the-lebanon.com

This thread is for sharing your good and bad experience with your Internet Service Providers (ISP) in Lebanon... Tell us your stories!

- Who is you are ISP?
- In what area do you live?
- Who much are you paying?
- What kind of service are you getting (dial-up, wireless etc.) ?
- How is the customer support?
- Are you happy with your connexion in general?
- Would you recommand it to other customers?

etc.

Well, my primary ISP is, I should say, eventhough it's slightly a shame, IDM... I've had a hard time with them while trying to get the [sic!] "broadband" [haha, let me laugh!] with them... It's not that I like them, but I wanted to keep my email address.

I kissed their asses by mail, on the phone, I talked to the manager [a demoiselle named Zakieh Karam] once, told her that we needed REAL high bandwidth, she told me generic stuff, and then they blocked my phone number so that I couldn't talk to her again!@

So I'm still on my 33.6 kbs, that has effective 10~12k at best...

THEN!!! I got the CABLE GUY!!!! [no need to say I tried like a hundred of those]

My current cableguy sells me a very very very theorical 128kbs at 40$/mo... Not bad, but its down like 24% of the time, and in peak hours [afternoon], I use my 33k dial-up and over-loaded connection TO IMPROVE THE SPEED!!!!

that's about it...

If it doesn't improve, we should consider killing marwan hamadé.

mmmh, as it is said in the subject line... ugly websites, that look alike... Yûk, these people should be quarantined from the market, everything they do, they do it bad.

Yalla, hoping for a tsunami around borj el ghazale

Hi, this topic is interesting, no one really thinks of comparing internet providers in lebanon, still we all know we have a very bad internet service... i use IDM, a dial-up connection at 33.6, very very very very slow [sometimes it takes ages to open my hotmail login page]

The story I wanted to share with you people is when I tried to request their high bandwidth service. It took also ages to get a reply: by mail, it was impossible as all my mails were ignored. I tried by phone, and the support employees are used to standard answers such as "Yes, we will call you as soon as it is available for your region" [knowing that I live in Beirut, not Kabul], or "We are working on getting the service to you, please apply a request, and we will get back to you"...

Of course, this was useless, and I waited like 3 months before calling directly the management [I have seen that you talked about a certain Zakieh Karam, she was the one I talked to]. The woman told me that the state was responsible for the delays, and they had nothing to do with it. But she assured me that I would have my connection. Then nothing again.

The funny thing is that, since that day, I was never again able to reach them by phone, the line seemed always busy... Can they block certain numbers? I don't know, but IDM really sucks.

Let's hope for better services in the future...

my answers to ur questions

Who is you are ISP?
IDM

In what area do you live?
in Rowas, IN DAHIA

Who much are you paying?
11$ + TELEPHONE bells

What kind of service are you getting (dial-up, wireless etc.) ?
dial-up (i use 15 hours 56 kbs)

How is the customer support?
it is ok

Are you happy with your connexion in general?
not at alot because i want 24/24 connection without paying telephone bells)

Would you recommand it to other customers?
i recommend it to other customers since there is no better services in lebanon.

IDM is not the only dialup provider, it is only the WORSE one... Also, there are a few better solutions such as the wireless modem that most ISPs are offering, but not as cheap as dial up... And the local cable guys of course... Some of them, not many, are offering an excellent service (24h permanent connexion) for 40 to 50 USD. That is a good alternative for some people for the moment.

..................

One VERY VERY VERY bad thing I noticed with IDM is that their SPAM filter is set too high behind their clients back. This problem happened to me MANY times (the first time i noticed was in june 2005 and the last time was only last week...) Someone I know using IDM sent me emails and I never received one of them, then we made tone of tests and realised that IDM have set their spam filter in a way that suspected SPAM or JUNK mail are deleted automatically... without the client knowing it... This happens when emails go though IDM's mail server.

I called and wrote them about it, and they never answered properly and the pb. is still there, months later.

No offense to anybody but 1thing WHY THE HELL ISN"T ANYONE SAY'IN ANYTHING ABOUT DSL FROM THE COMPANIES, Terranet, Cyberia, IDM, and the others ain't sayin shit about when DSL, will come come out, where will it come out, or atleast how much will the PRICE WILL BE , .........BUT FINALLY I KNOW WHEN DSL WILL ARRIVE, IN BEIRUT IT'LL ARRIVE IN the end Of JUNE, and in SAIDA, it'll start the service of DSL in the middle of JULY.....

Or i could be wrong

No one is talking about it because they know shit. Our crappy goverment keeps stalling and delaying everything, hal balad shi bi2arrif. In other countries, DSL is outmoded and is being replaced by faster services. Even the most basic DSL service for home users has over 10-20Mbps, and here ra7 yrab7ouna jmile bel 0.5Mbps!!!! And still, there is nothing on the ground, I am not even sure it will be started this year.

Already three deadlines have passed and they kept delaying. I think they will keep pushing the date further and further. We are stuck with dialup in this horrible disastrous country wou allah yefrejna.

And Raficoo, where did u get the info from? When will it be available in Jounieh?

- Who is you are ISP?
TerraNet

- In what area do you live?
Beirut....

