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ianc66

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Posts posted by ianc66

    Let’s Get These Isp’s To Improve By User Published Uptime Reports.

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    John,

    Thanks for your note I've already been reminded that other files formats are smaller and I'll use that next time.

    I'm not altogher sure of your F1 analogy but nevertheless to take it a bit further, if in normal driving a car cannot reach it's full speed potential at least the manufacturer does'nt expect you to have to reboot it's Engine Management System. when the car regularly cuts out.

    My particular gripe with IPSTAR goes beyond speed and onto reliability that is what I'm trying to get at. I think reading posts on this forum and others that other customers of other ISPs have the same gripe but for that gripe to be heeded evidence is needed.

    When I worked and managed computer systems and networks good managment practice was to test and record performance especially uptime and use that record to fix problems -- not rely on users calling you to say the systems were down. I'm offering a way of peraphs getting the ISP's to start acting as professional businesses and we to be satisfied customers.

    Why not try it start recording and posting your ISP's performance?

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    I think I have a scheme for the equivalent of a mass protest for IPSTAR and indeed any of the broadband ISPs

    see my post:-

    http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=63246

    I intend to wait for a body of evidence to accumulate then mail among others:

    Mr. Thanapong Na Ranong,

    Marketing Director

    Shin Satellite PCL

    41/103 Rattanathibet Road,

    Nothaburi 11000

    With the address of the post.

    As for why some people are off and not others I suspect the issue is the satellite modemIPX-5100 getting in a bad state, the helpdesks constant suggestion for any problem is to restart the modem. What is wrong I'm not sure in detail peraphs a memory leak peraphs passing some error threshold (there is a suggestion in the handbook to monitor CRC errors via web page but it doe'snt work on my box).

    The bottom line is that the boxes are faulty as I've said in another post I have a Linksys wireless router which hasd worked fine with no reboot for over two months.

    What I cannot get the helpdesk to realize is that rebooting the router is not a fix it is workround, until they fix their boxes.

    They also bleat on about heat effecting theboxes adversly -- peraphs whoever designed (a company called Efficient Channel Coding (ECC) apparently) these boxes brief was a bit off not knowing Thailand is hot.

    Let’s Get These Isp’s To Improve By User Published Uptime Reports.

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    Let’s get these ISP’s to improve by user published uptime reports.

    A modest proposal lets monitor uptime so we can see which ISP is worth buying – I encourage you to add reports for your ISP – below is how to do and my first report.

    It happened again this morning halfway through a post and my CSLoxinfo IPSTAR connection went down I knew it was down because a run a ping in the corner of my screen. Last week it was during an online hotel booking.

    I think we all know that the ISPs don't provide the bandwidth claimed

    -- Although to be fair it is not solely their problem if xyz.com has a slow server we will get slow response.

    It seems to me what is worse is the unexpected downtime IPSTAR here http://csloxinfo.com/index_en.asp claim to have ‘always-on connection’ however as they seem to provide no uptime statistics who knows? Well I want to and I think you do too and I think if together we publish on this forum uptime statistics for any and all of the claimed 24/7 Broadband ISP services we might get some response.

    Obviously we can’t do this by running pings and watching 24/7 we need an automated tool and we also to need to monitor more than a ping.

    What I have done is downloaded a free server monitor:-

    IPcheck server monitor. From here (sorry seems to be Windows only)

    http://www.paessler.com/download/ipchecktrial

    The monitor runs as a service with its running monitored via a web interface, I’ve installed and set it running to monitor three things

    1 My ISP’s primary DNS server on DNS port 53

    2 My ISP’s home page monitoring HTTP*

    and

    3 BBC.CO.UK Monitor HTTP* (you can change this to any reliable out of Thailand server).

    *be careful with your choice of web page a large web page can generate a lot of traffic not good if you pay by the MB!

    The idea is that if 1 and 2 and 3 fail the ISP’s service is for sure down, if 3 fails probably the link to the outside world is down if 1 or 2 alone fails probably a single server failure. (Strictly speaking we should monitor all their DNS servers but the monitor is limited to 3 sensors) In fact with IPSTAR port 80 fails whilst other things are still running.

    To do this accurately you need to run your PC 24/7, make sure your date and time are correct, make sure you discount any downtime caused by power failure or software upgrades to your PC or any downtime caused by equipment not provided by the ISP. I intend to count as downtime any reboot of the satellite modem asked for by the helpdesk (if the service is supposed to be ‘always-on connection’ this is reasonable).

