In WiMax I Trust(ed)

It was only less than 2 weeks ago that I subscribed for a WiMax connection. At first I thought it was from P1, I only realised that it wasn't 3 days later... LOL!

It took a while for the promoters from Amax to convince me to subscribe. One of the main reasons that held me back was the 3 months advance payment upon subscription. The bill was RM138/month, so 3 months would sum up to RM414!! That's a lot for a student like me. =)

But the only factor that made me subscribe was the 7-day cooling period. That means I have 7 days to try out WiMax before they officially check the RM414 into my account. Within this 7 days, I can terminate my subscription if I want to and get a 100% refund. =)

After I finally subscribed for the 1.5M package, I was too excited to try out their connection speed! =D

I went straight home and plugged it into my computer. A little tweaking on my network settings and it should work like a charm. But to my disappointment, it didn't. =(

I called the person who sold me the package numerous times and they checked if there was a problem on their side lots of times too. They confirmed that their towers are working, my account is fully activated and I should get my WiMax connection. But I still didn't get any connection!! *frustrated*

After a few days, they sent in a so-called technician. He brought his laptop plugged with a portable USB WiMax modem. He started streaming on YouTube before entering my house just to prove that the signal was not a problem in my house. =.="

Judging by the way he works, I can tell that he's a lousy technician because I already tried everything that he came to do. Then he checks his laptop's connection just by playing the pre-loaded YouTube video and claimed that the signal was good!! *LAME*

I checked the modem they gave me and it wasn't even connected to their side. So I was 100% sure that it was their problem (or at least the modem's problem). The technician then left and said that he will continue checking the connection on their side.

Then the Hari Raya holidays commenced and no one was working so I couldn't get anyone to fix my connection. Then I got a call on Friday. They said that they're sending their technician to my house on Monday... AGAIN!! =/

I was thinking "if its that noob technician again, forget it!! I'll just terminate my WiMax!!"

Then on Monday, which was yesterday, "they" came. It was a 4-man team. Kinda like a bomb squad ready to defuse the bomb in my house lol. All of them opened their laptop and all of a sudden my house looked like an operations center for the military. xD

Two of them were chinese and spoke mandarin with a China-ish slang. The other two were Malays, one of which came previously. This time, I can tell that the two chinese fellas were more competent in fixing this than the other two. At least they know what they're doing and what was the problem.

FYI: I asked and they're actually from the company who built the WiMax towers and in-charge of the technical stuff.

Turns out that my house, eventhough less than 500m from their tower, is located at the border of the WiMax beam's trajectory. Here's a rough idea:



All this while, I placed the receiver right at the center of my house, covered by a few layer of walls. Since my house was at the border of the beam, the signal cannot penetrate my house. So the solution was to place the receiver next to the window or outside to get better signal strength.
(The previous technician was WRONG after all!!)

The problem is, my computer together with the network links of the whole house, is located dead center of my house downstairs. So either the cables aren't long enough, or it'll look freaking ugly.

Since there was an unused network point in my room next to the window, I placed it there but now only my computer could use WiMax.

Another thing was that, it's already wayyyy past 7 days after I subscribed for WiMax but I only got to use it yesterday. So I asked the person at the office if he could extend my cooling period. And thankfully he did, or else I would be defaming Amax here. xP

So now, I have 7 days (starting Monday) to fully utilize WiMax until my father decides to switch from Streamyx to WiMax. Then he'd be the one paying the bills and I can claim my RM414 from him. =p

Otherwise, I'll be terminating the WiMax subscription and sticking with TMNut (not a typo) until something better comes along or Streamyx decides to give me my full bandwidth.

Good thing about WiMax is that the download speed is wayyyy better than Streamyx. At least they deliver what they promised, which is a 1584kbps download bandwidth.

But there's bound to be a bad side to everything and WiMax is not excluded. Their upload speed is kinda slow... But in fact, who cares!

Lol... I don't actually upload large files or anything, so why should I care? =p

Below is a comparison between WiMax and Streamyx using SpeedTest.

Don't be mistaken, this is not the minimum, but the maximum bandwidth I could squeeze out of both ISP's. I turned off all my internet programs and the modem is solely connected to my computer to get maximum speed.


TMNet Streamyx

My Streamyx package is actually 1.5Mbps download and 512kbps upload. Yet, they're only giving me half of everything. =(



Amax WiMax
(I seriously don't know why is it "TIME")

My WiMax package is also 1.5Mbps (1584kbps) and I'm getting more than I should! Which is a good thing. =D

They said that they're currently concentrating on the download speed so WiMax's upload speed is only 20% of their download speed, which is around 280-320kbps.

The point is, WiMax is giving me what they promised but Streamyx isn't.

I'm paying RM66/month for 723kbps (Streamyx)
and RM138/month for 1667kbps (WiMax)
(upload is neglected since it's almost the same)

Double the money for more than double the bandwidth. Sounds like a good deal to me. =)
If only my father had the same view. =Þ

Here's an example of what I can do with WiMax =D

(Click to enlarge)


Have fun reading! =D