VISP internet service through Sodetel gateways !?

[IA64]

I think that the gov believes that DSL came to provide a good/cheap internet solution for end-users. 128kbps and 2GB quota for them is enough. And if you are a heavy user 4GB/months are the way to go.. Im trying not to be sarcastic but this is how things are going.Now that DSL is here, they had to start banning all their ( Illegal ?!) competitors like VISP, or to make them slower. Now what is really funny is that DSL now is becoming slower because of excessive number of subscribers and still, the gov is looking for more. ( More subscribers --> more $$ ) but shitty QoS...Who cares ? Nobody but us. What is really sad is that now that all ISPs are forced to deal with ogero, they are unable to provide better QoS.. just better promotional offers. Ogero is now at the top of the list. I am also wondering how it is going to look like, if VISP gets away and all its customer subscribe for DSL?! you will barely hit 50kbps at 4:00 in the morning.

[nuclearcat]

Originally Posted by Red Phoenix

but this thing against VSAT dishes i dont understand.

the lebanese state wants to kill all internet traffic that it does not control or soemthing ?

Most of money telecom ministry do do - telephony. When someone call from outside - his call should be "landed" over Ogero telephone channels. For this call, to access Ogero network, outside telecom company pay good money.

Illegal VOIP termination people taking lines (for example hotel), connecting internet, installing special system, and making deal with outside telecoms. SO telecom call comes via internet, to this "illegal company" and this "illegal company" equipment calling over local line with rate that lebanese pay for calls. Sure let's say if before call was $1/minute, Ogero will get only 0.01$ (prices not true, i dont know exact pricing).
How illegal make money? Let's say "outside telecom" should pay $1 to Ogero, Illegals charge them $0.5, pay for Ogero for local call $0.01 and put $0.49 in pocket. It is gold business, but completely illegal. I agree it should be stopped.

As i know minister(Jebran Bassil) was thinking that he is stopping illegal VOIP link, and he is not aware of technical details. It seems that he didnt knew that it is internet link and how big will be impact. Especially impact is huge for north of lebanon (christians), which is his main electorate.
Some sources says that some of people (known ISP) told him wrong information especially, to put face of minister and FPM in dirt before elections.

[Red Phoenix]

Originally Posted by nuclearcat

Most of money telecom ministry do do - telephony. When someone call from outside - his call should be "landed" over Ogero telephone channels. For this call, to access Ogero network, outside telecom company pay good money.

Illegal VOIP termination people taking lines (for example hotel), connecting internet, installing special system, and making deal with outside telecoms. SO telecom call comes via internet, to this "illegal company" and this "illegal company" equipment calling over local line with rate that lebanese pay for calls. Sure let's say if before call was $1/minute, Ogero will get only 0.01$ (prices not true, i dont know exact pricing).
How illegal make money? Let's say "outside telecom" should pay $1 to Ogero, Illegals charge them $0.5, pay for Ogero for local call $0.01 and put $0.49 in pocket. It is gold business, but completely illegal. I agree it should be stopped.

As i know minister(Jebran Bassil) was thinking that he is stopping illegal VOIP link, and he is not aware of technical details. It seems that he didnt knew that it is internet link and how big will be impact. Especially impact is huge for north of lebanon (christians), which is his main electorate.
Some sources says that some of people (known ISP) told him wrong information especially, to put face of minister and FPM in dirt before elections.

I suspected as much, so that’s the case it seems.
but the lebanese state’s actions are just foolhardy, i cannot understand their logic.
it’s a faulty logic.

the analogy to how illegal phone lines can make unchecked very competitive money is very true.

but heck, the problem is with the hell that is gonna ensue if the same thing got applied to unchecked internet providers while our current main internet backbone without dishes is practically too weak and useless to hold our current users.
and weren’t not even talking about the QoS and pricing here. jesus.

this is suicide. bassil should have known better.

plus, i don’t see why the government should feel like it has the right to have all my data pass under it so it can try to inspect it.

that’s just a sad stone age story we are stuck in.

[Red Phoenix]

Originally Posted by IA64

I think that the gov believes that DSL came to provide a good/cheap internet solution for end-users. 128kbps and 2GB quota for them is enough. And if you are a heavy user 4GB/months are the way to go.. Im trying not to be sarcastic but this is how things are going.Now that DSL is here, they had to start banning all their ( Illegal ?!) competitors like VISP, or to make them slower. Now what is really funny is that DSL now is becoming slower because of excessive number of subscribers and still, the gov is looking for more. ( More subscribers --> more $$ ) but shitty QoS...Who cares ? Nobody but us. What is really sad is that now that all ISPs are forced to deal with ogero, they are unable to provide better QoS.. just better promotional offers. Ogero is now at the top of the list. I am also wondering how it is going to look like, if VISP gets away and all its customer subscribe for DSL?! you will barely hit 50kbps at 4:00 in the morning.

hehe, that's sad, true and funny man.

plus it feels like it's a doomsday scenario when i think about it haha

[IA64]

Usually When sh*t happens... It is always because of politics.. Sad but true. Welcome to Lebanon..