    First set of results in the Attachment.

    Note that the BBC is on different scale from the other two as I started it later. Note the downtime to my ISPs own server 9.63%

    The down time on the after noon of 14 was caused by rain on the 15th note that whilst the DNS was fine HTTP was not.

    Enjoy any questions?

    ipsaction1.bmp

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    I've gone one better than checking bandwidth I've installed a real time IP monitor -- of which I will write more in another topic later

    After two episodes of downtime yesterday I had a conversation with the helpdesk, No supervisor available this is the mail their response my response:-

    Unacceptable.

    The downtime on 15/03 was not caused by weather. Incidently the problem only seemed to be

    port 80 port 53 which I am also monitoring remained stable.

    You must fix your consumer boxes so they can resynchronize without user intervention.

    Dear Sir,

    We are extremely sorry for any inconvenince

    Regarding your concern, we would like to inform you that

    we have investigated this problem and find that the gateway is normally,

    but your signal quite high delay time, it was caused the whether

    condition as below:

    - iPSTAR Service is always on internet connection,

    but it does not mean the internet is stable all the time.

    Sometime the service might be interruption because this service

    is communicate by the frequency which this is depend on

    the weather and the disturb signal.

    In case of you have experienced for this problem,

    we would like to recommend you that you should switch off

    the consume box estimate 10 minute and switch on

    the consumer box once again in order to synchronize the signal once again.

    Please accpet our apologies for the service interruption once again.

    For further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact iPSTAR

    Service Center 0-2263-7171 for 24 hours a day. Also, you can email:

    [email protected] or [email protected].

    Please refer to your Network Box number or Customer Number everytime you

    contact us.

    Thank you for using iPSTAR service,

    Please attach the original message when reply.

    Yours Sincerely,

    iPSTAR Service Center

    CS Loxinfo Public Company Limited

    Tel: 0-2263-7171

    Fax. 0-2263-8005

    E-mail : [email protected]

    ----- Original Message -----

    From: <[email protected]>

    To: "iPSTAR Service Center" <[email protected]>

    Cc: <[email protected]>

    Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2006 3:51 PM

    Subject: Downtime

    >

    > The service has not been running I called just after 12:00 gateway team at

    > lunch and my

    > satelllite box was rebooted by you 13:10 I temporary fix again it failed

    > I called a few minutes

    > ago the gate way was down. Now fixed.

    >

    > Asked to speak to supervisor not available.

    >

    >

    >

    > Your advertising describes this a an 'always-on connection'

    >

    > Please have somebody senior call me to explain what you are doing to make

    > it the service

    > you advertise.

    > 06 0**** (edited by me)

    >

    > membership number 9490000586

    > EB000778

    >

    > This log show my downtime today

    > 15/03/2006 07:59:44 3714 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 3714 ms

    > 15/03/2006 08:14:43 2694 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2694 ms

    > 15/03/2006 08:29:43 2384 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2384 ms

    > 15/03/2006 08:44:43 2455 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2455 ms

    > 15/03/2006 08:59:43 2236 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2236 ms

    > 15/03/2006 09:14:46 5590 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 5590 ms

    > 15/03/2006 09:30:41 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 09:31:42 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 09:47:34 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:02:37 62528 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 62528 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:17:34 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:32:33 58826 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 58826 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:47:37 62914 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 62914 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:48:02 24455 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 24455 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:49:58 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 10:50:57 57631 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 57631 ms

    > 15/03/2006 11:06:00 29063 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 29063 ms

    > 15/03/2006 11:21:31 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 11:22:32 60130 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60130 ms

    > 15/03/2006 11:36:58 60130 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60130 ms

    > 15/03/2006 11:51:52 53359 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 53359 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:07:01 62734 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 62734 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:07:47 45739 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 45739 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:13:53 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:14:34 40050 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Slow 40050 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:27:40 60131 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60131 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:28:40 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:38:40 60130 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60130 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:48:24 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 12:52:51 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:00:06 60129 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 60129 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:07:43 4543 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 4543 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:22:39 2146 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2146 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:38:37 61408 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 61408 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:39:38 61148 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 61148 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:42:19 2234 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2234 ms

    > 15/03/2006 13:50:55 1873 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 1873 ms

    > 15/03/2006 14:05:55 2313 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2313 ms

