iesnes

When you become a dad or mom, your life changes completely... you will then realize that before you were a dad... you didn't know what happiness is... and you can never go back the way you were. Then when you are talking to single non-parents about kids, or even life in general, you'll be thinking [LOL this guy doesn't know shit!]. Seriously... you don't know the meaning of life until you have children. Especially when they turn about 16 YO and they start giving *you* advice : ) It happened to me that way

Sorry- I didn't pick up right away you are using vista... good luck to you.. maybe it's not too late to upgrade to XP SP2

IE sucks... the newer the version, tghe more so. Try firefox or any other browser. You'll be less prone to hacker attacks and it will perform better for you. Last thing I heard was you can't even downgraqde IE once you have upgraded. Microsoft kinda sucks cuz once they get something working ok, it's "good enough"

The only port that fartbro blocks is port 25 for outgoing email, because they want you to use their own smtp mail server. That thing sucks buttermilk, and told me they block port 25 to stop spam relays.. good concept, but that approach is like using a shotgun to kill a mouse. However, there is another port I use so that I can use my own remote pop server (I'm not going to say publicly what it is, you can google it and find one). Other than that, I don't know of any specific port they block, unless you are trying to use VPN... in that case you have to do some fancy footwork to set it up because you are in their NAT, like a big internet cafe. And, no you can't have access to the smartblow NAT router... you're lucky they feature call center agents to offer copious apologies when you call for a problem. So, they can't help you either because they probably think a port is a place that ships come in from the sea

My html / ftp downloads through my browser only connect to one server. Download managers connect to as many mirrors as possible. So it's only natural the download will be faster especially since the server you are connected to can only dish out maybe 5 or 10 Kbps. Torrent programs, by nature, are a form of download manager, so the same concept will apply. However, I've experienced problems before wherein my http / ftp speed was great, but something was wrong with my TCP connectivity, so my torrents were dead slow, due to lack of peers and the rate I could download from them. Like I advised before, the best thing for him to do is to optimize his connection by following coolbusters 20 steps. I doubled my download speed just by using 10 or 12 of them. So, you're probably right... I would put the probability at about 80% (or more) that there is some small setting, or a bunch of them, causing the problem. So until that is eliminated as the cause, I wouldn't be so quick to blame the ISP.

Your speed is AWESOME for smartblo... 83.29% faster than I'm able to get through them.

Download managers are specifically designed to use all the download bandwidth possible by connecting to as many sources as possible. Your browser downloads are only from ONE source. That's why you're getting a different result on that issue. I've been on the internet since dialup was a baby (1993). TCP, especially using in PTP sharing, is VERY settings-sensitive. Please do yourself a favor and perform coolbusters 20 steps for a better connection. You'll learn alot, and you'll accomplish alot. Just search for "coolbusters 20" on this board and you'll find it. Even if you just perform half of his suggestions, you will be much happier with your connection. He's a Digital Buddha to many people here Good luck to you, I'm sure you'll hash it all out in no time

I assure you, they did NOT cap your connection. Fartbro just SUCKS and they don't know what the hell they are doing. The problem is that everybody not on the executive corporate throne has "save money!" beaten into their heads, and they need several levels of authorization just to spend a damn piso even if it's an emergency. In your case, I'd say the color code you are on is probably wrong or they got some other setting completely screwed up. The first thing they would do is change your antenna (they changed mine 5 times before it occurred to them their base satation may be the culprit). I would suspect that wouldn't make any difference since your antenna does work at 30kbps so it should work at 40 or 50 no problem. I know they didn't cap your speed cuz when I was dealing directly with the engineer in charge of the base stations here, he even tweaked a few things at his end to give my connection priority over others. And by golly it DID work. But the problem here remains- they need to replace some routers, switches, hubs and cabling at a cost of at least 200,000p ($5000 US) GASP!!!! They won't do it because that can be spent for one small donation to a senators campaign or a few rounds of golf with him.. kissy kissy!

Thanks.. the problem is I'm up in the mountains of Cebu and the only other service is DSL and it's so overloaded it's worse than dial-up. As for my canopy, the installer let me watch him set it up, and even took my suggestions I got from coolbusters advice for the settings. The problem here is the basestation. They don't want to upgrade anything because they are such tightwads. We only have 25 subscribers on this tower, compared to towers in the city that have 500+. When we have a connection it's great. But our downtime is about 30%. I'm looking at satellite internet but it's about 3 or 4x as expensive for the same service

You need to be more creative when dealing with these crooks. Firstly, tell them your problem is much worse than it appears- when I have a problem like yours, I tell them it's "slower than a dialup." And it has been happening all the time... your connection resets several times a day, and you can't get an IP address half the time. Also you always have to reboot your SM to get the IP address, so at night when it happens, your connection is lost while you are trying to download stuff overnight. Secondly, if they give you the "just wait 24 hours" BS line, tell them you already waited a frigging week and you're not waiting anymore. BE ASSERTIVE and BE STRICT with them, but DO NOT be abusive or cuss at them. Demand to speak to a supervisor. Tell the supervisor that if the problem isn't fixed within a day or 2 you will go up on the roof, disconnect smartblow, remove the antenna and your attorney will be sending them a letter demanding a full refund for the downtime, and any extra days you paid for, as well as the attorney fees. Also tell him that you will be filing a complaint with the smartbro division of the NTC (yes, there are so many problems with smartbroke that the government telecommunications office has a special division just for them). Tell him if it gets to that point, they will have 10 days to refund your money in CASH, and if they do not, they will lose by default, since they are the ones who breached the contract, and the antenna will belong to you to do with as you please. You can sell it on ebay for 8000p or 10000p, or just smash it with a hammer and feed it to the chickens This technique works for me every time

