I am dying of curiosity - did you solve it?
Maybe like the great one I had from DEC many years ago - after protracted delay - We never heard of this problem before - but we have a fix.
Problem not solved, just getting worse! :fume:
Had a local friend call them to really explain the problem in detail.
Finally after four phone calls, they agreed to check the router
configuration last Wednesday. Well, whatever they did resulted in
absoulutely NO service from Wednesday afternoon, until yesterday
morning.
Connection was finally restored yesterday, and I am in fact able to get my
pop3 email as well as my webmail now, but the speed is slower then
dialup! Speedtest went from 429.7 Kbps on Monday, to 12.4 Kbps on the
last test a few minutes ago. 
My friend called them again yesterday evening to find out what’s going on
now, and they made some excuse that they had to replace the router
and it would not be quite as fast as what I previously had! They also said
if the current speed was not acceptable, I could have the previous router
re-installed (along with the same email problems), but other than that
there was nothing else they would or could do!!!
I have no idea what to do now. The local friend says it would be far easier
for me to move then to keep dealing with Sparqnet! The sad thing about
it is, he’s probably right! I just have 10 more months on the current
lease. Unless… the neighbor would be willing on install a wireless router
and I could just use his connection?!? Don’t know if it’s feasible, just
tossing out another idea.
So, that’s the situation now folks.
As you said before - the router in your building is by Sparqnet - It is possible that you could get another ADSL service via your telephone line. Personally I would find a way to create a permenant but not too obviously contrived physical fault on your dedicated connection and have a computer savy Chinese with you when they come to fix it - then test the mail and speed in front of them, and demand satisfaction.
After all, part of the price is for the speed and support.
I do not think your problem will go away until you can get the idiots (oops) technicians in your apartment.
[quote=“rian”]As you said before - the router in your building is by Sparqnet - It is possible that you could get another ADSL service via your telephone line. Personally I would find a way to create a permenant but not too obviously contrived physical fault on your dedicated connection and have a computer savy Chinese with you when they come to fix it - then test the mail and speed in front of them, and demand satisfaction.
After all, part of the price is for the speed and support.
I do not think your problem will go away until you can get the idiots (oops) technicians in your apartment.[/quote]
I personally think that Chunghwa Telecom could give you ADSL and phone service. No matter what contract SparQ has to supply a service to the entire building, I’d be really surprised if Chunghwa Telecom could run a line to service one customer with an ADSL modem. It would of course be a modem, not a router, but you are probably better off that way. The people at Sparq do not seem to know what the hell they are doing.
Visit Chunghwa Telecom on Monday, and let us know how it turns out. We’re all on pins and needles.
[quote=“dragon88”]Connection was finally restored yesterday, and I am in fact able to get my
pop3 email as well as my webmail now, but the speed is slower then
dialup! Speedtest went from 429.7 Kbps on Monday, to 12.4 Kbps on the
last test a few minutes ago. [/quote]
Hmm, I haven’t noticed a (reasonably priced) router with bandwidth regulation so far, but my guess would be that they had messed up a few things before plus forgot to restrict bandwidth for every user. (So bandwidth depended on your computer’s elbows.) Now that they checked on your request, they found their mistake(s) and also implemented the bandwidth restriction they had forgotten. You should check your neighbour’s bandwidth and see if it’s the same as yours. If not, try Ironlady’s approach: Go up one level in the hierarchy and report your problem there…
However, I have to agree with Robert: They don’t really know what they’re doing…
PS: Robert, I had sent you an email - got it?
[quote=“dl7und”]
PS: Robert, I had sent you an email - got it?[/quote]
No, I didn’t. Maybe I my address wasn’t clear. Spambots be damned: y2kbug@ms25.hinet.net
I have a spam filter that kills messages with attached files, so be careful of that.
I get over 100 spams a day, so I might change the address soon.
living dangerously,
Robert
Thanks for the further suggestions guys.
I’m going to be travelling for a few weeks so, won’t have a chance to stop
by Chunghwa Telecom until the end of May, or first part of June.
When I moved into this building though, and first enquired about Internet
service, the management told me that Sparqnet is the only company
allowed to provide service in the building. From conversations I’ve had
with the neighbor, it seems Sparqnet ‘owns’ the lines in the building and
provides a kickback to the management company for this privilege.
dl7und, regarding the restricted bandwidth, perhaps they are restrictring
me? It shouldn’t be as much as this though. It takes almost 3 to 4
minutes for a single forumosa page to load, and it’s not very graphics
intensive at all. The neighbor says that he’s not having any slow down
problems with pages loading, or transfer of files.
I’ll be in touch…
[quote=“dragon88”]Thanks for the further suggestions guys.
I’m going to be travelling for a few weeks so, won’t have a chance to stop
by Chunghwa (Zhonghua) Telecom until the end of May, or first part of June.
When I moved into this building though, and first enquired about Internet
service, the management told me that Sparqnet is the only company
allowed to provide service in the building. From conversations I’ve had
with the neighbor, it seems Sparqnet ‘owns’ the lines in the building and
provides a kickback to the management company for this privilege.
dl7und, regarding the restricted bandwidth, perhaps they are restrictring
me? It shouldn’t be as much as this though. It takes almost 3 to 4
minutes for a single forumosa page to load, and it’s not very graphics
intensive at all. The neighbor says that he’s not having any slow down
problems with pages loading, or transfer of files.
I’ll be in touch…[/quote]
Something sounds rotten here - I cannot imagine that kind of slowdown being caused by a router. Anyway, they are not supposed to throttle your download speed, only your upload speed (that’s that the “A” in ADSL means, “asynchronous” - different speed for download vs. upload). Download speed should be about 10 times faster than upload speed. You should not be having this problem, and almost sounds like they are deliberately playing games with you. Maybe they don’t like foreigners?
Does your building have cable TV (seems like a dumb question - every place in Taiwan has cable TV). Anyway, several cable companies also offer broadband. Not sure about your area though (where do you live?). I’d ask the cable TV company about it - you may be able to tell Sparq to piss off permanently.
I’m glad to hear about your experience - Sparq doesn’t serve my area, but if they ever do, I’ll be sure to avoid them.
regards,
Robert
I’m in Taichung, and cable is offered here, but I don’t subscribe
anymore because there was nothing to watch anyway. Previously I would
just download CSI, 24, and Spooks, and I’d be quite content. Guess I
won’t be doing that any longer either! I wonder if I could still get
broadband without subscribing to cable? Something to check on.
I was also starting to suspect that don’t like foreigners either. There were
a couple of German guys here who were working for High Speed Rail, but
they’ve since moved back home. So, I cannot ask about their experience.
From the discussions that I’ve had with the neighbor, and his
conversations with other residents, it seems like nobody else here is
having any problems at all.