Interesting thread with interesting err...posters. How come there's suddenly an influx of new members who have nothing but good things to say about the service? More shill marketing?

I dunno about you folks, but this thread is beginning to smell rather fishy to me...

BTW, no one has actually suggested what sites to trace route to? Or ping?

Sounds like it was a total letdown, from the way you put it. Here are some additional observations.

Firstly, coverage/reception quality of the access devices. They conveniently left out what are "good" and "bad" coverage areas from their original website (it's still active, which in my opinion, is errr...not a good thing from a marketing standpoint). I quote content from the relevant webpage below:

Bottom line if you read carefully - it's highly recommended to place the device next to a window sill; otherwise you won't get good reception which means your surfing experience will be badly affected.

Here's the relevant webpage.. This website may also contain things within it that is not present in the current website; browse at your leisure to see what else has been conveniently left out.

Secondly, the type of antenna used. In fact, all three devices allow the attachment of external antenna. I don't know what connector is in use though, it's too small and the specifications of the cards/devices don't mention antenna connector type. I suspect it could be of the MMCX/MC Card family. It's doubtful that you could use a standard wifi antenna operating at 2.4Ghz to use on these devices which operate on 1.79Ghz, the frequency difference, while small, may be significant enough to negate any improvement in signal reception. Ever wondered why you don't just hook up your spare Astro dish to your wifi device to boost reception? Yes, I know, not a fair comparison, but you get the idea. So, be careful rushing out there to get any antenna hoping it will work with the devices.

Thirdly, they do business through their resellers, not direct with the customer. This makes taking them to whatever tribunal or court difficult if you decide legal action is necessary. The contract is between you and the reseller (typically just an IT shop that makes some "buta" commissions). Therefore the refund process will also travel through the reseller, then onto Izzi for them to process. Too many potential bottlenecks and hurdles, if you ask me; where the process can fail.

Fourthly, the way it was described to me, after a year, the device is all yours. Renewal packages come in a minimum of 3-month periods, that is, their renewal period packages are for 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months if I was told correctly. Therefore, whatever device you end up buying shouldn't affect renewal cost since you already paid for the device; therefore renewal rates must be the same for all three devices. This is unless they're telling untruths again.

Their main selling point and main target market appears to be expatriates, anyone who's rich enough to try and people who are just so desperate that they will try anything having experienced the "greatest" that the alternative broadband providers have to offer. Why? Easy - because you pay your money, you take the device home, you switch it on, and immediately can begin surfing. No need to apply and pay recurring charges for telephone lines, etc.

And people seem to be harping on the point of "they don't throttle P2P at the moment" (search elsewhere in the forum). They have already explicitly stated that they will shape P2P traffic, so it's only a matter of time. They have also specifically stated that they will terminate the services of anyone who is a heavy downloader and/or uploader, although what "heavy" means can only, I suspect, be interpreted in a court of law since the T&Cs are so vague.

Caveat emptor, as I always say to my friends.

husagi, you signed up in spite of what's been said? I'm flabbergasted! You must have well-off benefactors! Mind introducing them to me?

Anyway, back to the topic.



Like I said, when buying property, it's all about location, location, location. With wireless broadband, it's all about signal reception quality, more signal reception quality, and even more signal reception quality! PC Cards with built in antennae are notoriously bad for reception; in my wifi experience, anything with an external antenna beats anything with a built in antenna, given the same chipset. I guess it's the same here. I can only imagine what would have happened if it started to rain while you were in the midst of doing your testing though. The mind boggles; the imagination's running riot

So, lemme say it again - you gotta be next to a window or open unobstructed area to get good reception, just like UMTS signals. The deeper you go into a built up structure, the higher the chances of no reception.

