Starry Escapade

I signed up with Starhub yesterday for their MaxOnline Express Plus. Comes with up to 8Mbps (usual disclaimer mumbo jumbo applies) download with SpeedBoost at selected partner sites of up to 100Mbps. A free home phone line and 1Mbps mobile broadband is also included. All for a price of $59.92. SIM card fee: $37.45, one-time service activation fee: $34.10.

Actual bandwidth is dependent on hardware, software, Internet traffic and destination server.

The cable modem provided is NOT 100Mbps (DOCSIS 3) capable. Which means you have to get your OWN DOCSIS 3 cable modem to be able to access Yahoo! (happens to be one of the partner sites) at 100Mbps. I have not been able to load any speedtest page successfully to test out my connection, but the intuitive feel is that Yahoo does seem to be faster than DSL. So does HardwareZone, and especially VR-Zone.

I got a nice big CDROM called MaxOnline User Guide. Inside the 650MB CD there is a grand total of 17.7MB worth of PDF files (only one actually). Is this necessary? I'd rather they provide a thumbdrive, it is more practical since the drive can be reused, and the manual tends to go out of date anyway.

A digression about how this 100Mbps thing is possible. Singapore has a local Singapore-ONE network which is powered by a speedy backbone. When accessing the SpeedBoost sites, you are actually accessing the local servers. The company itself does not have to own the servers in the localities concerned, even though Yahoo! itself may in fact own servers in Singapore. Akamai installs servers in Singapore that cache popular websites like Yahoo, CNN, etc. If you are interested enough, take a peek at the HTTP headers when visiting these websites, you will see that they are being cached by Akamai. However, you are still accessing the most up-to-date information from the main servers, because Akamai constantly checks with the main server for the most updated pages, and fetches new ones as necessary.

The 3.5G USB dongle for the mobile broadband is HUGE. Makes me just want to use my phone. Caveat: if i put the SIM card into my phone, I lose cellular connectivity as the 3.5G is for data only.

Sending SMS from the 3.5G SIM card costs 5 cents a message. I feel this has to be made more explicit. I knew about this only because I asked.

Does Starhub still practise port blocking?

Bummer: I called Singnet earlier today asking to terminate my Singnet account, and I was told I can only do that in Feb 2009! That means I will be paying an extra $33 a month for another 2 months. Any takers?

I'm escaping from Singtel into the demonic arms of Starhub, what kind of escape is that?