Comments on: Zain@Home.. here I come http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/ An Arab man's attempt at bridging the cultural gap and trying to make a difference. Failing a lot. Succeeding once in a while. Thu, 24 May 2012 09:01:06 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: nithin http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-130128 nithin Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:47:07 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-130128 If any body has the update on the upload speed of the Zain@Home. Compared to Batelco the Upload capacity of the Zain@Home is really poor. Nithin If any body has the update on the upload speed of the Zain@Home. Compared to Batelco the Upload capacity of the Zain@Home is really poor.

Nithin

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]]> By: Akram Tamimi http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-124329 Akram Tamimi Wed, 17 Sep 2008 06:27:24 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-124329 Super 3G/LTE will push the throughput further to 50/100 Mbps. It can replace ADSL, WiMax, and any other technology except FTTH of course :-) Super 3G/LTE will push the throughput further to 50/100 Mbps.

It can replace ADSL, WiMax, and any other technology except FTTH of course :-)

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]]> By: mahmood http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-116320 mahmood Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:01:38 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-116320 Thank you <i>voyer</i> for the explanations. I am afraid that as of today, a full 15 days after submitting my application, we do not have a connection. The installers came on Sunday afternoon, put up the receiver on the wall and pointed it at Saar! The antenna next to our house is apparently NOT in service, that would explain why we don't see a little red light on it any more. But the guy (contractor) did not finish the job just just left "enough wire" for my own electrician to come and route it through the conduits! The guy says that his fish-wire suddenly stops and doesn't know what to do next. He left 3 other boxes containing a router, a telephone set and another connector thingy. I lodged a follow-up support request with Zain yesterday and they promise that they will get it sorted soon. Another guy did call last night to enquire about some details, and till now no progress. Doesn't bode well... Thank you voyer for the explanations. I am afraid that as of today, a full 15 days after submitting my application, we do not have a connection.

The installers came on Sunday afternoon, put up the receiver on the wall and pointed it at Saar! The antenna next to our house is apparently NOT in service, that would explain why we don’t see a little red light on it any more. But the guy (contractor) did not finish the job just just left “enough wire” for my own electrician to come and route it through the conduits! The guy says that his fish-wire suddenly stops and doesn’t know what to do next.

He left 3 other boxes containing a router, a telephone set and another connector thingy.

I lodged a follow-up support request with Zain yesterday and they promise that they will get it sorted soon. Another guy did call last night to enquire about some details, and till now no progress.

Doesn’t bode well…

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]]> By: voyer http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-116315 voyer Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:06:10 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-116315 I think I am the ‘she’ Mahmood speaks of having Zain@home in Manama who happened to notice that Zain was down when the Aussie had his tantrum. Not really so important or life threatening, but in this age of media trivial pursuits, yes, Zain’s CEO and Motorola would have ended up with a lot of yellow yuck on their faces had they been in any other internet savvy country, shouting their mouths off when the system was physically out of order for a few days. With only Mahmood seemingly unafraid with no commercial gain to forfeit, he boldly goes. Great! I heard that the very privileged and oh so brown nosed English language newspaper of any literal value here, knew about the incident, but funny as it is saw no value in this mini scoop, especially when Zain was advertising full page incoherent , devoid of any creativity spreads at the time. After Zain apparently fixed the problem which no one in Zain wishes to discuss or give a reason for, I was still out of action and nothing we did could bring it back. Yeah, I know the passwords for setup and through, but nothing would work, so for another 5 days we were out of touch. (Liar, I still have my Batelco connection, which was randomly hacked and threw me over the credit limit before anyone found out). Anyway, the reason for the Wimax still not wanting to commit when all seemed fine, was simply another building had been built somewhere between us and the mast, in those 7 days. A quick ladder extension and WD40 to loosen the pole bolts and off we go to a higher place. It is now ok as such. But watch out all, because unless Zain puts their transmission mast up at least double their current height, we are all going to be heading for massive poles stretching to the heavens to see the current erections. ‘Bahrain’s concrete vision of the future’. Wimax is fine in many respects, but as a platform of choice in any other advanced town, where you have a hundred providers offering T1 lines and 8 megs downloads and 2 megs up; nah, it definitely needs more features to attract the punters. Wimax is pretty crappy with its inherent latency, but it has enormous potential and in ways not so obvious to all. Hopefully there are good things to come if Zain listens to the birdy (an insider who is a good friend of mine) and pushes out the boat. Stay tuned! I think I am the ‘she’ Mahmood speaks of having Zain@home in Manama who happened to notice that Zain was down when the Aussie had his tantrum. Not really so important or life threatening, but in this age of media trivial pursuits, yes, Zain’s CEO and Motorola would have ended up with a lot of yellow yuck on their faces had they been in any other internet savvy country, shouting their mouths off when the system was physically out of order for a few days. With only Mahmood seemingly unafraid with no commercial gain to forfeit, he boldly goes. Great! I heard that the very privileged and oh so brown nosed English language newspaper of any literal value here, knew about the incident, but funny as it is saw no value in this mini scoop, especially when Zain was advertising full page incoherent , devoid of any creativity spreads at the time.
After Zain apparently fixed the problem which no one in Zain wishes to discuss or give a reason for, I was still out of action and nothing we did could bring it back. Yeah, I know the passwords for setup and through, but nothing would work, so for another 5 days we were out of touch. (Liar, I still have my Batelco connection, which was randomly hacked and threw me over the credit limit before anyone found out). Anyway, the reason for the Wimax still not wanting to commit when all seemed fine, was simply another building had been built somewhere between us and the mast, in those 7 days. A quick ladder extension and WD40 to loosen the pole bolts and off we go to a higher place. It is now ok as such. But watch out all, because unless Zain puts their transmission mast up at least double their current height, we are all going to be heading for massive poles stretching to the heavens to see the current erections. ‘Bahrain’s concrete vision of the future’.
Wimax is fine in many respects, but as a platform of choice in any other advanced town, where you have a hundred providers offering T1 lines and 8 megs downloads and 2 megs up; nah, it definitely needs more features to attract the punters. Wimax is pretty crappy with its inherent latency, but it has enormous potential and in ways not so obvious to all. Hopefully there are good things to come if Zain listens to the birdy (an insider who is a good friend of mine) and pushes out the boat. Stay tuned!