Even if you were in a location nearer to their base stations, I doubt it will improve things significantly. And I have yet to determine how safe it is to be near one of their transmission antennae I have no wish to end up "ammunition-less"

And they claim about being connected even while moving at 100km/h? Hhhhmmmmppphhh...I'd like to see that! Maybe they mean in a convertible. Oh yeah, how nice it would be driving around in a convertible showing everyone you're surfing while travelling at 100km/h, especially during monsoon season. Seriously, this should never have been a selling point for the service



Ah yes, now this would give all of us some idea on how to hook up their IzziPro product to a wired/wireless router, right? And they claim only a select few brands/models work with their IzziPro product, a claim which I took with a whole bucketload of salt when I heard it. And they insisted that they will not do support for customers wishing to share their connection - it's up to the customer to experiment and get it to work (I happened to read their internal training manual - I asked so many questions which they weren't able to answer during the roadshow that they just took out the damned training manual and showed it to me. It was around two inches thick )

They claim the technology, in an open and fairly flat environment, can propagate signals across 13km. In densely populated areas, it falls to 3km. But the reality nowadays is that there's so much interference in the airwaves that almost nothing can be taken for granted, and you experienced this. Although they utilise the 1.79Ghz spectrum, your experience indicates that much more is happening that meets the eye. And weird stuff with the car roof, freaky...spooky...your hair follicles weren't tingling at that time, were they? I'll have to try the test sometime

If anyone decides to take the PC Card or USB option, bear what husagi mentioned in mind. I can almost guarantee that you will not be able to get reception inside an enclosed space And if you're not on a (rough) LoS of their base stations, good luck to you. And next time anyone drops by their roadshow booth, insist on them telling you where the nearest base station is, and attempt to take the notebook and device deeper into the building to test for yourself

Say no more. Let everyone figure this out for themselves



That's a rather poor speed, considering the test was probably done in the evening when there is theoretically less traffic? Another reason could be the base station you're connected to is in an area where they have a lot of subscribers and backhaul capacity just couldn't handle the traffic? That speed is even less than what you would have gotten in Streamyx's first incarnation of their service running at 384kbps. This also dispels the urban myth that "good signal reception = good download speed"

According to further research I've done, the connector type is MMCX, confirming my earlier suspicions when I compared it with the connectors on my Orinoco, Buffalo, Senao and SMC wifi cards, all of which use different connectors (well, the Orinoco and Buffalo use the same; the other two use different connectors). The PC Card outputs a maximum of 100mW of transmit power, and it's still a 16bit card if my research is correct. And you're right about the antenna - they will NOT be easy to find, since the service operates at 1.79Ghz. Many antenna are optimised to work best within narrow frequencies (a jack of all trades is not good when you're an antenna ). Standard wifi antennae are no good; these work best within the 2.4Ghz spectrum. I've always wondered why Mobif chose this spectrum, when the service can operate at 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 and 2.3 GHz. The only reason I can think of is that they don't want people buying equipment from places like Australia or South Africa and being able to use them here, depriving them of an additional revenue source.

BTW, all three products come with external antenna capability.

Do let me know if you can scrounge up a 1.8Ghz antenna with the right connectors; I'd love to do further tests with it

And to be accurate, iBurst in Malaysia operates within the 1790 and 1795 Mhz spectrum range.

This post has been edited by wr6969: Aug 3 2007, 12:47 PM

I'm surprised the regulators alloted them that particular frequency, knowing full well how close it was to the GSM frequency used by DiGi and Time.

I have no clue whatsoever; I thought you were the RF engineer/expert?

Hehe, I was only quoting what their website says.

Source.


Done any further testing since yesterday? Hope the download speed's much better compared to the test you performed yesterday!

Most, if not all, wireless broadband require you to be close to the "outside", ie. near a window, opening, etc. These signals don't penetrate deep into a sheltered structure. That's why you see Maxis and Celcom installing indoor base stations in busy shopping centres to address this. UMTS/HSDPA signals are the same - the further inside a house you go, the less the signal becomes. Most people lose HSDPA signal completely once they are inside the house, away from windows.

If anyone wants to have some information on ping times, tracerts, etc on the Izzi network, post them here and I'll do them once I've finished downloading

Repeaters are not cheap, it is highly unlikely that they will do so. You're more likely to strike the jackpot in the lottery

Yes, I signed up. I have the IzziPro device, using the Ethernet connection, not USB. I am not in their coverage area but I can get a signal.

Any requests?

Link/bandwidth is rather stable so far. I have premium accounts for HTTP file hosters, so can usually max out my download at around 110-120KB/s. No disconnects, even after continuous session of heavy downloading. P2P sucks, big time.

As for ping time, be more specific. I can't answer motherhood type questions.

