Friday, September 30, 2011

Smartbro Wimax Review

Last September 17, I bought a voucher from Cashcashpinoy on Smartbro Wimax 1Mbps (125MBps ***edit*** 0.125MBps ***edit***) subscription plus *free* modem for Php799/month, with lock in period of 24 months. I redeemed this yesterday, and since there were a lot of people in the Smart/PLDT center, it took almost 2 hours before I got my modem and subscription. I actually already have another internet subscription from another network, but since their connection is below average, I decided to try Smartbro Wimax.

The moment I got home, I ran to my room to test my new toy - a Motorola CPEi 825 Wimax modem. It was a breeze to install the product, but it took quite a while to find a signal. When it did, all the five signal bars were lit, which means I have perfect reception from my room. Oh and by the way, I first placed the modem on the window ledge to get maximum coverage, but since I didn't want to damage it (I heard it was hard to get customer service from Smart - haven't confirmed this yet, but I'm just playing safe. :D), I transferred it on my desk, which is still near the window so there was no difference in the signal bars. It took me a little more than 30 minutes to completely finish the setup (what, there were a lot of cables involved! :p).

When I started browsing though, was another story. I thought I'd try to check my connection's speed through one of the speed test sites. I noticed that my internet kept disconnecting and it was so slow. The speed test site even barely finished loading. I was really worried then because of the lock-in period. I could not last two years with that kind of connection. It was even slower than my 3G internet. :(

I tried all sorts of experiments to make the connection smoother and faster - I straightened the ethernet cable, updated the driver of my ethernet controller, restarted the modem - to no avail. But then at around 1130pm, the internet came to life! I had my torrent downloader on and it registered 60-80kBps download speed; although surfing was still kind of slow for me. I tried another speed test and it only registered 0.25Mbps download speed, which should be around 30kBps download speed only (is my assumption correct? Sheesh, I'm a certified EcE and yet I'm not so familiar with this stuff).

And so I tested this connection until around about half past 12 - way, way past my bedtime - and there were no downtimes unlike when I first fired up the modem; and yes, it was faster than my 3G internet, which is the way it's supposed to be.

In the morning, upon waking up, which was around 5:30, I checked my torrents and was satisfied that at least 600MB worth of files has already been downloaded, and there was another 300MB+ file about to finish, plus my 50+% One Tree Hill Season 7 download (7.5GB) has reached 70+%, which is not bad. True to their word, Smart's claim of it being more stable has been proven, at least in the first day of my subscription. I sure do hope this does not change for the worse though, I'm actually beginning to love my Wimax. <3

I'll still be observing it for the next couple of weeks and posting reviews every now and then, so stay tuned! :) Photos will be posted soon, I promise!

16 comments:

  1. same experience! it was so annoying, our internet connection keeps being disconnected. we decided to cancel replace it since we wer still in a trial period

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  2. Now I know 2 other ECE bloggers. =D

    If I remember correctly, 1Mbps = 1000kbps so .25Mbps should be around 250kbps. Uh, did I even remember the conversion correctly in the first place? Haha.

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  3. ok naman na yung internet ko sis, medyo may kabagalan magbrowse pero super satisfied with the download speed. anyway I'll have another review soon, still observing my connection since wala pang 3 days e :)

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  4. Yup! That's right sis, but these providers use bits instead of bytes to describe their internet speed, hence the small 'b' in Mbps, which stands for bits. 1 Byte = 8 bits, hence my conversion of 1Mbps to 125MBps. That's 1000 divided by 8. :)

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  5. See, I did not remember it correctly? As if I was even paying attention to the lessons then. It was a major miracle I graduated and passed the board at all. Haha. Seriously.

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  6. LOL don't worry I just recently reunited with my inner EcE :)) I've been IT-minded for the past 3 years already so yeah, I really forgot a LOT about our field.

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  7. Hi Harl! Good luck! Let me know what happens :)

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  8. As of yet...how's the connection? We are contemplating on switching to Smartbro..your blog has been helpful thanks for sharing :)

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  9. Hi Kimba! Sorry for the late reply. :) As of now still the same, there are down times when I could not almost surf but the download is fast.

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  10. Does this 1Mbps Smartbro Wimax Plan 999 enough for online gaming purposes?

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  11. Unfortunately not. Please read my other reviews.

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  12. hi.. til now okay naman po ba yung wimax? mabilis padin? Thanks :)

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  13. any bandwith capping or speed drop when you reach certain bandwith quota? how is youtube streaming? ty

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  14. hi, I'm sorry but did you even read my entry?

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  15. hi, I'm sorry but did you even read my other entries? your questions may be answered there.

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  16. hi there. is this stable? unlike the canopy smartbro. and is this good for gaming in any time? tnx for answering

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