- Who much are you paying?
50$

- What kind of service are you getting (dial-up, wireless etc.) ?
128Kbps..... And according to TerraNet: << Broadband Wireless Internet is a fast, cheap and convenient way to bring the Internet to your home. With high-speed, you will be able to download large files in few seconds (yeah someone shoot me please). Your speed will be much faster and you will have 24x7 access without added telephone bill cost. In addition, you will be able to use your fax (WOW Good news) machine and free-up your telephone while you are surfing since the service doesn't require the telephone line. >>

- How is the customer support?
a Disaster,

If the internet connection is down for some reason (which by the way happen all the time), i call Terra and they tell its GDS Problem, i call GDS and tells me that they don't have a problem, the problem is from TerraNet servers, i re-call terranet and they tell that they don't have a problem but they will check it for me (wow they are nice) and then they will call me..... And i wait and wait and wait and then decide to re-call them, and they say the problem is from GDS and i call GDS and they blame terra and it goes on and on and on.... and my phone bill comes and i wish if i had a dial up instead of wireless BRODBAND

- Are you happy with your connexion in general?
Compared to Lebanon: Definitely
compared to Ouside of Lebanon: Definitely not ...... I actually am ashamed to answer what kind of connection i have if i was asked from someone outside of lebanon

- Would you recommand it to other customers?
In Lebanon.... Yes



Btw i had the 256 Kbps (110$/month) terra connection but i dropped it when i saw that during the day the maximum bandwidth is 14KB/s and during midnight 25KB/s, and decided to go with the 128Kbps....

After suffering for several years with IDM and LYNX slow connection and bad service and with Terranet bad service (but acceptable connection)... I have finally tried a new ISP called Lebanon Online who offers very fast dialup through using something called a Web Accelerator. They say it is 5 times faster and it actually is 5 times faster most of the time. Their support is corteous and professional and they called me back a couple of times to check how my free trial was going.

I would give Lebanon Online 5 stars ... They say they will be providing DSL services too (I am looking forward to that) but the delay is due to the government. I hope they are serious about it. I am sick of paying phone bills and I need Internet all the time. I have tried calling WISE for wireless installation but I was transfered from one person to another until I finally gave up. I would sacrifice a couple of months on dialup until Lebanon Online launch their DSL services.

Better:

If you don't mind limited bandwidth, the Wize offer is not bad at all... (When I called a few months ago they were really cool: they even offered to deliver the modem.) This same wireless modem can be used most big ISP's who now offer the same wireless package...

It is the best for the money... And when you overpass your bandwidth, you can use dial up as a back up plan... VISP (visp.net.lb) offers it for free!!!

Terranet are now official SPAMMERS! Wassim Abou Rjaily from Terranet confirmed to us that they consider this a normal advertising and that they might do it again! Here is a sample of the TERRANET bulk spam sent on July 5, 2006:



http://www.the-lebanon.com/antispam/ter ... -2006.html

DON'T BE STUPID! STAY AWAY FROM TERRANET (& IDM).
THESE SCAMMERS ARE CONSCIOUSLY SPREADING THE POISON TO SELL THE ANTIDOTE!

I live in Beirutand I have a cable from a company who I never saw it. It is called Farahnet I dunno if someone heard about it?! I live in beirut. But their support are a disaster and they are unprofessionnal at all. They offer an 8 kilobyte per sec speed for 35$ month is this fair? It is quite fast when browsing the internet, and the connection rarely brokes, I can use it for 24/7 and I have unlimited bandwith. That's a nice offer!! I surely recommand this company to people here in lebanon

Just a small question: I read in terra net's website that they offer a broadband connection for 50$ a month with a speed of 128k Does 128k mean 128 kilobytes per second or 128 kilobits per second??

I think the illegal cables (when they work well) are the best deal in Beirut today... The speed is often close to the 256kbs 'legal' offers... And the bandwith is UNLIMITED... But not all neigborhood has a good cable guy... Some of them are terrible.

I suppose that when you have a good cable that works, the 'legal' offers are not worth it for the moment... ILLEGAL is the best!

(I am not sure about the difference between bits and bytes, but when an ISP says 128kbs... It think it means something like 12 k/s.)

hey there
using cyberia 128k connection
was very happy about it great service and all. i had like 3 days downtime since i have installed the service (was one of the first ones to get it like at least a year and something ago).
i say was very happy coz one thing really pissed me off : the 5gb download limit per month. now the point of having broadband is to get a fast connection in order to fetch big files fast. no more.
got wise at my office, from moscanet the WISE guys. absolutely excellent company, great service, and all, but one big BIG shit : u get 1gb per month for like 50 bux. the worst thing is that u get like only 200 megs of up trafic and once u finish that, the service stops nearly completely. that migh not be a problem but for a corporate whose sole trafic is mailing autocad files, that can really compromize ur business. they offer to purchase recharge pack 100/500 megs for like 25 $ but u use'm real quick. have been paying around 150 the last 2 months.
i am curious about visp coz my cousin got a broadband 64/256 supposedly dedicated for his office at 300 a month but he's not happy with it. losta downtime and not the speed promised so any comments on these guys?