Surfnux’s Weblog

Well, as most of you have known, internet access in Indonesia mainly limited to bandwidth, or time. There are unlimited access package, but it can cost a fortune. For example, Speedy Office (Unlimited) can cost as much as Rp. 700.000 per month (SGD 100), at speed of 384 kbps or 1 Mbps for some areas which have been upgraded.

Without much choices that offers unlimited bandwidth at a good price, we have to preserve these available bandwidth and maintain our internet usage. The most basic home package from Telkom Speedy which cost Rp. 200.000 per month (SGD 30), has bandwidth limit of 1 MB (Up and Down). I myself can use minimum 100 MB bandwidth per day if I were to be active in the internet.

With that, I have to stop reading blogs, no downloading unless urgent and important, reduce pictures access, and strictly on e-mail, messengers, and some informative sites like engadget.com to keep me updated. Not forgetting Google Adsense as well.

That’s all I left to do with this limited bandwidth. On the other hand, Telkomsel has offered an unlimited internet access via HSDPA/3G/GPRS at fair usage of 3 GB per month. Afterwhich, your internet speed will be capped at the minimum. The normal speed will range on HSDPA/3G/GPRS signal quality, and can be up to 3.6 Mbps for HSDPA connection. But mostly it is around 2 Mbps that you can get. It is offered under Telkomsel Flash Unlimited package. I have used Telkomsel Flash Unlimited for a month with GPRS connection only, and it can’t really help me to work efficiently @ speed of about 114 Kbps only.

So, I unsubscribe this package and wait for 3G or HSDPA access to be available in town and get back to it. So far, this is the best offer I can find. For speed of 512 Kbps, you only pay for about Rp. 250.000 (SGD 38) per month. And for the top speed at 3.6 Mbps, it cost about Rp. 500.000 (SGD 75) per month. That is fair enough and unless there is HSDPA in town, there is no use to subscribe to the top speed package.

So, way to go Indonesia. You gotta grow up a lot. Do check out other posts on my experience with internet access and connection in Indonesia below:

• Accessing Free Hotspot at Gloria jeans Coffee Pekanbaru
• Telkomsel Flash Verdict
• Blogging from Free Telkom Hotspot
• In Search for Free Hotspots

written by surfnux \\ tags: networking

Been wondering where else I can go for free hotspots in this town (Pekanbaru). KimTeng no longer has free hotspot access, and now it is locked with the need to purchase a prepaid card. Its called i-VAS, which is provided by Telkom.

So, being sick of surfing at Ciputra Mall, with the only free hotspot left at Gloria Jeans Coffee, but not reliable, I then shifted to SKA Mall. With that, I was hoping that I could surf the net from J.CO Donuts & Coffee, but nooooo… after ordering a cup of Americano with a complimentary Glazzy Donuts, I then ask the cashier. It was so sad that there are no free hotspots available there.

The only one available in SKA Mall is at KimTeng Cafe and Excelso Cafe. So, I then try to browse through each Wifi signal available, and found that each of them is also using a prepaid method. Sadly, no i-Vas ticket is available, cos all were sold out. So, I tried to purchase i-Vas through my handphone provider. Got the username and password, connect, and logged in.

To purchase via your Kartu Halo or Flexi phone, send sms to 4827, with this message: ivas (10000 or 25000 or 50000). The amount will be deducted from your phone credit, or billed to you at the end of the month on your handphone bill. After successful, you will be sent SMS with the username and password in it.

The Login screen. Click for clearer view

Sadly, the connection really SUCKSSS!! It got disconnected from time to time, that can be every 1-2 minutes. There are still some problem, either with the hotspot system, the Wifi Connection, or the settings. Most probably is with the hotspot system, because my Wireless connection stays at full all the time. Or, it could be the wireless router/access point’s firmware problem that experience packets being dropped every 2 minutes. Yeah, it is consistently dropping packets every 2 minutes, for 5-10 seconds. Sigh…
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written by surfnux \\ tags: networking

Being bored and feeling super slow browsing the net through my “still at GPRS speed” of Telkomsel Flash, I decided to go to the Mall again, that is Ciputra Mall. It is always the nearest to my uncle’s home. So, for the past few times, I have been always using KimTeng Cafe’s hotspot.

Apart from its fast connection and affordable food and drinks, KimTeng is filled with smokers and exhaust fan is just not enough to handle all of them. So, its been really unhealthy sitting too long there. For the past few times, I could have utilized more than 2 GB bandwidth only while in KimTeng Cafe.

