Question: I just signed up to DiGi BB Discovery Campus plan, because SNS is sucking big time where I stay off campus (house less than 100 m from bridge to TTS). How's the speed there on EDGE, anyone using?

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 10 2009, 11:44 PM

Digi seems to work much better than the Celcom at my place, or SNS. SNS although it feels definitely faster speed than Digi, goes out of service at least once every 1~2 days on average where I live (even though it's less than a minute away from TTS bridge) and doesn't come back for hours. My friend who is on the 2nd floor of the house complains that the Celcom BB in the house acts up-- sometimes very fast, sometimes crazy slow, and unstable.






I've been using the Digi BB (student package) for nearly a week now and can confirm what malaiseazn says; it's much the same for me-- connection is slow because it's EDGE network out here (average speed tends to peak at 140 kbps over at campus digs), it's been very stable. It will load single pages pretty fast, though power users who want to load 100+ tabs in Firefox at the same time will definitely complain about the speed, and some tabs will need to be reloade 2-3 times or it just hangs there... I've kept the connection up for >3 hours without disconnecting. YouTube and Flash-heavy pages are loading slower than I'm used to with Streamyx, but I don't mind because I don't go on YouTube much anyway, and most of the time I go on text-heavy pages, which load up quite speedily. Torrents-- I've not done much torrenting because I don't want to go over my 3GB cap, but torrenting download speeds even here is fair-- usually about 8~10- 12 kB/s DL in utorrent; can even hit max 240 kbps the speeds (according to the stats in the programme bundled in the modem) in the afternoons! (Night time speeds seem slower, for some reason.)

So at least in my case, Digi is working fine in terms of stability, which for me is the main thing-- don't care how long it takes so long as I CAN get what I want from the Net. Just hope that high-speed coverage comes sometime soon though. I've tried using Digi BB in the SA building, and it also works there. Am planning to test in library basement (silent study area) next.

I just did a speed test from my room:

Obviously speed here looks super sucky-- oh well. Better SOMETHING than NOTHING, and RM 58 is my max budget for Net since I already have Streamyx RM 88 unlimited at home...



Agree with improved coverage comment-- last year I was living in Edu Square (new houses) and my parents used to freak out because they couldn't get through to me on Maxis-- silly phone had no signal! Now Maxis seems to work fine anywhere.

LOL. Now you've said it, UTAR will surely get hit. Murphy's Law demands it! Besides, all Conficker needs to spread is some computer semi-literates who know enough to turn off their auto-patches but keep forgetting to update their systems and AV.

Short answer? TERRIBLE.

Don't go to Extreme BB unless you're on campus. And even then.... haihz. I live less than 3 minutes walk to campus (place still considered EDU Square), and the Extreme BB service is horrible and very unstable. It goes out at ALL the wrong times, and doesn't come back until the next morning. It stays up for hours-- then suddenly you get logged out, and can't log back in. AT ALL. If I didn't have an alternative service plan available, Extreme BB sure kena bollocking from me already. As it is, I am too lazy to walk to Pangkor and blast them for bad service.

Alternative BB: If you're a gamer, go for Celcom BB. Or Maxis. (Maxis seems too expensive though, even with neew promos...)

If you don't game however, you can try DiGi BB student package, only RM 58 per month and unlimited (speed throttled down after exceeding 3GB cap). RM100 fee upfront and free modem, but must stay with the plan for a year. I'm currently subscribed to that.

I don't recommend DiGi for speed freaks because it is EDGE only here, so it's slow. However it's very reliable (no outages so far in 2 weeks of use), and that's enough for me as I don't watch a lot of YouTube and surf mostly text-heavy pages and email.

Am in BSc. (Hons) Applied Psychology and Management Studies 2nd year.

Haa.. so THAT'S why they pushed up rental by RM25? I thought it was because of the new acommodation company causing Pioneer to lose revenue and then they want to get the money out of us instead...


