Zain@Home connected
This post will be a running record of my experience with Zain@Home and compare that with Batelco’s offering as I experience it on a daily basis.
They have just connected the equipment at home and it’s working. I didn’t do any tweaks or fine-tuning (if there are any, let me know please) so it’s a raw connection. The antenna is turned toward Saar which is about 3 kilometres away rather than the tower immediately opposite our house, a mere 20 meters, because the latter has not been switched on yet for some reason.
I’ve done some very quick preliminary tests on the connection immediately they installed it through dslreports.com and the efficiency is much better than Batelco. I’ll post a comparison this evening when I get home.
For now, here’s the (frustrating) results we get at the office this afternoon. There is no other user on the network other than me running the tests:
Dispicable isn’t it?
Note that the last two upload figures were tagged as possibly the upload has signs of being compressed, so those last two figures should be disregarded. But to get an average download efficiency of just 37% on average for all the servers is diabolical, especially when we are assured time and again that as a business tariffed customer, we get better contention ratio, which means that we should average much better than this crap with Batelco, but what we end up with is a ridiculous download speed of 330kbps.
When you go to the average upload speed, the real thing I was suffering from since the weekend as I couldn’t upload the daily M.Report (thanks Fashelco!), the efficiency there is a mere 23%! That means the connection – if it was running at all – was running at approximately 58kbps!
This situation is actually endemic as well, we have never enjoyed a “proper” – okay, anything better than 50% efficiency – with Batelco in the office, ever.
Dial-up speeds for BD125 ($330) anyone?
Let me test the Zain@Home for a few months and if it proves good enough, then you can guess what my next step is going to be. But its early days yet. I’ll keep a beedy eye on Zain@Home and let you know my experiences with it.
i never realised just how bad it is until I went to university in england. 10Mbps up/down for £55 a YEAR! I nearly cried (tears of joy)
What was Batelco’s excuse with the low speed? location of your office being far away from their exchange perhaps?
Well, I just did a Speedtest and the result is vastly different, it could have been a temporary (week-long) glitch.
Here are the results to a NY server:
I’ll do the same at home with Zain and post the result.
Will keep an eye on things for a while and record the findings, hopefully over time we will get a clearer picture.
Just did another test at DSLReports.com and got:
613kbps download / 252 kbps upload / 111ms latency
Mahmood – I think you should be testing your connection using local Bahrain based servers (the orange pyramid on speedtest’s website). That’s the only way you’ll get a somewhat accurate results of your connection’s performance. You have to compare like-for-like. And as for ping response times, it is the ping response between your connection & your ISP (or a bahrain based server) which matters the most.
Although technically you are correct, I think that as the majority of visited sites are hosted in the States, doing a “local” test is really immaterial and impractical.
And if I do the tests on BOTH compared services using the same test host and applications, then we should come out with a reasonable comparison for people to base their decisions on.
Your right – i was just trying to make a point that if you’ve got a crap connection between your home and your ISP, that “crapiness” is then passed on when you make contact the rest of the ‘cloud’.
Here’s the speed result:
(I did the test a few times just to make sure that the numbers aren’t bogus! I’m going to test the connection now with dslreports.com and post)
On DSLReports.com, the results to New York are
1305kbps down / 154kbps up / 168ms
(this is the standard WiMax 2Mbps connection)
I have a feeling that tests using SpeedTest.net are a bit generous. Any other test services you know and trust?
Here’s another I just did through my laptop on a wireless connection:
and here’s DSLReports:
We’re up and running now with Zain@home. My test results:
Ooops link didn’t work. Try again.
<a href=”“>
I give up… download 1399 kb/s, upload 438 kb/s, latency 293m, through Linkline LA via http://www.dslreports.com
Mahmood,
Can you please post some results using this test on both connections
http://www.beelinebandwidthtest.com
Also would you please send trace routes using both connections to the ip address of the newyork server listed on speedtest.net
Using ‘internetfrog.com’ i’m getting download at 498 and upload at 383 on my Batelco account. I’ve also checked it on Speednet and the download is 488, upload is 122. Is this typical for a residency in Riffa with the BD 30 per month account?
