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 Brief guide to picking between the main 3 ISPs

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TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 16 2021, 12:10 AM, updated 5y ago

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Since i last posted on the forums long ago i have now finally worked for one of the core ISPs, so i get a lot of insight and also experience into different ISPs. So if you're going to grab some internet from the big main 3 heres a brief guide to help you choose. Sadly i can't provide speed test only information of how they work and do things.

Previously TM unifi was the package you wanted if you wanted cheap "high speed" international traffic, nowadays this isnt true and i have to VPN just to work datacenter (we have a few) just to get decent access to sites located outside the country, though our connections is pretty fast in terms of global latency but really not cheap.

I write this review having tested all 3 before with good hardware/configuration, so if you are experiencing a problem, consider changing your router to a good one. your wifi woes are the fault of the device not the ISP. Make sure your optical cable is in good condition and they hate sharp bends. The cable you plug into your modem is called GPON - gigabit passive optical networking. It is a plastic cable with a single core (hence you can't call it fiber). One problem all ISP staff have is if you live in a "rich" area they will treat you like crap

So first, TM. TM is currently the worst ISP offering out of the main 3. You'll never get the speeds you subscribed for (this past 1 year speeds have been slow. while upload is still okish on the 800/200 package, the downloads you can expect half in speed test). TM is currently still a wide provider of connectivity as many still rely on their infrastructure such as maxis but thats going to change soon. Currently i find that TM has significantly decreased in speed significantly though i never got close to what i subscribed long ago. While they also have mobile packages, they dont have much of a combined package like others offered. Speed to datacenters are good though so local traffic is fine (though most datacenters are managed by TIME). p2p transfers between maxis and TM home users are very very slow. Only good thing is that TM can move with you within contract.

Maxis. Maxis does decently in speed test in terms of what you subscribed and has quite a few offers to add on including mobile packages. So if the extra stuff you get cheap and having both mobile and broadband unified into a single package of lower cost, this is what you'll want. International traffic sucks except for links that maxis have (such as to india) while local traffic is fast but p2p transfers between maxis and TM home users are very slow.

Time. Although time offers very fast internet cheap, their coverage is small combined with a lack of other offerings. Not everyone needs high speed internet and doesn't need anything else or prefers to ala carte everything. TIME owns a lot of datacenters in malaysia both directly and indirectly and has the best localised internet speeds (not just subscribed but also you get what you pay for for local traffic). The only problem with TIME is that you have the worst international traffic speeds, this is based on my own experience as well. If you plan to host or visit sites outside malaysia such as video streaming some site at the corner of the internet in the US, you won't even get 1Mb/s of consistency that you will end up buffering a lot and calling support daily.

When picking a mobile telco, consider your main use whether it is in a static location or on the move. In main cities many of them have coverage everywhere. Its important to understand like with regular ISPs that they have tiers. maxis, celcom, digi own their own towers (or have some they share) while unifi mobile, yes, etc use other peoples towers, so you will find that their offers differ in this way. For instance digi may have a cheap offer compared to yes but yes coverage may be better due to being able to use more towers from different towers.

Like with all things, please make sure to read between the lines before you subscribe. Maxis cannot move if you move place but TM unifi can, so if you move before the contract is finished, this is something to take note. Things like traffic throttling and FUP on mobile packages are a problem so make sure to read it carefully. If you try to exit early while not paying, you could end up on telco blacklist or something which means you may not be able to subscribe to another provider till you finish paying up. Make sure to read early termination penalties.

Working in a malaysian coreISP sucks, because of the usual malaysians. I cant even approach someone without being complained about when i try to figure out how things work in the company and better understand the product. coreISPs essentially give you good routes and dedicated internet, along with other protections like DDOS and the company also offers other products such as physical server hosting, educational platform hosting, etc. The problem is its still a malaysian company and suffers from the usual mindset issues being a malaysian company, despite being better than average. I like the work, just hate the people. Unfortunately malaysian hosting will still suck since they still reject my designs (good hosting in malaysia is difficult to find).