Wow, what course is that? Business? Psychology? Engineering? Foundation? I don't think it's Pharmacy right? I'm SURE it's nothing under I-WHO because I'm in there and I'd know if anything like that happened....

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 23 2009, 11:21 PM

Ugh, that sucks balls, mate. At least I'm off campus and on DiGi Campus plan, RM58/month only, and less finicky than the (*&(&6876 SNS. SNS NEVER seems to work where I stay.

No, rental off-campus hasn't gone up under Pioneer. Still the same old (but already inflated) prices... starting from RM480 and going up to RM600 or RM 850 (RM900 total for two people in a master room I think).

No. The price for EDU Square Wifi from Extreme BB hasn't changed; I know because I'm STILL using Extreme BB until end of this month in addition to my DiGi plan. It's the price of BB on campus that's gone down by RM25, but makes no difference because they make you pay for it in the room rental anyway...

Hii thar neighbour! MA? Walau eh, that means you all stay back freaking late every night la; Masters students all don't start class until 6.30 PM, AFAIK

Well I meant neighbour in the sense that your school and mine are in the same building (Block E orange building); sorry for the misapprehension . I probably am not likely to be your neighbour since I live in TTS 5/6-- the place is considered as part of EDU Square but not with all the other EDU Square houses.

Masters' students tend to all start at 6.30 PM and end at 9.30 PM at night, as far as I know. Certainly they're all at night, or on Friday afternoons (sometimes even in KL, Chulan Square building where the old campus is). I wouldn't recommend walking back on your own since the roads are pretty dark and scary in some places, but you can take the bus back. They drop people off on the main road at TTS 5/2 junction at EDU Square in front of the guard house; you should be able to walk back safely from there. If I stay back late I usually walk home with my housemates, because there are a few who are Masters students and they all go back about 9.30 PM after classes end.

No. 1: I can't really help you-- you have to find out yourself, I think. Maxis doesn't seem to list any details on their BlackBerry plans on website at first glance, and I have work to be doing and not Googleing things like this...

No. 2: You have the choice of going with either of the three big telcos Celcom, Maxis or DiGi, or the University contracted BB provider, Extreme SNS: they have wifi packages at 384 kbps @ RM ? (I think it was RM48 or something like that)/month and 512 kbps @ RM60/month. If I were you, I wouldn't go with the SNS-- their wifi service SUCKS LIKE HELL. Over here I'm less than 300 m away from the bridge to campus, and they cannot provide good service with little downtime. On campus is different story since it's wired, but off campus-- last year their wifi had less problem, dunno why this year service is soo poor. A LOT of outages and very unreliable. You may want to ask others in Edu Square at TTS 5/5 how the service has been there though; I was there last year and service was acceptable.

Celcom has entry level at 384 kbps and such: plan details available here.

Maxis has a student BB promo, but IMHO less desirable than DiGi, since their monthly quota is only 1.5 GB as opposed to DiGi's 3 GB. Maxis BB for students also more expensive, if I'm not mistaken. Their speed is probably faster than DiGi's though, but not sure. It depends on whether there's high speed cover here or only EDGE (slower).

DiGi student plan is not bad; RM100 upfront as 2 months payment (for Malaysians, foreigners must pay RM300 and use credit card to auto-pay), and then RM58/month flat rate, regardless of usage, though after you go over 3GB quota they will moderate your online activities (in other words restrict your P2P speeds) and throttle you down to EDGE speed in high speed coverage area. The bad thing is that here in Semenyih their speed is slow: max 240 kbps only because of EDGE network coverage and no high speed cover. So if you play games online or watch a LOT of YouTube, don't go for DiGi (or prepare to wait a while for YouTube to load )--Go with Celcom, or Maxis.

Other details you best find out yourself. Good hunting!



This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 26 2009, 12:20 AM

I see that Amax is a WiMax service? Interesting. But who can guarantee that it has good follow-up and customer service? Kinda scary since it's so new. P1 at least is more established, in comparison. Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained... hehe. If Amax is any good, I may switch over from DiGi when my 12 month tenure expires.