I don’t know what the speeds are supposed to be, but it seems slow. It slows down at different times of day, and at weekends. This is even though I’m the only subscriber on the domestic line. No other people using the net in the house.
I’d be interested in the results of this exercise since I’m convinced I’m not getting value for money, like many others.
Cheers
For the Zain connection:
On http://www.beelinebandwidthtest.com/ I get an average of 96K/s (4 tests)
On internetfrog.com I get:
Download: 1,084,200 bps
Upload: 130,640 bps
QOS: 10%
RTT: 25 ms
MaxPause: 1461 ms
And have a look at this:
Weird huh?
is this is a 1mb leased line at your office or dsl??
ADSL in the office. 1MB/256k
You are a life saver Mahmood.
I was going to do the same thing that you are doing with this post but with light speed and run it in paralel with you (that would’ve been great) but Batelco didn’t install a new line to my apartment and sounds like they don’t plan to. Guess I HAVE to go with the Zain route.
I’ll keep a keen eye on this post too.
As Sam pointed out. Surely your speed should be judged by a local server (as useless as it is). The latency you experience is down to physical distance and number of peering hops you need to make to get to the server your are pinging. I would be very surprised if Zain, Lightspeed, and Batelco gave different results as they [presumably] all use the same connections to leave the island.
Mahmood, I would be interested to know the latency to a few websites if that’s nit much to ask.
Google
Bbc
Ls1tech
Krazykamel.net
I have had it with Batelco, and been asking a few guys to run some tests from lightspeed as well, latency means a whole lot to me since I spend hours gaming online.
Thanks
Would average pings and traceroutes do Eyad? I could do that.
Loki, I can post the results using a couple of services to see what the local connections are.
PINGS – BATELCO – 1MB OFFICE CONNECTION:
— google.com ping statistics —
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 281.788/313.525/365.905/30.376 ms
— bbc.com ping statistics —
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 160.604/179.037/246.010/25.507 ms
— Ls1tech.com ping statistics —
10 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 10% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 329.078/362.633/441.065/33.311 ms
– Krazykamel.net ping statistics —
10 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 10% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 276.536/308.942/381.804/41.090 ms
— mahmood.tv ping statistics —
10 packets transmitted, 10 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 251.877/299.463/374.010/42.168 ms
Redbelt we can pool and coordinate our tests. If anyone here has a Lightspeed connection, please let me know and we can formulate a suit of tests to run to compare actual results.
Great. Whatever connection I end up getting I’ll link it to yours. I’ll try to get to a Zain “EXPERIENCE” shop today.
Mahmood, thast exactly what I want, cant wait for the zain pings.
below are lightspeed’s numbers:
http://www.google.com
Minimum=147ms
Maximum=185ms
Average=157ms
No packet loss, and god damn your connection sucks! I have the same connection at home and it doesnt get as bad as that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk
Minimum=154ms
Maximum=165ms
Average=161ms
http://www.ls1tech.com
Minimum=275ms
Maximum=278ms
Average=276ms
Redbelt,
I recently had lightspeed installed on a second landline but I was very very dissapointed in their customer service, support, troubleshooting, and most importantly – the performance of my line so I had no choice but to cancel 19 days later. There was no contract – only a 15BD cancellation fee.
I had 150-160ms ping responses from local servers, My max throughput never ever cam close to what i was paying for which was 256k. It used to max out at 220-224kbps. My Batelco 256k maxes at around 240-250k as you can see from my last post with my results.
And, I don’t know what the technical term is for this, but it would take around 6-8 seconds for my lightspeed connection to actually reach it’s max speed.As I had Batelco & Lightspeed running at the same time on different lines, I did a little test with a few websites – turns out my THROTTLED 256k connection from Batelco (at 128k) outperformed my unlimited 256k connection from Lightspeed when it came to how quick websites would load! – and yes I cleared caches, cookies etc, and used the same computer .
