It seems I wasn’t the only one noticing that as of the last few months my Zain LTE Router is no where near what it used to be.

People may say that 4G does it for them, its good for quick browsing and going through normal internet usage, but not heavy duty lifting, not major downloading or gaming what so ever.

Below is the full comment of Tenthfire that really broke down all the issues I was facing as well as details that I honestly didn’t delve into.

I am very disappointed with Zain LTE this year with their approach on their internet. If you check the highway their advertisement was “extremely fast speed and good for gaming” or some similar words.

This year Zain LTE decided to buy cheaper routers compared to last year. These new routers are extremely worse than because that their range is 2/4 compared to the one 1 year ago. The router malfunctions more and the chip is much worse than before. I have to say that 0 tests were made on the router.

I will try not to go into details, but if you play League of Legends, Dota, WOW, Diablo, etc do not get this router as it is extremely unstable.
Last year being one of the first people to have Zain LTE in the country with the modem + 80GB limit (now increased to 300G in 2014) I will tell you my experience.
Usually my ping in gaming is 180-1000. Mostly 180-400 which is extremely unplayable and you get frustrated.

I managed to figure an IP that had a more stable ping than others and managed to configure my router with minimum traffic and to get IP, getting 130-140 ping.
On 2014 they changed router and chip and also programmed their servers in an extremely poor way where it rejected people with old routers / chips. This caused a massive amount of disconnection and customer service have no way of helping you. The people on customer service have no idea how internet work or what the basics of latency are.

Anyways on 2014 I got a new contract hoping that their internet will get better. They increased the limit from 80GB–> 300GB which is amazing.
Zain LTE, however, after a few months starting in March decided to cancel 3G service , so now all cell phones are forced to get 4G LTE.
There is an increased pressure on 4G LTE and the server is extremely over used. The speed went around 3GB / slower per 4 months.
I am sad to say that now the speed of Zain LTE at 3.14.2014 with tests is 5-12 GB/ second on download and less than 10GB in upload from the normal standard which was 40GB+.
IF you buy a normal DSL your ping / internet will be more stable and faster.
I have done some tests on certain IP : 149.147.19.119 37.37.162.104 37.36.132.137 31.203.192.129 37.203.192.129 37.39.173.140 188.236.211.62 188.236.37.152
and many more.

I also made a list of the problems Zain 4G LTE service is having from 2014 (especially Feb and March):
1. Assigning two people the same “IP ” (usually when several computers connect to a router they are given different “IP”).
This is bad, because if that person with the same “IP” downloads something your speed will get slower and if you’re gaming you will lag.
2. Disables Youtube Comments and enables Safety Mode.
This is an extremely annoying problem only seem from their filter / internet problem. Youtube loads extremely slow as well and a lot of problems.
3. Unable to browser specific websites from an “error” which can be solved by turning off your router for 30 seconds – 2 minutes.
This gets annoying when I have to close my router to access sites like XXX website because the router is “stuck” and it happens a lot. Sometimes it gets me an error while going on google. This is only with their service. I have tried normal DSL and other internet services which are much better.
4. As I said before their router radius is extremely low and signal level affects ping.
Radius is usually 0.5 floorX 0.80 floor (LXW) meaning it is worse than any other types.
5. Router shutdowns if you download 3 things simultaneously.
Lets say I download 3 from Itunes 3GB each I can crush my router and their server. It will build up some level of “clog” on that IP address that it will be slow. You will need to change your IP address.

Their simple network structure is sad and if I was to rate it from 1-10 I would give it 0.
I do not recommend this internet for any person who wants a stable network or for gaming. I do not recommend 4G LTE from any company as it is extremely unstable and fails to bring minimum international standards. Calling this network 4G LTE is a simple joke.
This is only 1/5 of the server problems I see. If I was to include more problems on their server and networks it would be extremely cruel.

How they can solve most problems:
1-Fix network stability ( I believe a multi-million dollar company can figure out how to do this).
2-Do not overload yourself with people when your network is extremely weak.
3-Offer certain configuration for gamers.
4-Fix disconnection problems.
5-Find a better engineer for your routers and their components.
6-Do more testing on your routers before buying them from China.

There was one point in time where I was between jobs, so I had some time off and I took full advantage of it. I remember those days, I was getting a lot of work and errands done and meeting with a lot of people for potential work and yet having a lot of time to myself. I even remember riding during the week which was a lot of fun. That was a good time, but now it seems like a distant dream.

