PC tips and tricks

Parameter for judging ISP

SIFY

SIFY had provided broadband connection (last mile) at my residence – NSIT, Sector 3, Dwarka, New Delhi and what SIFY used to call here as a Control room (located in Boys hostel) doesn’t even have any room. Their UPS – the only one, didn’t give backup when tested by me, was covered with wooden planks (to get cover from dust and heat etc.), the SU (Supervisory Unit), cables and radio router etc. were all in the open, in the reach of anyone so that it can be damaged by anyone. Even a dog can easily go and piss on their ISP hardware in the so called state of art hardware Control room.

There were incidents when their SU and broadband equipment was damaged by the Boys hostel -1 boys (after they drunk in the party) but SIFY and the franchisee never cared for this. They (SIFY and the CTO) openly blamed each other for this. They didn’t even bother to take a separate room and raise the height of their antenna. The reason was the rent of the room and the work which nor SIFY nor their franchisee wanted to do.

The broadband solution provided at NSIT, Sector 3, Dwarka is outdated: connectivity through LAN cables, switch, limited bandwidth through radio link between the staff quarters and boys hostel with radio link gateway that leads to frequent cabling and other packet loss issues.

SIFY couldn’t provide a UPS at all the places where their broadband network hardware was installed in even two years. They call it a hybrid technology with a mix of Ethernet and radio links with mesh of wires hanging at low height at most of the places in the NSIT.

When too many students started using the SIFY connection in the night, the download speed reduced and the packet loss started happening. Some time it continued till morning as most of them left movies download to continue whole night. Some of the students were using the SIFY BB last mile LAN to do transfer of files from one PC to another.

Nobody bothered to maintain the Ethernet cables and antennas and in bad weather, SIFY broadband network went for a toss for 1-2 days at least. Once SIFY CTO took three days for changing a DC adapter of a network device.

The maximum amount of downtime at my end was 10 days where SIFY and CTO fought with each other about changing the SU (Supervisory Unit) – a unit costing INR 20K – 25K.

The customer has to configure LAN, install antivirus (a must thing) and install software called SIFY broadband client that keeps track of the customer Internet usage.

Rating for broadband infrastructure (SIFY): 4/10

MTNL has a proper exchange at the last mile and I have not faced issues due to bad broadband infrastructure at the last mile so far. Also, the customer has to take a telephone line from MTNL for the broadband connection and thus it is not a viable option for students which are too many at the place (Engineering college) where I live. Only few people in my residence area have taken the MTNL broadband connection which is a plus point for me.

There is no software that needs to be used when using the MTNL connection, only the broadband modem and the LAN card needs to be configured once primarily for IP, gateway, PVC, broadband number and DNS server. No antivirus or broadband client like SIFY is needed.

Rating for broadband infrastructure (MTNL): 7/10

SIFY is obviously keeping new untrained persons who are getting on the job training by harassing customers and learning from the customer’s knowledge.

You would be lucky if you are able to actually speak to some one after pressing the required keys through SIFY IVRS. Sometimes, it just goes into loop and you would wonder what you are doing wrong. Sometimes, the person will pick up and the call will get disconnected. Now, where you will complain about the SIFY broadband complaint IVRS? Actually no where! I never got any call back ever after leaving my number when their customer care executives were busy.

Example of technical competency of SIFY Support would be: If you tell them that you are downloading a file on FTP and getting 5-7 KBps download speed for last 3 hours for a 256 Kbps connection, they will tell you to clear your Microsoft Internet Explorer cookies etc. Now what has a FTP program to do with browser cookies if you are directly downloading through FTP windows command or some FTP GUI software. Only Satyam Infoway technical support knows the answer to this.

There are several classic examples that I can write to show that SIFY broadband technical support persons are uneducated, completely new and are incompetent to handle most of the broadband support calls. Most of them don’t know what Ping or FTP is!

The SIFY Engineers knows how to tell lies and are technically incompetent to address the main issue.

If I start giving you the relevant examples, the blog will be full and it won’t lead anywhere. I am never going to use their service now.

They couldn’t sort out the issue of frequent packet loss to the local gateway and Internet in two and a half years. Their top bosses and Regional Managers come to the offices for sleeping.

I sent so many emails to SIFY Customer Care and their top bosses but no one could give a permanent solution to the ON and OFF frequent and too much packet loss issue on their network. More than 4% packet loss is not allowed by TRAI but SIFY local network was so bad that it used to mostly give more than 4% to 40% packet loss in night time. I still have screenshots to prove this, showing and discussing this with anyone in SIFY was just wasting of time.

The time for fixing a problem as claimed by SIFY is 1 business day and they have normally always exceeded it with some of the problems like “packet loss of more than 4%” and Unable to reach SIFY server/ gateway happening almost on average every day. The packet loss problem of more than 4% in night time was not solved permanently in two and a half years.