As for lagging, sorry, I switch off my modem every night as I have to place it on the grille to get the best reception (remember that my area supposedly has no coverage, so I'm getting coverage from a far away base station ). And the longer you switch something on continuously, the higher the chances of the device going kaput. And since you can't simply walk to LowYat and buy an iBurst terminal modem, I am not taking that chance not knowing what Izzi's RMA process is like (although they do give you "rebates" for downtime caused by equipment failure).

My offer to do some ping tests and trace routes still stands, but it won't be forever

Ask quick before I lose my generosity!

Haha, only one single bite...gotta work on my lure

Here are the test results, to the same KL server, as well as Penang and Cyberjaya servers. Tests done three times.

Tests done at 1330 MST, 30 August 2007. May do another identical test at night if sufficiently motivated

KL:



Penang:



Cyberjaya:



Ah, I've reached my quota of attached images per post. Someone post a reply, and I will post the remainder of my test results - from TMNet, Jaring and Izzi's own speedometers, as well as my terminal status screenshots

BTW, to preserve much of my anonymity, I am posting this reply from Celcom's 3G. In case a mod looks at the panel and wondering why is it that an Izzi user is using Celcom's service to post

---

Added on August 30, 2007, 2:48 pmNo offense taken, cause I'm a pretty stupid person. What to do, when you're a wireless broadband junkie? At the last count, I have a couple of Celcom's 3G lines, Izzinet, and countless other wifi hotspots at my disposal

You should pity me actually - I am now a very poor person because of this obsession with all things wireless

This post has been edited by wr6969: Aug 30 2007, 02:48 PM

As promised, here's part deux.

Jaring's speed test



TMNet speedometer



Izzi's own speedtest



I've leave people to comment on these test results. One thing I have to say though - testing even to Izzi's own speedtest server doesn't give me at least 80-85% of subscribed speed - I wonder if I can ask for a proportional rebate for not getting the bandwidth I paid for?

Here's my iBurst terminal "About" screens showing signal strength and also hardware/software information on the terminal:

No problems. Just helping out.

655kbps for a single thread.

Pssst - don't tell them, but if I use around 6/8 simultaneous threads to download something from HTTP/FTP, I get around 110/120 KB/s. Been downloading like a crazed madman (oxymoron alert! ) for the past week (catching up on some good TV series )

Now to figure out why P2P speeds suck so badly when they claim that they do not throttle P2P (for now). Strangely enough, P2P streaming via Octoshape works just fine (most of the time). Octoshape's performance sucks on Celcom's 3G network, but works fine on Izzi's.

@DEC:

The test websites:

(1) http://www.speedtest.net

(2) http://www.izzi.com.my/speedtest

(3) http://202.188.95.52:8080/speedometer/

(4) http://www.speed.jaring.my/

Some prefer testmy.net but I've never gotten accurate (at least to me) results from there, so I avoided them. I can do them, if someone asks

Hope they help!

This post has been edited by wr6969: Aug 30 2007, 07:37 PM

I would bet my life (almost...) that this is indeed what it is.

I doubt it. I get almost consistent results with Celcom3G. Only with a download manager downloading using multiple threads for the same file can I reach what I term an "acceptable" speed. Same goes for Streamyx, especially with those file hosters with whom I have premium accounts. Oh heck, who cares, so long as I get close to what I paid for, yeah?

OK, some small updates.

All day Friday I was happily downloading something from an FTP server at 110KB/s. Saturday afternoon, the speed suddenly dropped like a dead bird out of the sky to 30KB/s. Over the weekend and today, it hovered between 10-30KB/s. It's not a problem with the FTP server, I tested with my Streamyx 1.5mbps line, could download happily at 160KB/s.

Then I thought - hey, I'll complain about the slow speeds but I need to furnish some proof, so I decided to go into their own bandwidth testing site. No dice - can't even load it. Can't even load Izzi's own website. Can't load their webmail either. Hhhmmm...not good, I thought. I also couldn't load websites such as www.octoshape.com, www.lifehacker.com, www.wi-fiplanet.com, etc. Strangely, other sites load fine though. All the aforementioned websites load perfectly using other broadband providers, so it's not a problem with the websites.

I completed their online complaint form via their website using my Celcom3G connection this morning. They promised to get back to me within 3 business days, according to the automated reply. I'm not holding my breath. The last time I complained, I had to force them to give me a report number.