    > 15/03/2006 14:20:57 3983 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 3983 ms

    > 15/03/2006 14:35:55 1557 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 1557 ms

    > 15/03/2006 14:50:56 2580 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2580 ms

    > 15/03/2006 15:05:55 2897 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 2897 ms

    > 15/03/2006 15:21:54 61307 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 61307 ms

    > 15/03/2006 15:22:56 61162 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 61162 ms

    > 15/03/2006 15:24:06 61591 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: Error: Read

    > Timeout (#2)

    > 61591 ms

    > 15/03/2006 15:38:08 3619 csloxinfo.com HTTP HTTP Sensor1: OK 3619 ms

    >

    Thailand Vs. P2p

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    Crazy Frog

    You don't mention which ISP you are using, also are you certain that your problem is limited to P2P have you sucessfully downloaded other large files -- software updates for instance?

    Moderator sorry about the double post my link (IPSTAR) went down just as I submitted the post the first time.

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    Regarding complaining:-

    In Saturdays 12/03 Bangkok Post Postbag (the letters page) Ken Alberstsen of Chaing Rai comments on the Shin Co and it's customer care ability.

    In part he comments on IPSTAR '..and frankly , the service is not reliable nor as good as advertised.'

    This being in the Post is good, Temaseks' clipping service would likley pick this up -- maybe it will have an effect

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    Regarding complaining yes the more the better.

    There is no customer care contact on their web site but I've been copying the people on this page with my complaints (and a link to this forum thread)

    http://www.csloxinfo.com/investor/contacts.asp

    These are the investor relations people who might be a little busy at the moment but what the hel_l if I'm suffering so can they.

    I have just had a mail from the service centre offering a credit for my downtime -- which is OK but I need uptime not money however if it starts costing them money the suits might start paying attention.

    Contact details for the service centre

    'For further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact iPSTAR

    Service Center 0-2263-7171 for 24 hours a day. Also, you can email:

    [email protected] or [email protected].

    Please refer to your Network Box number or Customer Number everytime you

    contact us.'

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    I'm scratching my head......because Ipstar has been great for me. I pay 4,280 each month. Lately it has been going down somewhat....but all I do is turn off the modem.....let it reboot/reconnect and usually I get at least 3-4 more hours of good connections.

    When the techs first installed Ipstar they seemed to be REALLY HAPPY that I had the higher-priced package (higher speed) and also that I was running XP Pro. They said I should have no problems and with few exceptions it has been great for me.

    Can't understand why others have so many problems. Knocking on wood however....... :D

    Lately my 'signal strength' and 'ESno' have been lower and I suspect this has something to do with a few lost connections that I didn't have in the past.

    Overall I'm pleased with Ipstar. I have no idea why it works well for me. :o

    With the greatest possible respect falling over and having to reboot every 3-4 hours is not a great service. I've got multiple users via wireless (Linksys wireless router been running two months without a reboot you know works the way equipment should). a tad inconvienient I think to fall over so frequently. Why don't IPStar fix their boxes or issue us all with a clock timer to switch it off every 3 hours.

    Ipstar Star Express 2

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    I have IPStar 2 no doubt it is a little faster -- but it is not reliable

    Last week the whole service was down from Tuesday to Friday at best you could log on for a few minutes this was they said a gateway problem.

    Otherwise the IPX-5100 seems ubnreliable -- their fix is to switch the box off and unscrew the Rx connection -- this seems to work but this is as far as I am concerned no fix I'd not buy a car where I ahd to stop and usncrew the light bulbs every couple of days.

    Also the spped especially to foriegn sites especially is poor.

    I've sent complaints to the ohly named people on the site those responsible for Investor Relations. Nobody seems responsible for customer relations.

    Ip Star To Wifi Hotspot?

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    I've not answered a couple of your questions.

    I'd advise doing it yourself -- read up on the Internet setting up a wireless network.

    The linksys router I used only cost about 2,500 baht so buy it first power it up mount it high and wander around with your laptop to get an idea of the range. There is probably a sweet spot where the WiFi works and the Channel 3 screaming (I'd call it shrieking mayself) is almost inaudible :o

    When you use it for real go with encrpytion

    Try to get an indication when you order what the satellite orientation will be and try to prepare for the install it the dish needs a clear view, the IPX5100 is a delicate sickly little beast put it inside the house on a UPS -- use the UPS for the WiFi router too

    Ip Star To Wifi Hotspot?

