Eh, Maxis Fibre Internet is fine. You can even use more modern ASUS and TP-LINK routers instead of their horrible one. I have no complaints about their Internet so far.

However... if you subscribed for Astro IPTV also... no help for you.

If you subscribe to Astro IPTV, everything has to go through Astro customer service, and that takes a long time.

Also, Astro IPTV does not work very well with any other router except Maxis-provided POC router. No Channel Guide, sometimes remote control got lag, every time power-cycle the Astro STB, you have to do some voodoo to get everything working again.

And Astro refuses to give any help for using other routers except Maxis-provided. So, no help.

Probably not the modem issue but the router issue, and depends also on whether you using P2P (Maxis might throttle).


Change the DNS on your PCs, then no issues. Your own router, you can set up your own DNS. But for sure if using VOIP and IPTV you will have issues.

Those phone ports are for UniFi customers, so unless you want to mess around with its settings, I highly recommend you buy an ATA (Analogue Telephone Adapter) instead. In either case, you need the Maxis VOIP settings (including the SIP server address), which as far as I know, Maxis doesn't want to give out (supposedly for 'security reasons'). You'll probably need to put one of your network cards into promiscuous mode and sniff around for it (probably when making a call).

Just get any ASUS router; they're reasonably priced and guaranteed to work with both UniFi and Maxis. I personally think that the best price/performance point at this stage is the RT-N16; if you can splash out for the RT-N66 go for it. Hardly anything I have supports 11ac, so I won't even look at that.

The throttling of P2P (not just BT, by the way) is from 8pm - 2am all week. Which should be the very least of your worries when considering TM vs. Maxis. Why?

1. The throttling is the simplest thing to fix. Simply buy access to a VPN. You can use BolehVPN, or I am personally using proXPN. Less than USD10/month and in return you can even watch Hulu and (if you have UK endpoiint) BBC iPlayer.

2. ASTRO IPTV is not currently available on UniFi. Switching to IPTV (if you already have ASTRO, that is) makes a compelling argument. You get free HD (usually RM20/month extra) and free PVR (also ~RM20-25/month). No rain fade, no impact on your Internet speed.

3. The fate of Maxis Home Services (including fibre broadband) is uncertain. They are still trying to make it profitable, but worst-case scenario is that they sell out (possibly to ASTRO).

4. Maxis fibre with ASTRo IPTV in a UniFi area requires you to dance with ASTRO first, before they will escalate to Maxis, and if it's a TM problem, you have to dance with Maxis before they in turn escalate to TM, and God only knows when (if it's a TM issue) your Internet will actually come back.

5. TM fibre packages give you unlimited PSTN calls to other TM subscribers (basically the whole of Malaysia). Maxis does not.

6. Using Maxis + ASTRO might mean you're stuck with their POS router. UniFi is compatible with many more routers which have better features and are more stable.

7. Maxis resets your IP (entire connection, essentially) every 48 hours.

As for me, the price difference was too good to pass up. I have few complaints about Maxis currently, other than the above.

A public/external IP address is how the Internet is *supposed* to work. It means that other people on the Internet can see you, and you can see other people on the Internet. Private/internal IP addresses (192.168.x.x range, for instance) are meant for INTERNAL networks (i.e. LAN), which are supposed to be discoverable only by networked devices within the same subnet.

Never mind the theory behind it; what it means to have a private IP when connecting to the Internet is that basically you can see the Internet, but the rest of the Internet cannot see you - or rather, they think that you and a whole other bunch of people are the same person, because essentially you're sharing the same external IP address. Aside from P2P file sharing, it means you cannot set up your own servers (e.g. Web server, game server, FTP server etc). It also means that you cannot use a dynamic DNS service to address your system via your own hostname.

Of course, setting up your own servers is usually against T&C, but it also means you cannot check your CCTV, or use Remote Desktop, or set up a VPN with your home network using SSH, SSL, OpenVPN or other means. There are many, many reasons why you should ask for an external IP, quite aside from keeping the Maxis jokers honest.

It would be a dynamic IP, as Maxis resets your connection every 48 hours.

If you're talking about the bandwidth throttling, it's been asked and answered right in the same post; buy access to a VPN. There are free VPNs out there but I prefer to buy - easier to get support.

If you're talking about any non-Internet related restrictions, there are no workarounds that I am aware of.

For everyone wanting to ask how to get around the Maxis throttling system, purchase a VPN with access close to home (like Singapore) as well as all the other countries where you want access to local content (e.g. US for Hulu, UK for BBC etc.) - I myself use proXPN with the Security Now 20% lifetime discount. About USD6/month or less. The VPN uses OpenVPN to do its magic, and routes via SSL/TLS, and I rarely have any issues in terms of both uploads (~500-900KBps) and downloads (~1MBps). Generally, I get the full speed or close to it, as I am using a 10Mbps package.

For those who are wondering about Maxis speeds outside of torrenting, using the VPN I rarely experience any issues with buffering, even with YouTube HD streams. With a download manager, you get the full speeds for normal file transfers as well. I am currently getting about ~600-800KBps combined upload speed to both Mega (web) and BT (Vuze).