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]]> By: Funaki http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115822 Funaki Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:28:46 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115822 AJ : Zain unlike batelco doesnt makes you go through a proxy server where every other server sees you as 193.188 (the address of Batelco Proxy). why would it be a big deal because when you go to sites that do stuff based on your ip 9 out of 10 times you will be restricted and wont be allowed to go ahead because you have the ip address that is shared as the rest of bahrain. Dont believe me try downloading something from rapidshare.com Having the websites see the direct ip of yours is much better in most of the cases. Secondly, as you mention that zain puts you in a private block of IP. that is not true. I am assigned a public ip address it does changes from time to time. and i am hosting a ftp server for my personal use and remote access both of them work like a charm. Mahmood : i was the first few to jump on Zain @ home bandwagon and my exprience with it has been nothing but splendid. I am currently in the manama area next to last chance i dont know how far the tower is from here but i get excellent speeds for browsing as well as downloading. Just few days ago the speed was slow but it got rectified in the end. over all my experiences with zain @ home have been really good. I did a review on my blog for zain @ home that you can find here http://mylifemyview.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/zain-home-first-impressions/ My Speed test to a server in New York [URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/255446056.png[/IMG][/URL] On the west coast the ping is 280ms. Hope this has been helpful. Cheers AJ : Zain unlike batelco doesnt makes you go through a proxy server where every other server sees you as 193.188 (the address of Batelco Proxy). why would it be a big deal because when you go to sites that do stuff based on your ip 9 out of 10 times you will be restricted and wont be allowed to go ahead because you have the ip address that is shared as the rest of bahrain. Dont believe me try downloading something from rapidshare.com

Having the websites see the direct ip of yours is much better in most of the cases.

Secondly, as you mention that zain puts you in a private block of IP. that is not true. I am assigned a public ip address it does changes from time to time. and i am hosting a ftp server for my personal use and remote access both of them work like a charm.

Mahmood : i was the first few to jump on Zain @ home bandwagon and my exprience with it has been nothing but splendid. I am currently in the manama area next to last chance i dont know how far the tower is from here but i get excellent speeds for browsing as well as downloading. Just few days ago the speed was slow but it got rectified in the end.

over all my experiences with zain @ home have been really good. I did a review on my blog for zain @ home that you can find here http://mylifemyview.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/zain-home-first-impressions/

My Speed test to a server in New York [URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG]http://www.speedtest.net/result/255446056.png[/IMG][/URL]

On the west coast the ping is 280ms.

Hope this has been helpful.

Cheers

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]]> By: mahmood http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115777 mahmood Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:43:35 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115777 Rest assured that I shall <i>JFE</i>. Rest assured that I shall JFE.

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]]> By: JFE http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115763 JFE Fri, 04 Apr 2008 07:50:33 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115763 Mahmood, Please share your findings with us ASAP! My Batelco connection has been dropping in and out for 2 weeks now. It's fine for an hour or so but then drops for 10-15 minutes. Its very annoying. Batelco have blamed everything from my profile on the line to my modem to the fact we use Skype to talk to our families OS. I've heard a few people in Al Qurayya have switched and they love it! JFE Mahmood,

Please share your findings with us ASAP! My Batelco connection has been dropping in and out for 2 weeks now. It’s fine for an hour or so but then drops for 10-15 minutes. Its very annoying. Batelco have blamed everything from my profile on the line to my modem to the fact we use Skype to talk to our families OS.