This post has been edited by System Error Message: Oct 23 2021, 12:34 PM
slaveone
post Oct 16 2021, 12:41 AM

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Isnt Digi merge with Celcom Axiata?
fireballs
post Oct 16 2021, 12:43 AM

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Priority time if available
Unifi less headache
Maxis too cunning
The rest haven't try
sadukarzz
post Oct 16 2021, 12:48 AM

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Used all for personal, SME and Enterprise in professional grade except MyKris (which is about to be acquired by Maxis).

I have different experience for US traffic for Time. It was pleasantly smooth. TM is okay too but stutters in terms of Ping and several instances of packet loss at high peak.

Time has lowest latency and most consistent speed.

Time is just simply unbeatable in its consistency. The price and speed is just the icing on the cake.

Outside of coverage zone, TM would be the next best thing on average.
Anime4000
post Oct 16 2021, 07:18 AM

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My experience with Maxis Home Fiber with custom GPON ONU SFP Stick.

First, I can override TM OLT bandwidth limit (Force 2.5G) and managed to reduce Bufferbloat that TM limit to make other ISP look worst... so I can do more fair testing...

Maxis did not filter or block any port! I managed to host own Mail Server (Incoming POP3, IMAP, SMTP) at home! also done little tutorial!

How to host own Mail Server:
https://gist.github.com/Anime4000/59ade3017...9f4e8c6dc032681

Unlike TM, they filter and block many ports, I tried Incoming POP3 and connection never received, only outgoing.

Yes, TM kind worst for now, hosting mail server is not allowed, only simple stuff, that's why TM afraid to give symetrical speed, or at least 2:1 speed ratio, instead giving 5:1 speed ratio, upload always slow.
PRSXFENG
post Oct 16 2021, 07:56 AM

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Hmm what about Allo? They seem to offer similar to what TIME is offering, but not sure on how their peering is
TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 16 2021, 11:21 AM

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QUOTE(slaveone @ Oct 16 2021, 12:41 AM)
Isnt Digi merge with Celcom Axiata?
*
thanks i'll double check on this


Also maxis is buying MYKRIS asia and not MYKRIS international
TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 16 2021, 11:24 AM

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QUOTE(sadukarzz @ Oct 16 2021, 12:48 AM)
Used all for personal, SME and Enterprise in professional grade except MyKris (which is about to be acquired by Maxis).

I have different experience for US traffic for Time. It was pleasantly smooth. TM is okay too but stutters in terms of Ping and several instances of packet loss at high peak.

Time has lowest latency and most consistent speed.

Time is just simply unbeatable in its consistency. The price and speed is just the icing on the cake.

Outside of coverage zone, TM would be the next best thing on average.
*
Local traffic TIME is unbeatable out of the 3 but for me international traffic sucks, both for hosting and streaming.
twice1020
post Oct 16 2021, 11:31 AM

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QUOTE(System Error Message @ Oct 16 2021, 11:24 AM)
Local traffic TIME is unbeatable out of the 3 but for me international traffic sucks, both for hosting and streaming.
*
If I remember correctly, TIME used to have Global Transit (AS24218) as international traffic.
But seems they no longer use it for some time.
InitialB
post Oct 16 2021, 11:35 AM

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TQ TS,

We all know long time.

And it isn't just the ISP that sucks
PRSXFENG
post Oct 16 2021, 02:06 PM

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QUOTE(twice1020 @ Oct 16 2021, 11:31 AM)
If I remember correctly, TIME used to have Global Transit (AS24218) as international traffic.
But seems they no longer use it for some time.
*
Seems like Global Transit is a part of them now?
http://www.globaltransit.net/ just redirects to time's website
heLL_bOy
post Oct 16 2021, 04:18 PM

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QUOTE(PRSXFENG @ Oct 16 2021, 02:06 PM)
Seems like Global Transit is a part of them now?
http://www.globaltransit.net/ just redirects to time's website
*
TIME under global transit used be hosting service or wholesale IP-transit.