On The Back Burner

• Major Gaming – Halo 4 & StarCraft 2
• Playing the Games that are in still in their wrappers
• Watching Anime
• Cleaning Up My Office
• Catching Up With Movies
• Getting Some Computer Automation Done (Syncronization Details)
• Take A Cooking Class

Personal time is a luxury that I don’t really have, even sleep these past few weeks hasn’t been at the top of the list so there are days where I just crash, I just shutdown, even an earthquake couldn’t wake me up (I have slept through an Earthquake while traveling recently). I have been thinking about taking time off work for about a week and then telling everyone I am out of town and then just get things done at home while enjoying every moment of free time, but that probably won’t be happening. I would like nothing better then to abuse the internet I have at home, on this vacation I wouldn’t want to leave the house if possible except for Riding and food.

For a lot of people things slow towards the end of Ramadan and the first week after, but in my case it has been insane. I haven’t even had much online time the last two weeks, I’ve been busy getting a ton of work done plus family obligations the last few weeks have been a top priority.

I even had a ridiculous 16 hour trip to Dubai and back for work, and I didn’t even have a chance to watch a movie. The crazy thing is that since Wednesday 7am until about Friday 11 pm I couldn’t sleep, I thought I just my sleeping patterns during Eid but it seems something was off. Those few days were insane, I was on weird power surges, I would get insane energy and a few times I would just take a 20 minute nap and then wake up and keep going. The most frustrating thing was that I was in bed and staring at the wall, I even kept the laptop away so I could try to fall asleep but nothing. I even ate so much Thursday and thought the food coma would put me to sleep and it almost did but I passed the window of opportunity and just didn’t sleep Even Friday night when I did go to sleep I woke up at 5 am and since then my sleep has been somewhat adjust back to early mornings, I didn’t even make up for the lost days of sleep.

The good thing during that time I managed to catch up with a lot of shows, but I still have so many to watch. I think I would like about 2 months of to catch up with everything then go back to normal life. I have managed to

One major thing that has taken me a lot of time is some major home reorganization and clean up. It has taken me days, and it is basically cleaning out almost 20 years with of stuff. Plus I found the old StarTV Satellite receiver from 1991 and a betamax and VCR player in our old storage in the basement. It was taking a lot of time to go through all those items, I even found some old parts from my 1997 Chevy Suburban.

With all things going on, I feel like I’m not getting anything done, but I’m slowly finishing a few of these major tasks at a time. Plus I’m doing a major overhaul of my Storage Unit and Media Player System, so I have that going on as well. Multitasking is the name of the game, and I need to make a few clones of myself to get everything I want done and some sleep.

(The picture is from Yelp Offices, and I love the Mach 5 on the table.)

Ok how annoying is it when you charge something then walk away with it for a little while and then suddenly its already dead or at least half way there! After doing nothing. This involves a few things such as laptops, mp3 players, cell phones, and other pieces of electronics that are on lithium batteries. Technology has moved forward greatly over the past 5 years, but battery technology has not improved that much! That is what they have to work on!

You know when you charge your cell phone and use it for about three phone calls, and when you put it down its beeping like crazy and then it dies! That is probably the most annoying, but what annoys me the most is battery cell memory. Its what happens what you charge your batter too much and then it loses some power in it because you charged it before it was drained. The manufacturers tell you it cant happen but it does, that is why people replace there batteries! Nokia phones are a bit better then before since that they dont decay as fast any more! Some phones are pretty bad phones, but they have improved. My luck has been better with Mp3 players since none of the ones I have had have gone bad yet.

But my laptop is annoying now, since one battery is as useful as a paperweight. And the second one is going down the same road! I took it off the charger and 20 mins later it was beeping! I want to slap somebody who built the damn battery! What the hell were they thinking! Cant they improve this damn technology! And now whats even worse Dell and Sony laptops are blowing up left and right!

We got to Dubai!

The Olympic Airlines looked like a 20 yearold chewed up version of Jazeera! I paid the price of damn Sri Lanka Airline not Jazeera! The funny part in the Airplane the flight attendents didnt speak except a few words of English and half the time I had no clue what they were saying! But I didnt care! I just wanted to get there!

I was just happy our bags came with us to the Dubai, I was expecting them not to be there and I was ready to get pissed! But I was very happy when I saw our bags!

But its all good! I got out, the car came. I told the driver he will get a huge tip if he will get us there in under 15 mins! And he flew! And he also breaked like crazy for all the damn cameras! There are a TON of cameras in Dubai every damn 100 meters!

We got here! Check in after they got all the paperwork from us! We came into the room! Ordered some food! I got a burger because I was damn hungry! And I was to sleep with a full stomach, and dont care about the health ramifications! At some point I think my friend wanted to strangle me because I wouldnt let him sleep and kept laughing! We were both losing it after this long day! But we got here!

