28, Lost = 5 (15% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 333ms, Maximum = 338ms, Average = 335ms

Now check out the ping to UK:

Pinging bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138] with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=349ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=351ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=349ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=349ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=349ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=350ms TTL=110
Request timed out.
Reply from 212.58.224.138: bytes=32 time=348ms TTL=110

Ping statistics for 212.58.224.138:
Packets: Sent = 31, Received = 19, Lost = 12 (38% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 348ms, Maximum = 351ms, Average = 349ms

I don’t know in what world is 15-38% loss acceptable…a third world country perhaps? This has also been going for more than a month now.

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The Star reported the following article:

PETALING JAYA: Streamyx broadband users will have to bear with sluggish surfing speeds until March 5 due to technical problems, according to Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM).

TM said in a statement that there has been a disruption of TM’s Internet services since Feb 18 due to circuit faults on the Asia Pacific Cable Network 2 (APCN2) between Malaysia and the United States.

Due to this, customers using Internet services may now experience slow browsing while accessing content hosted in the United States, said the statement.

Additionally, customers using Internet Protocol services such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and other critical business applications linked to the United States may also experience some service degradation.

To alleviate the problem and ease the congestion, some links have been rerouted, TM said.

During restoration process, traffic to North America may experience minor degradation while traffic to other countries would not be affected.

Why this is likely to be bullshit:

That’s the APCN2 network there. I would think any fault on this would affect ALL ISPS in the region, not just TMNet’s. Somehow I have not been hearing any reports of any slowdowns elsewhere and Singapore seems to be unaffected.

Why does http://www.tm.net.my, a local site not load?

Why do pings to TM’s own LOCAL DNS 202.188.0.133 timeout if it’s just the international cable?

Minor degradation????? Only the US? Alleviating and easing the congestion by moving them to already congested routes….

Of course I’m no network expert…but something doesn’t tally here if this was true.

And WHY DID THIS TAKE MORE THAN 1 WEEK TO ANNOUNCE?

In other news, TM now wants to downgrade my 4 mbit…They have offered to give me a RM72 rebate after my endless calls and something I would be entitled to anyway (since it’s the difference between the 1 mbit and the 4 mbit price). Yes, for those of you who saw my status, I almost did throw that TM Service Centre guard.

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