Icehart
post Oct 16 2021, 09:04 PM

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In my experience UniFi > TIME.
TIME downtime at least 3 times over the past 6 months vs 1 downtime for UniFi in my parent's house for the past 10 years.
cybersans
post Oct 18 2021, 09:11 PM

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QUOTE(Anime4000 @ Oct 16 2021, 07:18 AM)
My experience with Maxis Home Fiber with custom GPON ONU SFP Stick.

First, I can override TM OLT bandwidth limit (Force 2.5G) and managed to reduce Bufferbloat that TM limit to make other ISP look worst... so I can do more fair testing...
maxis still using TM's BTU right? so how do you tweak that thing? login using admin privilege?

QUOTE(Anime4000 @ Oct 16 2021, 07:18 AM)
Maxis did not filter or block any port! I managed to host own Mail Server (Incoming POP3, IMAP, SMTP) at home! also done little tutorial!

How to host own Mail Server:
https://gist.github.com/Anime4000/59ade3017...9f4e8c6dc032681

Unlike TM, they filter and block many ports, I tried Incoming POP3 and connection never received, only outgoing.
agree, back in the day when around the world too paranoid about anonymous sendmail, TM with their brilliant think tank come with an idea to just block the incoming port-25. and it stays until now.
another funny thing is, they still blocking outbound port 6667. laugh.gif
when there is too many n00b users subscribing the internet and their modem/router has ssh access and they are too n00b to configure it, TM help them by blocking inbound access to port-22. of course it affect all users.

QUOTE(Anime4000 @ Oct 16 2021, 07:18 AM)
Yes, TM kind worst for now, hosting mail server is not allowed, only simple stuff, that's why TM afraid to give symetrical speed, or at least 2:1 speed ratio, instead giving 5:1 speed ratio, upload always slow.
*
you can anyway, by subscribing the "corporate" version. of course with a huge monthly package price. tongue.gif

Anime4000
post Oct 18 2021, 10:26 PM

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QUOTE(cybersans @ Oct 18 2021, 09:11 PM)
maxis still using TM's BTU right? so how do you tweak that thing? login using admin privilege?
*
Under Unifi, yes, other ISP will using TM ONT,
Known VLAN Internet:
1. 621: Maxis
2. 622: ?-DiGi/Celcom
3. 623: ?-DiGi/Celcom
4. 624: Viewqwest

I using own GPON ONT SFP Stick like this, it attach directly to router:
Attached Image

TM can disable WebGUI after GPON Authenticated, I can override TM OMCI, and giving me full control and troubleshoot:
Attached Image
Attached Image
Attached Image

Custom ONT has OMCI CMD TOOL inside that you can fine tune and send fake reply to TM OLT laugh.gif

PLUS, you can use MTU 1500 on PPPoE! no need to clamp rclxm9.gif

QUOTE(cybersans @ Oct 18 2021, 09:11 PM)
agree, back in the day when around the world too paranoid about anonymous sendmail, TM with their brilliant think tank come with an idea to just block the incoming port-25. and it stays until now.
another funny thing is, they still blocking outbound port 6667. laugh.gif
when there is too many n00b users subscribing the internet and their modem/router has ssh access and they are too n00b to configure it, TM help them by blocking inbound access to port-22. of course it affect all users.
*
Well, those port are required for IoT to send alarm, notice, etc.. without subscribing Cloud...

QUOTE(cybersans @ Oct 18 2021, 09:11 PM)
you can anyway, by subscribing the "corporate" version. of course with a huge monthly package price.
*
I tried on @unifibiz, still apply same as residential restriction, my customer very frustration and mad to TM since his system cannot connect oversea, I suggest him to rent VPS WireGuard until Unifi contract expired then change to TIME Business



yet we still using PPPoE instead of dot1X, Native Viewqwest just DHCP dot1x, when Viewqwest using Unifi, had to use PPPoE bangwall.gif

Adding another overhead is very bad and wasting...

