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Any problems with Smartbro Lately?


omega316

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Has anyone encountered some problems with smart bro lately? like page not loading well, or page not loading at all, intermittent connection and the like...

I live in Zamboanga City, just last week I encountered this problem like some webpages are not loading and you have to keep on hitting the refresh button in order to load the webpage. Even testmy.net did not load, I have to keep refreshing the page in order to load testmy.net page.  :shock:

So I tried to check what the problem is, Im using a router so I hook up smarbro directly to my PC, same issue. Next, I check my canopy and everything is ok, low jitter, hi RSSI.. few SM connected to AP. Third, I scan for viruses and spyware with updated NOD32, run tuneup utilites, delete temp files, defrag registry, defrag hard drive but still have the same issue.

I was thinking, there might be a problem with the routing table of smartbro.. I'm not sure.

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same problem here. We are already using 2 computers. same problem when connected to line directly. same problem when connected to a router. not experiencing the problem on hotspots. may problema ata sa routing. di maka access ng secured sites. no fix so far. hirap ma prove sa smartbro na sa kanila problema pag ganitong cases. kelangan maraming mag report for them to work on the issue. it is definitely not in your are kase I am from quezon city.

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yep, im getting the same problem recently. images on friendster doesn't seem to show up.. i tried calling them and informed them about the issue.. in general everything is good, except from this intermittent loading problem..

By the way, smartbro is now slowly implementing a different method of authentication. before, the system logged the MAC address of your LAN card causing re-registration if the server detects a new MAC ADDRESS, instead they are now logging the MAC ADDRESS of your canopy specific to that particular ACCESS POINT ALONE.

you will know if it has been implemented in your area since the log in page is no longer portal.smartbro.net but instead it's going to be bro-portal.smartbro.net... this is actually a good thing since we dont have to call them everytime we change PC... the difference is that you will be asked for your Service reference number and your account number and not your username and password.

but the downside of this one is that if you are being re routed to a different tower then the reset would take around 4 hours.. this is based on my experience last sunday.. i called around 12pm got a call from them at around 4 and everything was fixed..

you might be asking if its risky to change the color code.. the answer is NO... you must remember that in a TOWER/CELLSITE there are several Access Point.. they are usually a cluster of 4 or 6 Access POINT to cover the 360 degree requirement... and this access point shares one database.. so you can connect on either of those 6 access point without calling customer care. as long as you are trying to connect to a same cellsite then its not a problem.. you will notice that its a different tower/cellsite since its going to be a diffent color COde... you might have noticed that the color codes comes in order.. in my end its 73 74 75 76 and 77. i connect to 77 at night and 73 in the morning. hehe..  so if its going to be 60 or 80 then i will suspect that its a different tower/cellsite.

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hallo.. i also encountered the same problem for almost 3 days..it seems that smartbro is having problem especially on their DNS servers..i tried using the ones on the opendns.org website and i was able to open different websites again without any problems. try setting your DNS server address to static using these:

208.67.222.222 - preferred dns

208.67.220.220 - alternate dns

this solved my browsing problem,it might also help you guys..there are also other DNS servers on the internet that you could try to use like:

4.2.2.1

4.2.2.2

202.57.96.2

202.57.96.3

tried them both and it worked..again,its just a matter of trial and error.

hope this helps!  :smiley:

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  • 1 month later...

I am  from Zamboanga my SmartBro is having problem recently and I cannot open some sites so I used proxy server like hidemyass.com. and it works. Now, my other problem is I have 2 computers and currently using a splitter I never have a problem before using this setup I can connect to the internet simultaneously but now recently i have problem trying to access the net so I have to flush my dns and login to to smartportal to access the internet  but when I do this my other computer will have problem accessing the net in vice versa. So, I made some research about this problem and I found a solution "cloning the mac address" now at first I thought i have solved this problem but when my 2 computers are connected to the internet simultaneously both computers will have no connection .. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

so its possible to use a disconnected canopy and a MAC Address from a neighbor with an active subscription right?

before yes. but now, its no longer possible since smartbro identifies you using the MAC address of your canopy. unless you know how to modify the mac address of your canopy to make it the same as your neighbors, then that's the time that it's possible.