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    Yes I've done it see my post at http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58530

    A few thoughts why buy from TOT -- to reward their ineptitude? Why buy a connection why you pay for traffic. Look at other IPstar providers and see their offers and select the one with the most responsive local ditributor.

    An update on the post the replacment IPX-5100 has resulted in a reliable service no need to power it off and on regularly. The hot spot is flawlees 3 regular users and a fourth visitor with a Mac portable up and running in five minutes.

    Ipstar Problems

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    I’ve got to report that since the IPX-5000 change things are better still sluggish on occasion (especially out of country) but it seems reliable

    croftrobin

    I’m very pleased that you are reporting good reliability. :D

    Take your point about pricing having improved over the years no doubt some of that is competition, some cheaper and better performing generic equipment etc, perhaps some changes in business practice could help, for instance why monthly billing why a team of six to do installs and why suffer with a fragile device like the IPX-5100.

    You note

    ALL INTERNET CONNECTION METHODS ARE PROBLEMATIC IN THAILAND!

    Precisely and I have held in my hand one of the reasons for that, the fragile misconceived device the IPX-5100. IPSTAR was touted as a way of getting the internet to rural Thailand (and indeed Australia) that hot dusty place with poor electrical supply and a paucity of aircon, and what did we get a ‘sleek and stylish’ device for a Bangkok condominium.

    So what did I do built the best environment I could for it including UPS and fan (but if the air is hotter than 30 Celsius it don’t get cooler) I guess an upcountry village will have to attempt the same from their Ample :D disposable income

    Consider an alternative a device which:-

    1. has electronics capable of 40 Celsius operating

    2. an inboard sealed battery for backup run as an always on UPS

    3. built on a sealed aluminium box with passive cooling,

    4. mounted in a cradle underneath the satellite dish with two factory made RG6 cables less than 1 meter long.

    5. And an Ethernet cable up to 100 metre. Also run a lighting circuit cable for power. I’d like to use Power over Ethernet to feed the battery but it looks like the electronics would need more than the 12.95 Watt PoE standard.

    6. Remove the UBS interface

    7. Add a lightening arrestor

    Advantages/Rational

    1. The electronics correspond to the real world.

    2. Cheap battery backup not only does it keep working but not being switched off and on means no spikes, the mass of the battery minimises thermal shock.

    3. Sealed and passive, the dish head end units use this already, no fan to go wrong, no dust on the electronics, impervious to coffee and mild acids. Although Chang and Fosters may be a challenge.

    4. This site http://www.accesscomms.com.au/Specs/y8040spec.pdf gives standard RG6 attenuation of 31.82 DB/100Mte so the standard IPSTAR 20mtr cable loses about 6DB both transmit and receive. Factory made would have solidly mounted coax connectors with boots, much less likely to go faulty than made on site with electrical tape as sealing.

    5. Ethernet cable so the transmission is digital no attenuation. PoE see this http://www.poweroverethernet.com/articles.php?article_id=271 for an introduction

    6. The USB interface is more to go wrong and software to install and maintain on the host, hence increased costs.

    7. Obvious really

    Add tothis some better advice on the web site about preparing for installation and the device should save costs and be more reliable.

    All this is just thinking aloud obviously there must be better solutions still.

    And no I’ve not worked in offshore satellite comms, just a VSAT installation across erm.. Thailand.

    Ipstar Problems

    in IT and Computers

    Posted · Edited by ianc66

    I live out west of Hua Hin far from phone lines. I have MCSE and CCNA worked in computers 30+ years.

    The private estate I live on has a water tower -- so I mounted a wireless router (Linksys WRT54G 1 Ethernet in 4 Ethernet out and wireless good management either by wireless or one of the internet out ports) on the top (well I got a boy chimney sweep to do it) walked around with a laptop and got reasonable response. So then I ordered IPSTAR express 2 from CSLoxinfo -- this was late December so I got the special 2,500 baht installation -- the monthly fee is 4000 baht plus VAT.

    Whilst waiting for delivery, had two conduits for power and two Cat 5 cables to the tower top installed, mounted the wireless router in a modified fat trap (it’s a plastic box about 300mm each side) to provide weather proofing and cooling. At the tower bottom built a box with mains power and a UPS.