PPPoE such wasteful and ancient...
TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 20 2021, 10:00 AM

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QUOTE(cybersans @ Oct 18 2021, 09:11 PM)
maxis still using TM's BTU right? so how do you tweak that thing? login using admin privilege?
agree, back in the day when around the world too paranoid about anonymous sendmail, TM with their brilliant think tank come with an idea to just block the incoming port-25. and it stays until now.
another funny thing is, they still blocking outbound port 6667.  laugh.gif
when there is too many n00b users subscribing the internet and their modem/router has ssh access and they are too n00b to configure it, TM help them by blocking inbound access to port-22. of course it affect all users.
you can anyway, by subscribing the "corporate" version. of course with a huge monthly package price. tongue.gif
*
AWS blocks incoming and outgoing SMTP. You'd have to request from them with proper details for them to lift the block.
TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 20 2021, 10:03 AM

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QUOTE(Anime4000 @ Oct 18 2021, 10:26 PM)
Under Unifi, yes, other ISP will using TM ONT,
Known VLAN Internet:
1. 621: Maxis
2. 622: ?-DiGi/Celcom
3. 623: ?-DiGi/Celcom
4. 624: Viewqwest

I using own GPON ONT SFP Stick like this, it attach directly to router:
Attached Image

TM can disable WebGUI after GPON Authenticated, I can override TM OMCI, and giving me full control and troubleshoot:
Attached Image
Attached Image
Attached Image

Custom ONT has OMCI CMD TOOL inside that you can fine tune and send fake reply to TM OLT  laugh.gif

PLUS, you can use MTU 1500 on PPPoE! no need to clamp rclxm9.gif
Well, those port are required for IoT to send alarm, notice, etc.. without subscribing Cloud...
I tried on @unifibiz, still apply same as residential restriction, my customer very frustration and mad to TM since his system cannot connect oversea, I suggest him to rent VPS WireGuard until Unifi contract expired then change to TIME Business
yet we still using PPPoE instead of dot1X, Native Viewqwest just DHCP dot1x, when Viewqwest using Unifi, had to use PPPoE bangwall.gif

Adding another overhead is very bad and wasting...

PPPoE such wasteful and ancient...
*
ubiquiti edgerouter puke.gif

From experience they are more towards general purpose all in one devices that dont do well to their intended audience, most notable is their performance when used by their intended audience while ubiquiti is quite sus as a business as well. I have both mikrotik and ubiquiti.

Still good work on the modem part.
Zot
post Oct 20 2021, 10:06 AM

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QUOTE(slaveone @ Oct 16 2021, 12:41 AM)
Isnt Digi merge with Celcom Axiata?
*
System Error smile.gif
cybersans
post Oct 20 2021, 07:33 PM

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QUOTE(System Error Message @ Oct 20 2021, 10:00 AM)
AWS blocks incoming and outgoing SMTP. You'd have to request from them with proper details for them to lift the block.
*
thats why do not subscribe from them. there are many vps provider out there that doesn't care about that. i subscribe one of the cheap kvm vps and doesn't filter any of my tcp/udp ports. its up to me to filter it using my own firewall. icon_rolleyes.gif and thats a different between a service provider for a 1337 vs service provider for a n00b. cool2.gif
TSSystem Error Message
post Oct 20 2021, 08:52 PM

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QUOTE(cybersans @ Oct 20 2021, 07:33 PM)
thats why do not subscribe from them. there are many vps provider out there that doesn't care about that. i subscribe one of the cheap kvm vps and doesn't filter any of my tcp/udp ports. its up to me to filter it using my own firewall.  icon_rolleyes.gif and thats a different between a service provider for a 1337 vs service provider for a n00b.  cool2.gif
*
actually it makes a huge difference between stopping spam and keeping good reputation of your IPs

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