My ISP and Me

I don’t know if this is a widespread issue but I have been having a hard time getting online lately with TMNet.

I’ve been subscribing to this ISP for quite some time now and for the most part I have been satisfied with them. It has only been lately that I noticed that I could not get connected as easily as I did before. I used to be able to get connected to the Internet within the first 2 or at most 3 attempts. Nowadays I’m lucky to get connected after half an hour of trying. The problem gets even worse in the evenings between 9 to 11pm which is the time I most likely be trying to get online to log in my blog for the day.

I’ve been using the same ISP since 1996 when I came back from the States after completing my studies. At the time, there were only two ISPs that were operating in Malaysia. I choose TMNet because at the time it was easier to pay my internet bills with them as they were part of the main fixed-line telecommunication company serving the country. Their competitor at the time billed their customers separately and their users had to pay for two bills instead of just one with TMNet.

Since then, there have been a few ISPs that have begun offering their services to users in Malaysia. Few are offering their services at quite a premium but with better connection speeds. Since I never had any problems with my ISP before, it never crossed my mind to switch to a new ISP even when they offered me a substantial discount for their services. I was basically with the mind set that if it is not broken, why change it. But the way my internet connection has been acting lately, I have to really reconsider TMNet’s reliability in supporting my needs.

To be frank, I have been thinking of going broadband with TMNet with their Streamyx service but I was thinking of doing that once I move into my new house. I guess that I could report the problem to them and see if they would respond to fix it but I’m not that confident that they would be much help. I do have the alternative of using the internet access provided by my company but I rather not use it for my personal connection as all internet traffic on that line are tracked. Furthermore, the corporate firewall my company has which is protecting that internet connection effectively blocks most sites on the Net. I would rather not have my company track my internet activities especially considering the websites that I sometimes go to when I’m using my personal connection at home. But I guess I have to use them on the occasions I could not get a connection with TMNet and that I have to log in and update my blog before the day ends.

I hope that this problem with TMNet is not as widespread as I think and could be quickly rectified.