Can VPN Work on Celcom 3G and Mac OS X ?

[asamboy]

Hi everyone,

Just have a few questions regarding the usability of VPN on Celcom 3G connection, hope
somebody can enlighten me up !

I'm currently using Celcom 3G package (384kbps) which costs me RM68 per month.
The first few month was okay, then I noticed there was a sharp decrease of speed
not only on torrent but also on http surfing and download as well. Imagine a download
from a Singapore sourceforge.net server runs at 5kbps ! I was truly frustrated but there's nothing
I could do as the area I'm renting (I'm a public U student) is not served by Telekom since Telekom
said there aren't enough people to justify pulling in the infrastructure (that's a bullshit to me, when
my University which is only a few KM away is served with T3 connection!)

Anyway, I searched for a reliable and cheap solution and found Reuben's BolehVPN.
To cut it short, I applied for a 1-week trial and Reuben was very prompt in setting
up my account. Thanks man. 

I've been running it for half-day now, and I noticed there was a slight increase
in torrent download (from previously 2-3kbps to around steady 7 or 8 kbps). That's good.
HTTP surfing and download however is still very slow and almost killed me to death waiting
for Google page to come out. FTP uploading is impossible as I kept disconnected from FTP server
at every 2 or 3 minutes, and I had to use cybercafe computer to upload files to my
own FTP server. 

The question is, is there any way I can still tweak my torrent client setting and HTTP surfing
and FTP surfing ?

What TCP ports should I use when configuring my torrent clients ?

Here are some info regarding my machine:

Apple Powerbook 1.5Ghz (PPC not Intel)
Tiger OS X (still saving the moolah to buy Leopard upgrade)
Uses: Safari, Camino, Azureus 2.5, Tomato torrent, BitRocket, Transmission, iGetter ( to speed up and resume downloads )

I also followed the given guide on how to run VPN on Mac OS X and how to configure
the torrent client settings, but I still couldn't notice any significant change in speed.

I'd really appreciate it if somebody could give me some tips here.

Thanks a milleon.

asamBoy
( www.asamBoy.com, forum.asamBoy.com )

[Reuben]

What are your speed test results?

http://www.speedtest.net

Pick singapore.

[Alpha Male]

Hello Asamboy, i hear your pain. i too am a celcom broadband subcriber (3.6 Advance) & i'm getting about the same speeds as you are. i think thats the best speed u can get from a 3G connection no matter how many tweaks u make. God knows i've tried. It also depends on yr location & weather condition. Unless u are able to acquire a HSDPA signal, u won't be realizing any appreciable increase in d/l speeds. One more thing, if u're downloading stuff while trying to surf, yr pages will take forever & everrrrrrr to load.

Cheers man

[Reuben]

Someone told me 3g is around 115 kbps only? then yeah 8 kbps is about right...

[asamboy]

Hello Asamboy, i hear your pain. i too am a celcom broadband subcriber (3.6 Advance) & i'm getting about the same speeds as you are. i think thats the best speed u can get from a 3G connection no matter how many tweaks u make. God knows i've tried. It also depends on yr location & weather condition. Unless u are able to acquire a HSDPA signal, u won't be realizing any appreciable increase in d/l speeds. One more thing, if u're downloading stuff while trying to surf, yr pages will take forever & everrrrrrr to load.

Cheers man

Hey yo,

So there's finally two of us, heheh we are actually paying Celcom to give us stone-age service, how poetic.
I did a lot of tweaks too, like moving my 3g phone near the window, disabling firewall (and I'm being really lenient already!), installed whatever software that claimed to speed up browsing and a lot others and to no avail.

Guess it just can't be helped with Telekom being the only provider in the country, and since you mentioned you are using HSDPA, then you are really getting ripped off lah man - getting same speed like mine. That's RM30 extra right you are paying per month, no ?

Say, I heard Jeff Ooi (jeffooi.com) recently got himself elected into Parliament, and he really kicked Maxis' and MCMC ass when Maxis spammed his phone and charged him for all those stupic multimedia downloads. How about if we bring our case to him, see if we can do something ? 

Ciao, and stay cool !

[asamboy]

Someone told me 3g is around 115 kbps only? then yeah 8 kbps is about right...

Hey man, I ran the speed test and here it is :



And if only I can get that 115kbps connection . . . . . 

[Alpha Male]

yeah man i feel really ripped off, cheated & screwed. their idiot sales staff should have told me that the $98 package is useless to me coz there is no HSDPA coverage where i live. And i did tell them where i live.

I did however manage to which bring my micro atx mobo to work in sandakan town area (7miles away), were i can get full HSDPA signal. I tested at speedtest.net & got 2700mbps & 2400mbps on S'pore & New York servers respectively. Now that's what i'm talking about baby. I tried playing streaming media from nationalgeographic.com & it was very smooth.

but sadly i don't live i town

I rang their call center on tuesday & after being passed around for the 4th f%*#!n time i logged in a complaint with them. I don't know if they'll fix the slow speed problem but all we can hope is for celcom to upgrade & improve their network.

Just thinkin about celcom&tmnut makes my blood boil. Wouldn't it be great if foreign telcos were allowed to set up shop in this country?

Cheers