On campus BB package from SNS:



This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 27 2009, 07:16 PM


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farscope-- you can't say it will not affect you. They are already watching the machines in TISCRA as well. Also, anyone using handphones/PDA who wnats to use the network will be affected. They want your MAC address-- and the MAC address is unique to a single machine, IIRC, and it doesn't change, not like IP that can be dynamic. They want to know WHERE you are when you access their network. We are going to be like detainees in Gitmo when we go online, always being watched.


Really too much, this. They already filter the network, and now they want to kaypoh on OUR private machines? (X300)


Dammit. I come to university to get away from Big Brother-- and find that it's come here. There is no justice.

Bradford's own website. I think this is what IS wants to install, or something very close to it. See what kinds of information they're gathering? They want to profile us!



Note that last line: PROHIBITED APPLICATIONS


Their privacy policy is pretty thin and while they assure us till they're blue in the face they won't look at our stuff-- yeah right. Sure they want to spam our emails, at least.


Some links of interest: SMCM Students Against Bradford Persistent Agent

SMCM LOL: Bradford Persistent Agent --Students commenting on Bradford persistent agent.

SMCM's own admins saying what they see with Bradford Persistent Agent-- IMHO, that's STILL a LOT of data that I do NOT want IS to have access at any time they like for no good reason: What Does the Bradford Persistent Agent Allow Us To See?

Page on U of Arkansas-- back in 2008, see ALL the problems they had with this thing. Even HIBERNATE on WINDOZE couldn't be used, and dual-boot systems made the thing go nuts. WTH???


Guys-- converting to Linux will not necessarily get you out of Big Brother IS' sight either. I've already researched this thing online (as soon as I saw what this *(*&*6 crap was going to do) and while they haven't got a full client for Linux systems-- well what they will do is take down your MAC address on your lappy and record your uvid (same like above, and also, same if you use your handphones/netbook), but good news is that no real check is done-- well according to the Loyola University of Chicago's wiki here.

I DO NOT trust these people. I wonder if IS has taken Bradford's opium poison so they will pay money (OUR MONEY, MIND YOU! WE PAY FOR THIS WITH TUITION FEES!) to install their kaypoh system?


Also there's no way around this, I'm afraid: Login to UNMC directory requires Micro$oft Active Directory. Linux will not communicate with Micro$oft's stupid non-cross platform compliant crapware. If it was impossible before to login to UNMC wifi on Linux (I've tried-- Micro$oft Active Directory doesn't even wanna talk to Samba or whatever, I think, because I never even got a login screen even when wifi is connected) well right now?-- THIS S*&^ IS NOT EVER GONNA TOUCH MY MACHINE. Not even on the Windows side.

I will fear no evil, for I have DiGi, and it is with me, yea even in the Valley of the Shadow of Censorship.

Time to research DiGi, Celcom and Maxis BB. I think that those of us here should spread the word, and educate our fellow students on the dangers of this (*&(*&*(*76 agent crap. SAY NO TO CENSORSHIP. BLIND BIG BROTHER!


Re: e-book downloads: use IRC. PM for further details if wanted. Unless you want to DL 100+ books at once... LOL.

eXPeri3nc3, what is 'tunneling'? Could you explain please? I am curious. PM is you're worried that violates posting guidelines.

This post has been edited by ArianneG: Oct 31 2009, 01:04 AM

First port of call should be SA I think. Also-- the lecturers. How happy would THEY be to kena this thing as well? I doubt it. There are those who use their personal lappys to do 'things'... *ahem*

Also, we must make an effort to educate the other students as well as the lecturers-- education and awareness are most important, and it's not just students who are blur; there ARE lecturers who are not very good with using computers or are uncomfortable with them-- or don't really appreciate the nature and hows and whys of online threats. There are lecturers who are good with presentations and movie files; similarly there are lecturers who get nervous everytime they try and show an mp4 or use mp3s in class.