Food soon, and watching tv! Then pass out until the meeting!

OK this has gotten rediculous! our flight was supposed to be on Sri Lanka Airlines to Dubai at 7:11pm! Its 11:15pm right now, and they have just switched us to Olympus airlines at 12:20am which I have no clue what the hell airline that is.. but Im still going!

I want to kick someone’s ass! Im going to get compensation gauranteed! When I thought I was going to board the flight they said someone pressed the boarding button by mistake! So I went back to the lounge!

Sri Lanka Airlines is partly owned and managed by Emirates Airlines! My friend is in a daze! I have the mobile number to the station manager whom I shouted at a bit.. but I shall do more shouting later! When I reach Dubai! On whatever this Olympus airlines is!

Update: Some couple cant get on the flight transfer because they have to continue to other flights… so this honeymooning couple are pissed as hell! Cant blame them, but they cant really shout.. they sound pretty pathetic, they dont know how to argue.

Update II: At this point, we are past the sleepy point and reached the delirious point! We are laughing at random people, and calling random people up on the cell phone! This sucks as a start of a trip! I hope no one goes through this!

Half days… who thought of them? Seriously!

Why cant we all get the same two days off! I dont want to work half a day on thursday! I think the people who work half a day on thursday get the short end of the stick! Because people who work in Banks and Financing they get Friday and Saturday off. And some people get Thursday and Friday off. But this half day thing really gets to me sometimes!

I think they should make all working holidays Friday and Saturday if they want to be uniform with financial institutuions and give us a damn break! Anyone else think it should be this way? Everything is working fine in the other countries with everyone having saturday and sunday off!

I have been at work a three hours now.. and the internet is slow for some reason, which is very annoying! But whats killing me is the A/C died a few hours ago!

They said they are working on it, but its getting HOT in here!  Its more like a damn oven! Its making me feel very annoyed! I want to kick the A/C people’s ass right now for not working on it last night! Why the hell did they decide to work on it in the damn afternoon! why didnt they come at 7am and work on it when it was slightly cooler!

I shall remain in a pissed off mood, until I get some cool air! I have drank 2 cold 7ups, and 4 glasses of water and counting! I think I might leave work to pick up one of those Wansa stand alone A/Cs!!!

So MTC updated their network about two or three weeks back now. Because I remember them sending a text message that we will be getting a text message with all the new settings and to enter 1234 as the password.

Well like usual I didnt get the text message, and from that day onwards MMS, and GPRS/EDGE stopped working on both phones. One phone I have for myself is a Nokia 6280, and the other phone is an imate JasJar for work. Well the Nokia is simple enough to do the settings, but the imate is hell to configure even if they do give you the right settings. And it was going to be annoying to drive to the city to the distributer to have them set it up.

Well I called MTC to have them send me the settings for my Nokia, and then they tell me that I dont have MMS. Well I have been sending MMS up until that point a few weeks ago. Then the guy tells me he doesnt see it, I said fine add it, here is my information and send me the settings. That took about 20 mins, because he wasnt sure of the difference between GPRS and MMS so I was dealing with a genius. After that came the imate, and I know it has everything as well, and I have it on paper, because I recently got the number for work. And I had the paperwork for when I signed up. And when I called he told me that I never had MMS, but I had EDGE signed up. So I told him that I have an MTC paper in front of me with all the options selected so how come MMS was removed from my options. Then he told me he doesnt see anything, and I though it would be futile to argue with this person because he seemed clueless as well. When I told him to add it, and he asked what phone I had I told him the imate. I know how to setup the network settings for that phone, and so I told him to give me the information by phone, he said he doesnt have it but he could have it faxed. I said fine, fax it and I asked him how many pages. He told me about 2-3 pages. I went out and came back after a few hours and I went to the fax and saw a huge stack of papers. Turned out those 2-3 pages were 43 pages of the GPRS and MMS settings with the normal line and ezee line instructions, which didnt work, and my black ink ran out! I was pissed, and all I could do was take the papers to work and recycle them! Now these are the geniuses from MTC, and imate still doesnt connect. So I still have to go to the distributer to have him check the settings. The GPRS works, but the MMS doesnt. And if I try to use the MMS it will somehow make the GPRS stop working! Thank you MTC.

I’ve got to be at this crappy conference for two days 8am to 4pm. Its about oil and other matters, but Im really not looking forward to it. I have been to a lot of conferences in Kuwait and very few have been good. I think I can only remember 2 that have been good out the of the 17 that I have been to!

I really hope they have wireless where Im going or else Im going to be bored out of my mind.