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Guys I do not suggest that you clone MAC Address in order for you to have an internet connection. Cloning MAC address would result to DHCP giving both PC the same IP Address, it would result to intermittent connection both for the legit and illegal sub. That is not good at all specially for the paying sub cause you almost can't surf at all!

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my smartbro connection is very slowwwwwwww........ :uglystupid2:..and i cant do anything about it... :knuppel2:

sometimes there are factors that no matter what you do on your end won't have an effect at all!  One major factor is the default bandwidth allocation of the base station to where you are homed. Base station bandwidth may range (depending on location/community classification) from 1.8mbps (slowest) to around 20mbps (im not sure of this) then you divide it to the total number of subscribers homed in that basestation (assuming everyone is online)

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If you have any problems with smartbroke, call the *1888 service center. Make them make a service report about your problem. They may want to put you through some basic troubleshooting like renew your IP, etc. DEMAND they make a report, and GET THE REPORT NUMBER. Write it down. Tell them thanks, and goodbye. Each day you have the problem report it again, get another number. I have a notebook full of these. I suggest get your own little notebook, you will need it. After the problem appears solved, call again, give them all the report numbers and dates, and tell them you are applying for a rebate. Get that report number and WRITE IT DOWN with the date. Call them every few days to find out if they issued the rebate yet. Keep on them and they WILL give you a rebate. DO NOT accept any rebate less than it should be. They will almost always offer you only 100p for 500p worth of days of bad service. Tell them "not good enough!" you want the FULL REBATE. If you must, speak to a supervisor. They will say none is available. Tell them you will not hang up until you speak to one.

Believe me, your problem won't last long when they realize you will not be paying for the bad service. It worked for me, I had about 100 days of bad service last year, and I got a rebate for it all. Now they know me on a first-name basis, and I very seldom have any problems ( :

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A cautionary note on cloning mac addresses- If you don this and you try to communicate over the network with any cloned mac computer the network will go through something like this:

You type (for example) the IP address for one of the cloned computers, say 192.168.0.3. The network will broadcast "who has 192.168.0.3?" Because TWO computers have the same mac, BOTH will answer with their mac address, which is the same. The network will become confused and will not be able to connect you to either because of the conflict. It will NOT tell you what the problem is, it will just hang, and hang, finally timing out. This will happen especially if you try to network one cloned computer to the other one.

The same problem can happen if you allow Smartbro to give the SAME IP address to 2 cloned mad computers. Smartbro will expect ONE computer to answer, but it will get TWO answers. This can cause their network to become seriously confused, maybe even thinking it has been hacked by another user, cloning your mac.

I have been through all of this stuff already. I finally spoke to an engineer from smart, and he traced the problem to the duplicate mac address. He kept saying, "hmmm... this is weird... I see 2 replies to everything the smart network transmits...do you have more than one computer connected?" I played dumb, not wanting him to know that I cloned a mac. I told him it must be a smart network problem.

After that, I hooked up a router to my smartbro cable. I changed the mac addresses back to normal on both my computers. Now, smartbro sees ONLY the router mac address. I made sure that the router firewall was activated so that my 2 computer mac addresses didn't come through to the smartbro network, because that would cause the network to make me login to the portal each time I switched computers.

The same goes for routers. If you are using more than one router, make sure you don't clone the macs. Just hook the 2nd router into the output of the 1st as if it were just another computer.

