In Malaysia, there is only one wide coverage Fixed line Broadband service provider, their awesome name is called Streamyx, TM NET – By Telekom Malaysia. EVERYONE IN MALAYSIA knew them, even those who never use broadband services. Because they are WELL-KNOWN : in terms of “quality of the service”

They do have an advertisement something like this (so “gay” huh?):

(DAP) Jeff Ooi’s Adjournment Speech. during 18th June 2009 – Monopoly of TM Net is not for the benefit of Malaysians.:

* But seems useless, as we didn’t see anything improvement after that.

Same as Chong Chieng Jen (DAP, Kuching, Sarawak), voiced the frustration of Streamyx users in Parliament

* Same, useless, we didn’t see anything improvement after that.

Even our local TV channel – NTV 7, have a show for them:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

And they are introducing their new high speed broadband service since last year called UNIFI:

Imagine? Our neighbor – Singapore already using high speed broadband for more than 5 years! And UniFi will only expand to east Malaysia from year 2012….what? Another 2 years?

Even the map they use for this “Checking service availability” page, are showing east malaysia need to wait “long long”.

You will never understand how disappointed it is for IT person who worked rely on this kind of broadband services. Especially when the service is suck and “aweful” for 11 years. I’m really disappointed and they leaving us no choice.

i’m going to switch to other wireless broadband service provider this year, say WiMax or YES broadband when it is available no matter what. Everyday i just pray i can get a smooth and working internet connection, so i can work. Otherwise, i really felt like ban on table like this guy:

I don’t know why they picked a chinese actor as a customer to ban on table, most complaint customer is chinese in Malaysia? I don’t think so :p.

I only spend less than 10 minutes to write this blog, but spend more than 30 minutes to search for relevant videos, including waiting for the page loading…. my goodness…

Back to work, PRAY FOR US, for better broadband~

Streamyx, pls improve, ok?

I have been using Digi Broadband Prepaid a few weeks since it is launching in Kuching. According to their latest coverage map from their website. It seems like the coverage area still limited to city area, however, many of you are NOT understand, actually there are different between “Broadband” and “3G” coverage area. (Refer to screen capture below, Purple color is 3G, Cyan color is “Broadband”)

So even you can’t get the “Broadband” coverage, you still able to get the “3G” coverage. Some of you may wondering, how good and how fast the speed is. You can watch my first video podcast below, which is the speed test over their “Digi Broadband Prepaid“.

Speed test video

Speed test result using Speedtest.net:

It just cost RM25 for starter pack (Preloaded with 5 days access and RM10 inside the SIM card), and only cost your RM10 for 5 days usage, average RM2 per day! CHEAP!!

Their “Broadband” speed must be much much faster than “3G” then!

Hope you find this video and information is useful.

Links : www.digi.com.my/internet

But if you want to find out what devices are connect to your network, follow these steps (This is based on DLink DI-524 WiFi router):

1. just goto your admin panel through your web browser, something like (192.168.0.1 or 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.1.1). Login with your password.

2. Goto “Status” > “Wireless”:

Here will show you how many devices are connected to your WiFi router/AP/modem. Please note it will only show MAC Address. If you not sure where to see this MAC address. It is an “Ethernet ID” actually, from Mac, you can goto “System Preference” > “Network” > “Advance” > “Ethernet” to find out. PC i forgot where.

Another place to find out:

You can also read that from:

Goto your WiFi router admin panel again, goto “DHCP” under “Home” tab:

Under this “Dynamic DHCP Clients List” will show you all the connected WiFi device with MAC Address, IP address and Name (Usually are the PC/Mac device name that you setup at the first time when you setup your pc/mac)

Because i did setup a static DHCP, so my devices are under “Static DHCP Clients list” * Basically it is a setting that allow you to set a fixed IP to your device, everytime they connected to your WiFi router/AP/modem.

Limit your available IP range (Optional to setup)

Limited your available DHCP IP will help you to avoid to many other devices connect to your WiFi AP/Router/Modem. Because WiFi router will assign one IP to your device. So if you only have less than 5 WiFi device at home/office. Then limit your DHCP IP to 5 or extra 2 for guest to use, which is total 7. To do that, simply enter the “Starting IP Address” under this “DHCP” page to the number you want the IP to start. For example “100″:

And “Ending IP Address”, put “106″. Lease Time, leave it as 1 Week, or if you prefer 1 Day just change it then.