For some of you who are still wondering what is KimTeng Cafe, it is the newly opened branch of the local coffee shop in Pekanbaru, which has been in operation for very long. Previously it was just a normal coffee shop at the market. Now they are using Cafe’s concept and open it around malls in Pekanbaru.

Okay, back to Gloria Jeans. So, being considerate and not wanting to keep high profile at KimTeng Cafe, I decided to try out Gloria Jean’s free hotspot this time. With a cup of Camomile tea (SGD 2.5 / Rp. 15000), I am seated nicely in this sofa, browsing away to the internet world.

After browsing smoothly for a little while, things started to get weird. Imageshack.us is showing Tours and Travel website, and Google.com is showing that “this domain services has been discontinued”. And slowly after, no sites can be accessed. What the hell is happening here. So, I try try and try, and I gave up finally. Its time to move back to KimTeng. Back to KimTeng, I still can’t surf at all. Its either they have activated the prepaid account for the hotspot, or my Macbook has some error in the system. So, I tried my Telkomsel Flash again, it got connected, but still can’t surf at all.

It got me worry a lot and takes up very long hours figuring what can be wrong. After cleaning up caches, cookies, and everything, still the same. And then I look for terminal code to flush DNS. And I did that. After that, things are better, at least now I can surf again. Wondering what is wrong here. Could it be a spyware? Malware? Does Mac OS X.5 prone to it?

Its still a mistery and I shall find out more.

No more KimTeng, no more Gloria Jeans free hotspot. Next, if I really need one, I shall go to J.CO already. It sux when you have own internet but very slow, and you rely a lot at these free hotspots. I am going to subscribe to Telkom Speedy soon. Damn.

written by surfnux \\ tags: networking

After more than two months without proper internet connection at home, and relying mostly on cyber cafes, I finally found a good deal. Its from Telkomsel, a cellular telco company that has the widest coverage in Indonesia. This package is named as Telkomsel Flash. It has been around for sometimes, only lately, they launched a new package: Telkomsel Flash unlimited.

Yeah.. its the unlimited access, but capped at 3 GB Fair usage. Once your usage reaches 3 GB, your internet speed will be capped at 64 kbps only (this is for the 256 kbps and 512 kbps package). Fair enough, for the price. As for the Pro Package, after 3 GB fair usage, speed capped at 128 Kbps.

I then signed up for the cheapest, which cost Rp. 125,000, speed at 256 Mbps highest. But all I can get is only 114 Kbps or less, that is because there is no 3G coverage, or even HSDPA available in my town.

There are two packages available for this Unlimited access, such as One Year contract with free modem (Its not free actually, ‘cos they added the modem’s cost into the package); and another one is Regular Unlimited, without any contract. I signed up for the latter (of course without modem provided, and you have to use your handphone as modem). Better still, if you have 3G phone or HSDPA capable phone. But that won’t be very convenient as your phone will be utilized for the internet connection alone.
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written by surfnux \\ tags: networking

Yoohoo… I started to love this town so much. Everywhere you go, there are plenty of free hotspots. And not only free, the speed is awesome. Its all provided by Telkom the most. Yesterday, upon reaching Pekanbaru, I go to this newly open cafe @ Mall Ciputra, called Kim Teng Cafe. Drank a cup of coffee and found that there is a free hotspot there. Tried it out, and managed to use about 180 MB bandwidth there, be it browsing all the blogs I haven’t been visiting lately, and downloading updates for my Adium and Firefox 3.

Now, when I about to depart to Jakarta, the damn flight got delayed for 2 hours and being 1 hour earlier, I have to wait for 3 hours at the airport. After checked-in, I straight away go for this restaurant at the waiting lounge and had some food. Then fire up my macbook with my Telkomsel Flash internet. Having feeling curious, I try to switch on AirPort and found that there is a free Telkom Hotspot available. Then I tried it out and awesome..

Been surfing the net for the past 1 hour and uploaded some food pictures from Singapore. Right now still waiting for my updates to be ready. Awesome…… yeah, thanks to the free hotspot, else I will be cursing like hell here waiting for the damn Batavia air to cut down the delay time to at least 1 hour.

And luckily I have charged this Macbook’s battery to full before depart from home. Feeling sienz abit now. This restaurant I’m sitting on right now, has all the waiter and waitress wearing like stewards and stewardess. And having all the stewardess look-a-like waitress standing in a group at the counter, facing me. Damn, it was like sitting in a VIP waiting lounge. hahahaha

Anyway, my flight got delayed more again. Tiuuuuuu!!!!!! it was now delayed till 15.25. Arghhhhhh and now is 13:29 still. No more Batavia for me.

written by surfnux \\ tags: networking