Right now I'm using 4 computers on my smartbro connection, but it only sees the one mac address of my router. I can even access my canopy through my router, although the installer made all the settings correct so I didn't have to change anything

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A cautionary note on cloning mac addresses- If you don this and you try to communicate over the network with any cloned mac computer the network will go through something like this:

You type (for example) the IP address for one of the cloned computers, say 192.168.0.3. The network will broadcast "who has 192.168.0.3?" Because TWO computers have the same mac, BOTH will answer with their mac address, which is the same. The network will become confused and will not be able to connect you to either because of the conflict. It will NOT tell you what the problem is, it will just hang, and hang, finally timing out. This will happen especially if you try to network one cloned computer to the other one.

The same problem can happen if you allow Smartbro to give the SAME IP address to 2 cloned mad computers. Smartbro will expect ONE computer to answer, but it will get TWO answers. This can cause their network to become seriously confused, maybe even thinking it has been hacked by another user, cloning your mac.

I have been through all of this stuff already. I finally spoke to an engineer from smart, and he traced the problem to the duplicate mac address. He kept saying, "hmmm... this is weird... I see 2 replies to everything the smart network transmits...do you have more than one computer connected?" I played dumb, not wanting him to know that I cloned a mac. I told him it must be a smart network problem.

After that, I hooked up a router to my smartbro cable. I changed the mac addresses back to normal on both my computers. Now, smartbro sees ONLY the router mac address. I made sure that the router firewall was activated so that my 2 computer mac addresses didn't come through to the smartbro network, because that would cause the network to make me login to the portal each time I switched computers.

The same goes for routers. If you are using more than one router, make sure you don't clone the macs. Just hook the 2nd router into the output of the 1st as if it were just another computer.

Right now I'm using 4 computers on my smartbro connection, but it only sees the one mac address of my router. I can even access my canopy through my router, although the installer made all the settings correct so I didn't have to change anything

Correct! :) so there's no point in cloning MAC Addresses, unless only one pc at a time is surfing the net. Anyway there's no point in cloning MAC Addresses anymore cause basestations shall be updated which would require your Canopy Mac address as the identifier in the network and no longer your PCMAC.

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A cautionary note on cloning mac addresses- If you don this and you try to communicate over the network with any cloned mac computer the network will go through something like this:

You type (for example) the IP address for one of the cloned computers, say 192.168.0.3. The network will broadcast "who has 192.168.0.3?" Because TWO computers have the same mac, BOTH will answer with their mac address, which is the same. The network will become confused and will not be able to connect you to either because of the conflict. It will NOT tell you what the problem is, it will just hang, and hang, finally timing out. This will happen especially if you try to network one cloned computer to the other one.

The same problem can happen if you allow Smartbro to give the SAME IP address to 2 cloned mad computers. Smartbro will expect ONE computer to answer, but it will get TWO answers. This can cause their network to become seriously confused, maybe even thinking it has been hacked by another user, cloning your mac.

I have been through all of this stuff already. I finally spoke to an engineer from smart, and he traced the problem to the duplicate mac address. He kept saying, "hmmm... this is weird... I see 2 replies to everything the smart network transmits...do you have more than one computer connected?" I played dumb, not wanting him to know that I cloned a mac. I told him it must be a smart network problem.

After that, I hooked up a router to my smartbro cable. I changed the mac addresses back to normal on both my computers. Now, smartbro sees ONLY the router mac address. I made sure that the router firewall was activated so that my 2 computer mac addresses didn't come through to the smartbro network, because that would cause the network to make me login to the portal each time I switched computers.

The same goes for routers. If you are using more than one router, make sure you don't clone the macs. Just hook the 2nd router into the output of the 1st as if it were just another computer.

Right now I'm using 4 computers on my smartbro connection, but it only sees the one mac address of my router. I can even access my canopy through my router, although the installer made all the settings correct so I didn't have to change anything

i dont think so.

i am using a hub and not a router... i have my 2 computers connected to the hub.. as you know, the hub does not assign an IP address...

my 2 pcs have the same MAC ADDRESS..  the access point assigns different IP address so with regards to surfing the net then its not a problem. the only downside is that you cannot share files among 2 computers..

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