For those wondering about how to get Astro IPTV + Maxis working on a different router than the Thompson/Technicolor, the short answer is currently, you can't. What I've tried with great success is to login to your account twice; once using the Thompson (which you hook the Astro decoder and VOIP to), DMZ your other router (of course, you turn off the wireless on the Maxis router), and then login again using your other router. To my surprise, that works wonderfully. No need to worry about VLAN tagging or anything else; just DMZ your other router and login again. Both routers will be logged in simultaneously, so you can have full Internet access through your other router (ASUS in my case), and Astro IPTV with full responsiveness and online TV Guide. Occasional bugs do crop up, but I think that's the case for everyone. I haven't rebooted or power-cycled the Maxis-supplied router in months. Can't remember who told me how to do it, but kudos to you, whoever you are.

Different VLAN segments, so different bandwidth. You will get the full 1MBps speed you paid for (well, subject to all the usual ISP issues), and you can watch Astro's IPTV 24/7 on HD while recording another HD channel all you like without it impacting your Internet speeds.

Ah, well, what to do? What I've done is chain 2 routers; the Thompson/Technicolor router ONLY runs Astro, whereas I DMZ my ASUS router and let it run everything else. Haven't touched the Maxis POS router in months. No spontaneous reboots, no hangs, no nothing.


Never watched HD streams back when I was on the satellite subscription, so I can't tell you. It looks pretty darned good, though. And no rain fade. That's gotta be worth something.

For anybody's reference, Maxis auto-disconnects all FTTH users 48 hours after your last successful connection. Why, I don't know - presumably so that you don't get a pseudo-static IP, I can only guess. Your router will automatically reconnect - but yes, it can be annoying.

Not only is it possible, you can even hook up your old 56K modem (VOIP services support it in general, but it is not advisable, though).

http://www.maxis.com.my/home (check under the FAQ section) - the fax services will work fine.

Maxis does not block any P2P activity whatsoever. What Maxis *does* do is:

1. Block access to 'bad' websites (usually porno) via DNS. This can be circumvented if you use DNS servers from outside Malaysia, as it's required by MCMC of all ISPs (IIRC).

2. Throttle all P2P activity from ~8pm-2am every day to about 50KBps. This can be circumvented if you use a commercial VPN service - and, if you chose one with a server in the USA, you'll even get Hulu.

1. You can always manually reboot your router to get a new IP yourself and then play for the next 48 hours. The Surgeon General does not recommend you play any longer continuously, anyway.

2. Nope, the disconnection is remotely triggered (their server drops the connection).

3. I use a download manager, so I get the full bandwidth of my account 24/7 over FTP, HTTP and HTTPS. Cloud uploads and downloads also seem to operate at full speeds (depending on cloud service used).

Not sure Asus routers can help there (although I suppose if it supports cron, like Merlin's firmware does, there's no reason you couldn't do that), but why not just do it yourself before playing your game? The disconnection is very short in any event; less than 2 mins.

Nope, I use OpenVPN to connect to the commercial VPN services and get pretty darned close to full speeds. You probably should ask the VPN providers what their max bandwidth is, but supposedly BolehVPN is Malaysia-centric (located in the USA, though) so they probably will support 30Mbps minimum anyway. I pay for my VPN service, though. Around USD5-10/month, anything more is a ripoff.

Believe me when I tell you that the 3rd-party router is the best option.

The Thompson (or whatever it's called) router that Maxis sticks you with is a POS. It takes up to 5 mins between power-on and full services (in my case, including ASTRO IPTV) available.

If you go with ASUS, they seem to have fixed their router firmware so that you can, in fact, replace the Maxis router completely, which is brilliant. A full reboot takes all of 60 seconds, and can be done from your PC. no need to power-cycle the router. The router will auto-reconnect when Maxis hangs up on you, and that doesn't take major long either (I think about 30s or so).

Otherwise, you can buy an electric plug timer and turn off your router for 15 mins at 4am every morning

For those of you who do not want throttled service, access to region-specific content (e.g. BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Netflix), and unblocked, uncensored Internet from Maxis (or indeed any other ISP), subscribe to a commercial VPN service. Prices are less than RM20/month (but shop around and do your due diligence; instead of local ISP knowing your surfing patterns, now the VPN provider knows). I've never had to worry about throttling and, well, my VPN even comes with a static IP (so I could set up servers if I wanted to).

@r1nk: I use my own router in conjunction with the stock router. The stock router ONLY handles IPTV for Astro; everything else is DMZ to my ASUS. TPLink is great for normal - even heavy - Internet activity; it suxxor for P2P - at least, that is my experience. This dual router setup does consume a bit more energy, but everything works perfectly about 99% of the time. If you do not have either VOIP or IPTV (just naked Internet), then you can chuck the stock router out the window.

I use proXPN, which is a sponsor on the podcast of Security Now. Permanent 20% off the standard price, around $5/month. But there are so many of them out there, which is why I suggest to hunt around and do due diligence. You want to have a VPN provider that does not keep logs and has many exit points (proXPN allows you to connect to SG, UK [so access to BBC iPlayer], US [so access to Netflix and Hulu] and some other places around the EU). You also want one that does not limit the bandwidth, so you have to ask how much is their maximum bandwidth (unlimited is useless if their maximum bandwidth is, say, 1MBps and you have a 3MBps line).

Other considerations is whether they allow all the various services or not (TOR, i2p, SSH etc.) and whether you can use the standard OpenVPN software to connect as opposed to PPTP (worse than useless) or their own proprietary stuff.

I've heard of HideMyAss and BolehVPN, and there are actually lists of the best commercial VPNs comparing all features and pricing, so worth taking a look.