Mahmood,
thats exactly what I wanted, and that connection is really bad in your office, I have the saem connection at home and its not as bad TBH.
latency from lightspeed:
test one:
-google.com:Min:156ms,Max:165ms,Avg:158ms
-bbc.com “www.bbc.com.uk wasnt working”: Min:156ms,Max:175ms,avg:165ms.
-ls1tech.com:Min:278ms,Max:301ms,Average:287ms.
test two:
-google.com
Minimum=147ms
Maximum=185ms
Average=157ms
-bbc.co.uk
Minimum=154ms
Maximum=165ms
Average=161ms
-ls1tech.com
Minimum=275ms
Maximum=278ms
Average=276ms
You can ask Aref to try some multiplayer online game and give his feedback.
Mahmood,
Maybe you should consider Zain@Work for your office.
You get a 4Mbps connection via WiMax and it will only cost you 400 dinars a month!!!!
Plus BD 50 installation charge,
Plus BD 4 a month equipment rental,
Plus a 1.5 year contract
I think that has got to win the world’s most expensive 4Mbps connection!!
Mahmood, im a Zain user too, my neighbor has one too, Batelco has no lines in our area. Anyways, my neighbor said that ti was going slow so he called Zain Tech Support and they came over and repositioned his antenna to a different direction and now he reaches speeds up to 3 mb.
the thing is with zain packages is that they all downgrade to 128 kbps when you exceed your bandwith. Also, they offer a 2mb package with a 6 gig threshold. Wth? you can finish 6 gigs with 2mbps in like 5 days.
Date 21/04/08 15:25:03
Speed Down 955.32 Kbps ( 0.9 Mbps )
Speed Up 427.47 Kbps ( 0.4 Mbps )
Port 8095
Server speedtest1.adslguide.org.uk
60 BD month 2MB akbar haramia feshelco.
I’ve just done a speed test using my 256k connection here on Amwaj Island with my ISP Nuetel.
I pay BD20 a month for 256k bi-directional speed so I get 256k download and upload speed – plus no download limit which is great if your a torrent king (or queen)!
Link to follow at the bottom once Mahmood approves it.
Everytime I’ve done a speed test I’ve got really good results for my buck. Probably due to the very very low contention ratio on this ghost town of an island!
Here’s my test results using Lightspeed 2MB:
1. Speedtest to NY:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/262156842.png
2.Lightspeed speedtest (on Lightspeed’s website, click on ‘Support’ at the top, you will see the test link on your left)
Speed test statistics
———————
Download speed: 1720368 bps
Upload speed: 450304 bps
Quality of service: 95 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 134 ms
Average download pause: 6 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 20 ms
Average round trip time to server: 296 ms
3. Speedtest.net:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/262147220.png
4. inetsupport.com.bh (www.inetsupport.com.bh)
1.79Mbps
also tried World of Warcraft (MMORPG) and getting 150ms on a European server which is good.
5. iTunes download (480MB file) – 62minutes
so just about what i expected
Hassan2
Sorry, but I can’t help it!
How would you like an unlimited, problem free, almost full speed 15Mbps down and 1Mbps up connection at 28 BHD a month?
bastard!
you didn’t need to do that… now where is that green card application gone?
milter, is this batelco’s new package they will launch soon?
Ahmed, Batelco will never release an unlimited package anytime soon.
Their new package is just a stupid voip phone with a stupid DSL connection.
@Ahmed.
Maybe I should have mentioned that to get that kind of connection you’d have to move to Denmark with all the drawbacks of such a move, i.e. high taxes, petrol at 805 fils/liter, cheapest Toyota Corolla at 18.700 BHD, etc. etc.
…and Danish people
@Loki.
You’re so right. Where did you hear about the Danish people?