    The great day 17 January came and a cast of thousands, well six, came to install. Didn’t turn a hair about mounting the IPX-5100 indoor unit outdoor in a box -- (of which more later) had to trim a branch off a tree to point the dish in the right way (it is a shame that CSLoxinfo don't give details of aspect required province by province on their website --here it seems to be about due east). Attached CAT5 cable 1 to the Ethernet in socket of the Wireless router and the Ethernet port of the IPX-5100 and cable 2 to an Ethernet out port -- this is my fallback if the wireless has problems. It all leapt into life. Over the next couple of days got myself and two Neighbours more to come on to internet PC>Wireless>Satellite. In one case the Wireless signal was poor so I used the techniques described here http://www.usbwifi.orcon.net.nz/ to get about 10 dB improvement

    All went well – if occasionally slow especially to sites outside of Thailand I could illustrate this by pinging. Then on Friday 3 January the link kept dropping checking my local IPX-5100 http://192.168.5.100:8080/xwebgateway.cgi showed the device was constantly going through the sequence

    Initialising

    Synchronize and Get CRC

    Get login message

    Aloha login

    Login

    DHCP

    Messaging

    Sometimes failing at login sometimes DHCP sometimes Messaging which should be success but in this case went back to Initialising called helpdesk waited ages advice was to turn off leave off for 15 Minutes, seemed to work.

    On Saturday had the same fault ringing the helpdesk got a recorded message to say the gateway was down.

    Monday 6 had the fault again help desk suggested that I power of 25 minutes and disconnect the Rx Cable (am I alone in thinking that this could induce a fault?) good for 10 minutes then failed. The installation team arrived change the head unit no fix changed the IPX5100 then waited for about 30 minutes (it seems that a new unit must be registered to login) this explains why they do the head change first – again likely to induce faults. Works again but for how long?

    A few thoughts:-

    It seems to me that the weak point in all this is the IPX-5100 see this specification http://www.camnet.com.kh/sbi.htm. Not all web details certainly not in Thailand mention the 30 degree operating limit the 60 Degree storage limit nor the requirement to be on a UPS (from the IPSTAR Users guide release 2.2 which you get on installation). It really seems that the RF side of the device is degrading in use, this consistent with the symptoms. Obviously I’m running an indoors unit outside so that is a risk – but a device that requires <30 Celsius to run is stupid in a tropical environment. I would prefer rugged and reliable to sleek and stylish. Other issues with this device no time of day clock displayed with Logon status hinders diagnosis.

    It seems to me that Ipstar are aware of this as their corporate response to problems is to replace the unit, perhaps sending a team of six to do this is seen as service for me service is a quoted uptime, four nines (99.99%) would be nice and is not difficult to achieve -- this is not rocket science.

    The problem on Saturday ‘a server was down’ what about redundancy.

    Speed – obviously don’t get the quoted speed some of this is down to the ongoing issues concerning access out of Thailand but some is down to the earth station and CSLoxinfo – what do I base this on? This is a ping of their primary DNS server for about 20 hours until 14:00 today:-

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=1072ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=789ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=778ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=551ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=817ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=874ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=725ms TTL=246

    Ping statistics for 203.146.237.237:

    Packets: Sent = 75287, Received = 72398, Lost = 2889 (3% loss),

    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

    Minimum = 516ms, Maximum = 3397ms, Average = 805ms

    Control-Break

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=669ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=942ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=875ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=760ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=696ms TTL=246

    Reply from 203.146.237.237: bytes=32 time=582ms TTL=246

    The minimum should be latency caused by slant distance to the satellite plus a few milliseconds at each end for the network gear

    (I get this to the IPX-5100

    Reply from 192.168.5.100: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=254

    Ping statistics for 192.168.5.100:

    Packets: Sent = 356, Received = 356, Lost = 0 (0% loss),

    Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:

    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 1ms

    Control-Break

    Reply from 192.168.5.100: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=254)

    Higher figures in the ping to the DNS and losses show that their equipment is at times overwhelmed. Also of course if the DNS server cannot respond rapidly to DNS requests this in itself is a perceived delay, this seems to confirm the lack of redundancy. A DNS server is again not rocket science a decent rack mount server with 1GB plusmemory, RAID1 on two controllers and dual teamed NICs is a fair start. Incidentally see the TTL, implies eight network devices between the IPX-5100 and DNS (there is a delay).

    So in the meantime my advice, get a UPS, don’t let your maid turn the aircon off and pray that the IPX-5100 has not been left in a vehicle in the sun during delivery.

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