Rating for SIFY technical support: 3/10

The duration of solving a problem is one day and so far it is true; MTNL has managed to solve each of the two problems in less than one day that came in the three months of my MTNL broadband connection usage so far.

Also, the IVRS system is better than SIFY as it does not RNA (Ring No Answer), does not go to loop (you keep on pressing the right keys but the call never goes to the Customer Support person) and does not disconnect frequently.

Rating for MTNL technical support: 5/10

The technicians were hardly 10th or 12th pass and didn’t know ABCD of networking and troubleshooting. I could easily find this because they used to come to my house for attending my complaint, they were not able to make the network diagram of their broadband setup at NSIT, they didn’t know how to fill the call sheet and talked irrelevant things not at all related to the problem troubleshooting.

So, how are they supposed to solve the broadband issues – by trial and error or calling SIFY technicians who were technically little above them.

The reason I used SIFY broadband for more than two years despite such negative experiences was that I wasn’t having the choice of using other broadband ISP’s earlier.

Rating of SIFY business model: 3/10

Thus the downtime in case of broadband problems is less as the persons supporting the broadband network are from MTNL and not from some other company.

In case of some hardware failure – expensive or inexpensive at last mile, MTNL knows that it has to repair or replace it and there is no tussle with some other party.

Rating of MTNL business model: 8/10

In the daytime, the download speed  of my 256Kbps connection was usually in the range of 25-30 KBps connection but in night, it usually fluctuated in between 10 – 50 KBps (in night I was suppose to get 512 Kbps) for up to 512Kbps download connection. SIFY could never sort out this fluctuating download speed in night time. They offered me excuses of virus hitting, UDP flooding, network interference and too many users using the connection simultaneously (in actual- over subscription greed and poor network configuration).

You would likely keep pulling your hair like me wondering if SIFY internet connection at night is broadband or dialup. The answer is that it becomes dialup connection in the night. Showing picture of bullet train in their broadband client’s authentication program was the biggest joke. I suggested them to paste the picture of bullock cart in night time to correctly reflect the actual speed of their broadband connection but they never did it.

Rating for SIFY broadband speed: 4/10

So, I have not felt the need to check the packet loss (except once- twice) as the download speed has been close to the promised download speed.

Rating for MTNL broadband speed: 9/10

I usually was taking PN51 pack that offered Unlimited 256 Kbps download speed in daytime and 512 Kbps download speed in the night and it used to cost me Rs. 1122 approx.

This price excluded the cost of half an hour that I was spending on average per day on troubleshooting or lodging the complaint, coordinating and supervising with SIFY for my broadband connection problems.

Rating for SIFY connection cost: 6/10

Presently, I have Rs. 999 unlimited download broadband plan with Rs. 50 as modem rent totalling to Rs. 1049 p.m  with 100 free calls.

The cost of the MTNL connection is less than a SIFY connection which used to cost me Rs. 1122 p.m for a half time 256Kbps connection. There were no free calls with SIFY internet connection.

Rating for MTNL cost: 8/10

In more than two years of SIFY broadband usage, it has been down for an average 2 hours per day, i.e., 2 days per month equaling to 7 % downtime which is pretty high.

Rating for SIFY downtime: 3/10

During my total usage of three months of broadband connection, the total downtime for MTNL connection has been a total of 12 hours which comes to 0.55 %. SIFY connection downtime was 13 times as compared to MTNL connection downtime.

Rating for MTNL downtime: 9/10

Similarly they told lies about the 24 hour support (they had limited support till 20:30), packet loss issues (they never got the cabling and the signal strength etc. tested at my end) and SMS response from 54545 in short period (I mostly didn’t get response in days) etc.

I used to get a lot of calls if I did cc to top bosses in emails but at the core the problem still remained where it was. The two examples are packet loss issue and UPS backup. SIFY couldn’t get these issues resolved even after I emailed/spoke to their top bosses.

Most of the people in SIFY spoke to me in English while their CTO staff spoke to me in Hindi. For international users, this might be a slightly plus point as compared to MTNL staff who mostly speaks Hindi.

However, I don’t mind in communicating in Hindi or English, the only thing that I want is that message should be conveyed and intended work of technical problem/other issues should be.

The overall attitude of SIFY team was unprofessional with most of the people telling lies boasting about their service whereas the truth was opposite. The calls received in reference to a complaint by me were too many but the work done for solving the issue was less or nil.

Rating for overall attitude (SIFY): 3/10

MTNL employees and their outsourced call centre executives mostly converse in Hindi and not in English. Till so far, they have always tried to help me with reference to the help needed for my MTNL broadband connection when ever required.

Rating for overall attitude (MTNL): 7/10