So your available IP from your WiFi router/AP/Modem will be:

192.168.0.100
192.168.0.101
192.168.0.102
192.168.0.103
192.168.0.104
192.168.0.105
192.168.0.106

When all these IP are fully used by your WiFi device, no matter other devices are trying to connect, even they have the WiFi password, they won’t be able to connect.

This is not really protected your WiFi router, it just limited the available IP range. Please follow this tutorial if you really want to secure your WiFi.

And i promised will give you a tutorial how to secure your WiFi router/network. Please spend some time to read this tutorial if you really care about protection and privacy.

Before you go into this tutorial, please note what i’m wrote here just to help you to prevent/avoid those people using WiFi unlocker hardware/software to unauthorised accessing your WiFi network/router. There might be some security hole or possibility that they can still find a way access it, there is no 100% secure method to protect your network (from what i know). However, there are chances to keep them away and giving up to hacking your WiFi network/signal, and try others.

* There is no other personal reason/purposes when i wrote this tutorial, the basic idea just to HELP PEOPLE. Help them secure from their WiFi Network.

You got to learn this by yourself and DIY (Do It Yourself), as no one will goto your home to help you to setup, even those ISP technician won’t offer any help for this. But you need to have some basic computer knowledge to do this, if you don’t know how, ask someone to help you.

Before you go into the tutorials below, please spend some time to watch this youtube video to understand the different between WPA/WEP/Open system etc.

(I’m using DLink Dl-524 wireless router in this tutorial, i knew it is old WiFi router, but it is still useful. And i got my way to keep it more secure rather than just rely on WEP/WPA encryption)

1. Change admin password

* If you already changed your admin password, skip this.

if you are using DLink/LinkSys/Belkin, usually your router admin panel should be able to access through your web browser, by  enter this IP : 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2 (either one)

if not, try 10.0.0.1 (Usually for Aztech) If still cannot, refer to your router user manual.

Once you enter the admin panel, you can goto “Tool” and you can change your default admin password there.

Click “Apply” to reboot the router.

2. Secure your WiFi channel using WEP/WPA/WPA2 password protection

* If you done this, skip this and goto step 3.

Now login to your WiFi router/modem admin panel again. Goto “Wireless” or the section that allow you to change your WiFi channel name (SSID), password etc.
I’m using DLink, so it is “Wireless” button under “Home” tab.

Here you should change your “security” option to WEP/WPA or WPA2. However, not all WiFi device/network card support WPA/WPA2, you may need to try to connect later. If not support, using WEP is more compatible, but make sure don’t check “Both” under “Authentication Type”. Check “Shared Key”. And select 128 Bit encryption, Key Mode change to “ASCII”. The reason to do this is to allow you to enter longer password (13 ASCII characters, mixed with numeric and alphabets).

Now please enter your WiFi channel password, something hard to guess. Example like Tgd123Kjs09zO0. And click “Apply” to reboot the router.

* Please note WEP or WPA or WPA2 is not 100% secure, those WiFi Unlocker Software are hacking your WiFi router by decrypt this password. Follow next steps to make your WiFi router/AP/Modem more hard to decrypt and access

3. Apply MAC filter. This will make them more troublesome to access your WiFi router/AP/Modem

Go to “Advanced” tab, click “Filter” button, select “Mac Filter”. And check “Only allow computers with MAC address listed below to access the network”

Select your DHCP Client, which is your allow connected PC/Mac/iPhone or whatever WiFi device. And Click “Clone” button to copy the MAC address.
And click “Apply”.

Repeat these steps until all your allowed devices added to the MAC Filter list. Refer to sample below:

Now your WiFi network is secured with protection and filter, even those people trying to access your WiFi router with your WEP/WAP password, if their device are not in your “MAC Filter” list, they won’t be able to connect to your network. They will get error message like this :

* Please note one disadvantage of this method is, your WiFi network are not friendly for guest or someone visiting your house/office and want to borrow your WiFi network, you will have to goto “MAC Filter” section to add their device into the list, otherwise they won’t be able to connect. So do remember remove their device from your MAC filter list once they left.

Difficult? Complicated? Ask someone who familiar with router setting to help you then

I hope you find this info is useful, if you failed to setup this security setting, just remember always use your LAN cable plug into your WiFi router, and access the admin panel to reset the setting. Otherwise, reset the factory setting by pressing the small hole behind your WiFi router.

Good luck. Welcome to the Internet World.