For me, the jury's still out on this provider.

BTW, if anyone wants me to do ping tests/trace routes to some popular game servers, let me know

Well, my speed has been deteriorating since last week, made a report, no difference. This is beginning to sound like Maxis' wireless broadband service - good at first, then going downhill quickly afterwards.

I used to be able to get 100-110KB/s download from HTTP/FTP servers. Now the same servers give me 30-40KB/s. Nothing has changed in my setup. When I did a speedtest to their own servers lately, all I'm getting is an average of 500kbps. When I complained, they told me it's best effort. I told them, I'm testing to their own servers, so how can half the speed of what I'm paying for be best effort? I can understand it if I was testing to an external site, for FFS, this was their own network!

I will be visiting their office soon to get my refund. Since they only pay in quarterly cycles, it looks like I'll have to cancel at the end of my third month with them.

Sigh...what a joke of a service...

Damn...students today are really rich - able to fork out RM 1,000+ upfront for a service I used to remember my student days, having to save every single sen

My very rough test results seem to indicate that no which rapidshare server nor time of day, the maximum speed achievable is around 30-35KB/s. This compares very poorly to my 1mbps line (upgraded to 1.5mbps) which is capable of hitting 160KB/s consistently. It's very poor network performance, if you ask me.

And of course, I'm sure you've read another post of mine earlier where I complained to their network people about my poor speeds (averaging around 600kbps to their own speedtest server) and got the reply that "performance is on a best effort basis". Needless to say, that technician got some nice words from me. I mean, if you can't guarantee at least 80-85% speed within your own network, I think there's little hope that you will achieve at least that performance outside of your network.

So far my experience has been below average; value for money, I'd have to say not, for the premium price I'm paying The service started off quite promisingly, but once they added more subscribers to their network, its performance has degraded, IMHO.

As for the technology being deployed in other countries, you will notice that it's offered in the majority of those countries where there's a lot of rural areas, where wired technology is not deployed due to the cost factor. So, people sign up because it's the only service available, not that it's necessarily better than its wired alternative. And those countries have wide open spaces where the signal travels much better compared to a concrete jungle like KL where there are numerous obstacles to efficient signal propagation.

Do your own research on the iBurst technology in online forums. I've done my own research and have concluded that it's not the best thing since sliced bread; some online forums will tell you this too. I just subscribed for the heck of it; and I intend to return the modem and cancel the service upon the three month anniversary to get my money back; so far this has been a rather expensive and unsatisfactory experiment on my part. Others may have a different opinion though.

Ultimately, for most of us, after having tried out wireless technology, a wired solution is better than a wireless one, especially where latency is a factor. Reliability of service with wireless services is a big factor also; introduce a lot of noise (deliberately or otherwise) into the radio spectrum and you will screw up any wireless service. So, if Streamyx is indeed available and stable in your area, why would you want to change? It's still the best of the worst

And I dare say that WiMax equipment will be expensive due to the lower volume of production of devices involved. At least in the initial stages, until the service gains traction and cost of hardware can be reduced through bigger volume production and sales. Look at the cost of hardware for Izzi now - although they say it's free, if you had half a brain, you would know you are actually paying for the hardware

And Singapore doesn't really need a "cutting edge" wireless offering due to its size. WiFi and UMTS/HSDPA is more than enough to serve the population there. After all, there is no "rural" areas in Singapore, and since it's a concrete jungle, literally speaking, wireless signal propagation will be a nightmare for the RF engineers.

Yes, this is my experience also. It starts off good, then it quickly deteriorates. In my case, I had around one month of reasonable surfing/downloading speed; nowadays, I rarely switch the modem on at all. My Celcom3G connection gives me much better performance all round, as well as better reliability and consistency.

arjen, I'll join you in cancelling! I'm unsatisfied too with their quality of service. Like I mentioned, it used to be good when you first started, but then it goes downhill after that. It got so bad that I'm using it very little nowadays. It's much better to spend my money on 3G from either Celcom or Maxis.

Eh? What RM180? IIRC, the RM180 is only deducted if you cancel within 7 days or 1 month. After that, they just charge you your package's monthly price. So for the IzziPro package, the charge is RM 118 per month. Of course you won't get the activation fee (RM82) refund lar