I can’t believed that I have to come back to writing blog by actually writing something bad. I was already prepared to write something that will benefit the humankind (or at least the readers who used to frequent this blog) – i think that would have to wait a little while.

If you haven’t guessed it, our one and only TMNet Streamyx has decided to make my day again. I have been diligently paying RM88 per month in exchange of 1Mbps of broadband Internet speed. And all the while, i thought i’ve been getting good connection – until recently.

Remember the damaged Taiwan submarine lines had done to our Internet connection? It reduces our Internet experience to a crawl, if none at all. I’ve been noticing slowdown in the Internet connection speed since then, but I kept thinking that it’s probably the damaged submarines lines and it will be better soon. So i hoped for the better, and still kept cool even my average download speed (from Microsoft website, no less!!) was at 20kB/s (that’s about 160kbps).

But I was wrong – i was so wrong. It’s still not as fast it used to be. In fact, it’s getting slower and slower. And what’s the use of paying RM88 for a peanut Internet connection when I’m supposed to get 1Mbps of Internet experience? So I tried running bandwidth test to check. If I were to check and found out something’s missing, before calling/emailing the Steamyx support, might as well I used their own bandwidth tester – TMNet Speedometer. I’m freaking surprised with the discovery:

Yep, you read it correctly, 489.84kbps of download & 391.28kbps of upload, ONLY!

I was thinking: This can’t be right! I ran the bandwidth test a few more times, choosing different servers. The result? Same. But the TMNet FAQ says I shouldn’t be a baby:

Why do I get very different results from different test servers?

Poor performance on one test server indicates the path from your machine to that test server is currently congested. Generally, the results from this test should be close, but less, than your rated (purchased) line speed. If you can get close to 70% of your rated line speed, everything is perfect!

Let’s do some maths here. If I’m supposed to get 70% of my rated line speed, i should be getting 70% of 1024kbps (1Mbps, if you haven’t noticed), which would means 716.8kbps, no less!

I wasn’t ready to be convinced that I was shortchanged by Steamyx, I check the next obvious one – the actual speed in the modem. I removed the network cable from the router, plugged the computer directly to the modem, typed 192.168.1.1 to access the ZTE modem (provided by TMNet) console, to be presented with this screen:

Let’s look a little closer in case you can’t see it.

Upload seems ok at 512kbps, and it seems that I’m getting 608kbps of download speed. All 608kbps of them. But wait a minute, didn’t I pay for 1Mbps of speed???

I didn’t know how long this has happened – but I couldn’t care less. I’m going to take all methods necessary to get Steamyx to rectify the problem.

I hate calling to the Streamyx helpline – not only they are not helpful, they don’t sound like they are interested in helping you either. So, I’m going to do the next best thing – call and scream and do whatever it takes to get back my exact speed. But then again, there’s a wise saying – if you scream loud and high enough, you will get what you want, and perhaps more.

Pray for me, and keep the fingers crossed.

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