For those of you who do not know: It doesn't matter which number you press on the phone keypad, as long as you choose one to press. They ALL lead to the SAME CS reps (call center agents). I know this because I pressed 2 (for billing) by accident instead of1 (for tech support) the call agent asked me what my concern is, and I told them. She proceeded just like the tech support, not even mentioning billing. Now they have that robot answering machine that checks you connection, by making you put in your service ref code, etc. If you want to avoid that stupid thing, just press 2 for billing and it will bypass that crap. But to be honest, when their diagnostic system is working well, that robot will report to you that they are "currently performing enhancements to make your service better" and it may "affect" your connection (meaning the base station is broken) . Have a pen ready because that thing will blurt out a service report number incredibly fast and it will not repeat it. So write it down, and just hang up after that. Because that's all you need to get the rebate later. Remember-- smartblow is only interested in your money. If you start applying for rebates for daily problems, that will get their attention and they will try to fix it so they don't lose a few precious pisos. The execs use lots of those when they play golf with the senators. It does no good to bicker with the CSR -- because he/she is just a calling center agent- they have NO tech knowledge, and they have no access to ANY diagnostics other than their "support team." Neither one has any interest in talking to you anyway. If you need a technician to come out, make sure you speak to a supervisor first. Tell him to send a TECHNICIAN NOT an installer. If you don't tell them that you will be sorely disappointed when the part-time installer / chicken farmer comes and just changes your SM only to have the same problem. When they send a tech, there will be at least 4 or 5 standbys that will be with him, and they will arrive in an official fartbro truck. Good luck

I've had Fartbro for about a year. In that time period, I've had no internet for 110 days. I learned to demand a report be made, and that they give me the report number. I got a book a write down all the dates, names of the reps, and the numbers. Then I apply for rebate, which usually takes 3 or 4 months and several calls to get. My favorite Smartblow excuse is that they are making "enhancements" to the base station so I "may experience minor issues" but don't worry it will all be better in "24 hours. " Last time they told me this (last week) it was broken for 5 days. Anytime I call them now, I cut them no slack. Especially since they implemented that stupid answering robot that asks for your account number and sometimes "ends the call" for no reason, wasting about 10 or 20 minutes of your time just to speak to somebody. Whoever programmed that thing is a retard

Greetings I have been a smartbro(ke) subscriber since Sept 2007. I am very familiar with their poor service and support. In November of 2008, they issued a new bill format. They sent a brochure highlighting the change- just a simple change that shows the actual cost of service and the VAT tax separately. At least that's what they want you to think. Get your October bill and November bill and compare them. Look at the top left of the bill- where it says "statement of account." Under that it says "Statement date" then it gives the date of the bill. Under that it says "billing period covering." That is what you need to compare. The October bill says "Billing period covering: Oct 26 2008 - Nov 25 2008." On the November bill the "Billing period covering" date has been altered... it says Oct 26 2008- Nov 25 2008... the SAME period as the October bill says! I wasn't aware of any billing problem until they told me in November that I owed p999 more than I thought. I always pay 2 months in advance because I am 1 hour away from the payment center. When I called them about this, they gave me a big song and dance saying that the payment for August wasn't received so they applied it to that month. But I have the receipt for the August bill payment. I spoke to a supervisor whgo promised to email me an accounting. I never received it. I was too busy to follow up at the time, so I put it on the back burner. Friday, Feb 6, I called to follow up on a rebate that was already 4 months overdue. They asked me to look at the bills for the rebate... of course it wasn't there. But that's when I noticed the billing period change. I spoke to a supervisor who quickly admitted that there had been "many, many complaints" about the problem and smartbro was going to issue a "mass rebate" because they discovered the billing error caused the computer to wrongly double bill ALL SUBSCRIBERS for the period of Oct 26 2008 - Nov 25 2008! I told her to FAX me the details of the rebate. She said she had to wait until Monday, Feb 9 because the billing department was closed for the weekend. On Monday she called me, and began the most incredible excuse-filled, apologetic pile of horse crap I have ever heard- she said that I was "not affected" by the billing scam, so I would not be getting my 999 back. I told her she had 24 hours to have the "support team" who told her that to call me directly and explain the billing error to me. If she did not, I told her I would presume that I am correct, because of their silence, and post the scam on every forum I could find, and also contact the NTC (Mrs Briones is the one in charge of the Smartbro division). I waited 2 days, and nothing else happened. So here I am, reporting to all subscribers to CHECK YOUR BILLS and make sure smartbroke has not double billed you for that time period. I am now going to log off, and write a letter to Mrs Briones of the NTC complete with the clear evidence on their bills, and my receipts. I apologise for the long post, but I feel that smart should not get away with this scam

In that case, test away! But since you're having so much trouble perhaps you should ponder the question "why?"

Vista is a BETA program, meaning it's in the testing mode. Too bad M$ is too dumb / conceited to simply admit that when it was released. Here's what I would do in your situation: 1. Reformat your C drive 2. Install Windows XP 3. Download all the updates except for WGA (Windows genuine advantage) If you're paranoid about screwing everything up, then install the XP OS on a new hard drive and if you don't like it, put the vista OS hard drive back in. This will take a few hours to do, but afterward you'll be much happier As far as Windows 7 goes, it's also in the beta mode, and is just a build-up from Vista. So I'll let other people do the testing and just see where the cards fall. Best of Luck Craig