[Frisbeetarian]

Glad i skipped installing internet at home and just do all my surfing from Uni. Heh 512kb conx with unlimited down . Hits 1mb between semesters .

[Red Phoenix]

Originally Posted by IA64

Usually When sh*t happens... It is always because of politics.. Sad but true. Welcome to Lebanon..

this seems more an issue of policies than politics.

the policy of enforcing:

1- the ability for the state to monitor data packets
2- the ability for the state to control prices


for the sake of those two, the quality of the service can be sacrificed,

i can kinda understand 2 a bit, i can understand 1 but i refuse it.

as for this decrepit backbone internet main line we have, then t7adah bala 7araj. we need everyone to have a 1200 bit modem to fully enjoy it hehe

i remember back in the late nineties we got the cr*py backbone after we refused to install a good one and passed the good offer on to syria instead.

well, then it was policies plus politics also :P

[IA64]

Originally Posted by nuclearcat

No, they are not for VISP. We even didn't knew where they was installed.

Could you please tell me how VISP is willing to restore the services back to normal operation ? Or at least choose the most probable scenario from the following below :

1- VISP will resign
2- VISP will pay money and goes through Ogero
3- Law suit against the government or what so ever
4- VISP will resume providing internet connectivity but services will never be as it used to.

Afterall, We, VISP customers, have the right to know what will happen, Not only what happened.

[nuclearcat]

Originally Posted by Red Phoenix

this is suicide. bassil should have known better.

plus, i don’t see why the government should feel like it has the right to have all my data pass under it so it can try to inspect it.

that’s just a sad stone age story we are stuck in.

It is 100% not for snooping your internet, dont worry. But true intentions is unknown.
I'm still investigating on my own what is happened. I will publish here as soon as i will have any info, and i can trust it.

[IA64]

Did you guys notice the improvements with the ping response time ? Because I did. Im getting 300-400 ms lag instead of 500-900ms. I did some traces and what I notice is that we are now directly connected to Sodetel . I checked the routes this morning and it was like :

Tracing route to Google [74.125.43.99]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 2 ms 1 ms 172.16.*.1
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 194.146.*.*
3 4 ms 4 ms 4 ms 10.48.45.1
4 598 ms 532 ms 349 ms 10.77.79.1
5 85 ms 77 ms 88 ms 192.168.30.1
6 18 ms 8 ms 20 ms 10.150.160.2
7 100 ms 173 ms 180 ms 192.168.20.71
8 15 ms 5 ms 13 ms 192.168.20.2
9 97 ms 77 ms 82 ms 10.22.24.1
10 138 ms 154 ms 135 ms 10.152.152.1
11 284 ms 391 ms 328 ms 192.168.125.26
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 1743 ms 1441 ms 937 ms 89.108.129.1 ---> Sodetel gateway
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * 410 ms 377 ms 63.218.13.113
16 362 ms 381 ms 354 ms 63.218.12.246
17 462 ms 408 ms 543 ms 195.66.226.125
18 585 ms 638 ms 698 ms 209.85.255.175
19 * 900 ms 716 ms 72.14.233.63
20 926 ms 917 ms 641 ms 209.85.248.80
21 * 400 ms 540 ms 209.85.248.218
22 444 ms 466 ms 480 ms 209.85.248.183
23 411 ms 384 ms 493 ms 64.233.174.55
24 486 ms 477 ms 634 ms 74.125.43.99


Now the route seems to be like :

Tracing route to Google [74.125.43.103]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 2 ms 1 ms 2 ms 172.16.*.1
2 4 ms 2 ms 3 ms 194.146.*.*
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 67 ms 43 ms 20 ms 89.108.129.1 ---> Sodetel gateway
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 329 ms 341 ms 333 ms 63.218.13.113
8 353 ms 342 ms 344 ms 63.218.12.246
9 329 ms 335 ms 335 ms 195.66.226.125
10 396 ms 331 ms 332 ms 209.85.255.175
11 320 ms 370 ms 336 ms 72.14.233.63
12 322 ms 384 ms 352 ms 72.14.232.209
13 344 ms 336 ms 326 ms 209.85.254.100
14 341 ms 337 ms 380 ms 64.233.174.55
15 367 ms 376 ms 342 ms 209.85.255.245
16 374 ms 353 ms 357 ms 74.125.43.103

Trace complete.

Now for the calculations, they managed to reduce the lag by ~400ms.. still, we are lagging another 400ms which is not good enough for gaming.

I believe this is the best they can do for the moment. But who knows... Keep up the good work and good luck.