But at least our internet connections are good and cheap and our politicians trust us enough not to block any websites.
Touche
To feel that you have a high speed internet connection is usually based on four factors which are:
1) Packet loss should be zero or none
2) Latency
3) Download Bandwidth
4) Upload Bandwidth
Now I will explain, what is the effect of each one in your internet connection
Regard packet loss if there are couple of packet loss that mean is your click to the website is not gone and return the result to you from the first time. Either browser will do that again without you know so you fell that website is slow however the web browser tried two, three or four times to show you this website.
Regard latency is very important factor that a lot of us do not see higher latency value means that you need to wait more time to give this website and problem that you have a queue of packets infront of you to go before your packet goes.
Regard Download bandwidth is important also and this is noticeable only during the downloads of the internet files and downloading emails from pop3 email server and not during regular web surfing
Regard upload bandwidth is going to be the same as download but in the oppiste way. This will be noticeable only during uploading stuff to websites, sending emails from pop3 email client.
My result with Batelco connection:
C:\Users\admin>ping http://www.google.com
Pinging http://www.l.google.com [66.249.93.99] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.249.93.99: bytes=32 time=187ms TTL=235
Reply from 66.249.93.99: bytes=32 time=184ms TTL=235
Reply from 66.249.93.99: bytes=32 time=185ms TTL=235
Reply from 66.249.93.99: bytes=32 time=189ms TTL=235
Ping statistics for 66.249.93.99:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 184ms, Maximum = 189ms, Average = 186ms
forget to mention that
Sat connections like orbit has the highest latency in the market because the traffic gose the space and return back with avarage at least 400ms.
Mobile HSDPA USB internet connection that zain(e-go) and batelco gives has a higher latency than ADSL and wimax(zain@home or zain@office) with avarage 100-150 ms
Wimax has a latency of (40-60ms)
and ADSL cable are vary based on location wuth a range (15-50 ms)
Leased line I do have in office has a latency of (1-3 ms)
The network speed is ridiculously slow today, as it was last night too. I couldn’t upload the M.Report #13 because of timeouts and all that stuff. I hope this is not the start of the descent of this experience!
This is the test result to the local server this morning:
I now know why it’s so slow… it’s because the bandwidth limit has already been busted! They gave us 15GB from the time we subscribed to the end of the month (today) so we should be back up to normal speed tomorrow.
I *know* that we will bust the limit, it’s human nature, the better things you get, the more you want of it!
Dudes,
I will never go with Wi-Max or with 3G Technology , Worldwide those technologies are not comparable with ADSL. There is something called contention ratio ( ISP rule to control the bandwisth sharing) and the best contention ratio is provided by Batelco “ Not Lightspeed who may has it 200:1 : ) ”
You wanna hear more about Wi-Max check this out
http://www.home-wlan.com/disadvantages-of-wimax.html
mjeep1000, your post was very good until you started talking out of your bottom, the contention over lightspeed might actually be better than batelco’s, how do I know, well, the service LS is offering is through something called bit streaming, it is a set service batelco is forced by law to offer and honor, the offering in Batelco’s RO is 15:1 for 256kbps and 10:1 on everything else (Residential) and batelco’s is not advertised anywhere, but if you calculate it on the averages you get at home it looks like 15:1 max and 5:1 lowest, I actually encountered 2:1 in the very early morning hours.
In business packages however, LS and batelco have the same contention of 8:1, you can find all this information on Batelco’s website.
For those who don’t know what contention is, its is how the actual line is disterbuted between all the users in one area, assuming that 10:1 is the Ration offered if you have 1mbps (1024kbps) connection at home, in peak time if 10 users in your area are online and using the full quota each one of them will get 1024/10 =102.4kbps, however, the less people online in your area the more bandwidth you get, you can try it in deferent hours of the day to see for yourself using a very reliable download like adobe acrobat reader, down load it in deferent hours of the day and you will see a deference depending on the time and how many users are there online.