If we can get people to take updating antivirus, etc. seriously, IS will have no reason other than because they want to control our bandwidth left to justify their implementation of this spyware.

I am sure that NO ONE in his or her right mind, who cares about their privacy will like the idea of this once they realise that the program scans their system drives-- which means it KNOWS just what's in their systems, what programs it has installed, etc. And that through it some black hat MIGHT be able to get at their sensitive info. Because this *(^*&^*6 programme is a back door through your AV.

I like direct downloads too, but some of the file hosts are really-- headache inducing. Very frustrating. Especially with Megaupload, RS, etc. And when the file disappears overnight.... :mad: But I agree, direct downloads is still one of the most reliable methods. At least with IRC the file won't vanish on you, and books are fast-- songs slower, but some things that you can't get anywhere else, is up on IRC.

Really know what exactly we're sending? I doubt it. I don't think they will sniff every packet that goes through-- too much resources. But by monitoring WHERE the packets come from, they can make a very good guess-- especially since the path the packets will take on their internal network is not hidden through means like Tor; and even with Tor, if you monitor exit points enough you can actually track where info's going= anonymity fail. So, they can see what info is coming from where on the external net, since most info coming in is likely NOT encrypted unless you're using SSH or something-- and now with this Bradford ()*&(7 they can see where that information is going from the external net, and pin it to you through your MAC address.

The client itself is a nuisance-- what is worrying is the MAC address they have-- with the client they now can identify the MAC address and trace it back to you. No more privacy.

Yes-- that is what happens. You're blocked from accessing the network. As for the 'in case' scenario; that is why we have friends and handphones. I'd rather trust a human than a machine anyway, in such situations.

2 and 3 are right. Your understanding of #1 is wrong however. We already DO have more or less schoolwide wireless network coverage. Some areas are still spotty, but all major areas and buildings are more or less within coverage. If you turn on your wifi-enabled device, e.g. handphone/PDA/laptop/netbook, you will see in your wireless connection manager that it's found wireless networks. The one IS is about to monitor closely with this persistent agent crap is the 'unmc' network.

Now previously anyone who had their student/lecturer ID and their password (same as what you use for OWA mail) could just login to the network and use it. But now what IS is planning to do is insist that EVERYONE who uses their network not only must have their ID and password, but also this Bradford Persistent Agent which will scan and monitor your computer-- what you're browsing (which frankly should be NONE OF THEIR *!&76 BUSINESS) and also to ensure your computer is updated with latest antivirus and system OS patches. The thing is that the persistent client is there ALL the time. It is controlled by IS. Firstly, IS hasn't made clear WHAT exactly are they going to see. Secondly, nor have they said if they can see MORE than what they're supposed to be monitoring. IIRC, from what I see on Bradford's website, they can actually LOCATE your PHYSICAL position from where you are on the network-- they track you via your device's MAC address, PDA, handphone, laptop, doesn't matter. That is also why they ask PDA and handphone wifi users to go to IS office and register. They want your MAC address to make sure you are who you claim to be on their network, and MAC address is highly reliable because it is unique to your device.


If IS is ever hacked, or if there is an untrustworthy person hired (choy!), having this persistent agent on your computer MIGHT provide a gateway for said untrustworthy person to infiltrate your system, especially since this Campus Manger software has the ability to send out campus-wide messages. All that black hat would need to trick you is to get you to go to somewhere with a payload of some virus/Trojan/keylogger etc. or open some dodgy thing through the message. Or some other less/more sophisticated method.

Also, this is a third-party service-- can we trust the MAKER of the software itself (Bradford)? Their privacy policy is sucky.

I find that connecting on the UNMC network this year so far is highly irritating, more so than it was last year. Ergo I refuse to use it anymore, and with this now coming into effect, I will NOT use the service again unless Bradford implementation is abolished, and service improves and STOPS disconnecting after 10 minutes of use.