I’ve heard a few people in Al Qurayya have switched and they love it!

JFE

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]]> By: Kiwi Nomad http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115720 Kiwi Nomad Thu, 03 Apr 2008 07:27:33 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115720 I hope you have better luck than us Mahmood. After signing up for Zain's eGo mobile service last August (as Batelco couldn't/wouldn't provide a phone line, let alone ADSL) and getting pathetic connection speeds, if any connection at all, it stopped working in January from our home location in Muqabah. (The eGo worked OK in any other location in Bahrain we tried). We've been negotiating with Zain since Jan. for them to recognise that there is actually a problem with their eGo service and to get a refund. They finally promised to upgrade us to Zain@Home and assured us that this would overcome the connection problem, and installed it last Monday. So far, this doesn't work either, and we're still waiting for the technicians(?) to come back... I hope you have better luck than us Mahmood. After signing up for Zain’s eGo mobile service last August (as Batelco couldn’t/wouldn’t provide a phone line, let alone ADSL) and getting pathetic connection speeds, if any connection at all, it stopped working in January from our home location in Muqabah. (The eGo worked OK in any other location in Bahrain we tried). We’ve been negotiating with Zain since Jan. for them to recognise that there is actually a problem with their eGo service and to get a refund. They finally promised to upgrade us to Zain@Home and assured us that this would overcome the connection problem, and installed it last Monday. So far, this doesn’t work either, and we’re still waiting for the technicians(?) to come back…

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]]> By: Sam http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115680 Sam Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:04:08 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115680 <blockquote>Zain doesn’t connect to the Internet via Satellites, they go via fiber.</blockquote> Not entirely. Most, if not all their trunking is done through the airwaves. I don't know if you've noticed but wherever you see a Zain base station, you will also see directional microwave dishes hosted on the very same base station that connects that particular base station to the rest of their network. Batelco's base stations on the other hand trunk their data through their exsisting fiber optic rings which is why you wont see microwave dishes on Batelco base stations. I hate the way Zain don't allow you to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to their network. Could you image Batelco saying your ONLY had a choice of using their own ADSL modem? <blockquote>he majority of the market are low-speed users and here’s where we see the discounts (lightspeed anyone?)</blockquote> Avoid lightspeed at all costs. Just picked up my Lightspeed termination form. Mahmood - Idea for your site. I think you should create a matrix of all the ISPs offering residential internet access in Bahrain with information like fees/speeds/setup costs/contact (yes or no) etc.

Zain doesn’t connect to the Internet via Satellites, they go via fiber.

Not entirely. Most, if not all their trunking is done through the airwaves. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but wherever you see a Zain base station, you will also see directional microwave dishes hosted on the very same base station that connects that particular base station to the rest of their network. Batelco’s base stations on the other hand trunk their data through their exsisting fiber optic rings which is why you wont see microwave dishes on Batelco base stations.

I hate the way Zain don’t allow you to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to their network. Could you image Batelco saying your ONLY had a choice of using their own ADSL modem?

he majority of the market are low-speed users and here’s where we see the discounts (lightspeed anyone?)

Avoid lightspeed at all costs. Just picked up my Lightspeed termination form.

Mahmood – Idea for your site. I think you should create a matrix of all the ISPs offering residential internet access in Bahrain with information like fees/speeds/setup costs/contact (yes or no) etc.

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]]> By: Loki http://mahmood.tv/2008/04/01/zainhome-here-i-come/comment-page-1/#comment-115665 Loki Wed, 02 Apr 2008 13:08:49 +0000 http://mahmood.tv/?p=4267#comment-115665 SAM, Batelco have already deployed MSANs in most (i think) of their exchanges as such they can already supply up to 20mb within 3km over copper (in theory) to a number of places. The bottleneck is neither the last mile nor the core network, its once you leave the island. i.e. the connection to the rest of the world. mobile telco's are investing in HSPDA as an extension of existing mobile data services, to deploy a separate infrastructure to supply wimax seems a bit redundant. By and large "municipal wifi" based on wimax has been a failure. SAM,

Batelco have already deployed MSANs in most (i think) of their exchanges as such they can already supply up to 20mb within 3km over copper (in theory) to a number of places. The bottleneck is neither the last mile nor the core network, its once you leave the island. i.e. the connection to the rest of the world.

mobile telco’s are investing in HSPDA as an extension of existing mobile data services, to deploy a separate infrastructure to supply wimax seems a bit redundant. By and large “municipal wifi” based on wimax has been a failure.

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