Tag Archives | network

Ogero Super Ultra Fast Speeds – It All Started But When The F*** Will It Be All Done?

When I started facing interruptions with my internet connection last summer, I never expected the problem to persist for a whole year with no solution in sight so far.

Although I am an IDM customer, the problem was attributed to some faulty cables/equipment on Ogero’s side, and the latter claimed they cannot do anything about it until the active cabinets project that was promised in the beginning of 2017 reaches my area. Come to think of it logically, the thing is similar to owning a car with the manufacturer simply refusing to repair it for you because they have a new model coming out next year!

But guess what, more than a year later the situation is even worse with the below poor readings on my modem for more than a week now.

So it’s 2018 and I am getting less than 0.01 Mbps as a download speed.

We have been hearing promises for much better speeds ever since a new director general was appointed at Ogero, and except for the publicity stunts they stage every now and then to show us 100 Mbps speeds around some places in Beirut, I personally haven’t seen any sign of real progress. If anything, my experience shows short sighted vision and a lack of proper planning from their side, I mean how on earth can you cease support on your existing infrastructure when you have hundreds of thousands still connected to it?

Ogero have been trying to change their image for a while now starting with the rebranding work they did, getting more active on social platforms, and getting engaged with so called “influencers”, but nothing will really change it unless they put their words into actions, and until then they will always be regarded as one of the “daweiyir dawleh” that simply work by the “daweiyir dawleh” standards!

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OGERO #UnleashTheSpeed – Test Results in Achrafieh

Today marked the third day in Ogero’s “Unleash the speed” tests for subscribers in Beirut, and among the exchange offices that were included today is the Achrafieh exchange office, so I passed by one of my friends there in the area to test the “unleashed” bandwidth myself!

I eventually used speedtest.net and picked a server in Lyon that I usually use to test my home connection. I performed numerous tests and was impressed by the download speed which was consistent at ~6.5Mbps (3 times the subscription original speed), however the ping latency varied from 90 milliseconds as shown above up to 300 milliseconds, it’s worth noting though that ping to local servers at Cyberia and Connect was consistently less than 50 milliseconds.

Assuming the subscription fees will remain unchanged or hopefully decrease, the speed upgrades are much welcome but the latency thing should definitely be reduced to provide a better experience for online gamers. Aside from that, the ultimate challenge for Ogero will of course be to cope with the increasing demand on bandwidth once they remove the speed caps for all subscribers. People are currently barely getting the speeds they are subscribed to, so increasing line speeds without having the necessary bandwidth to cater for the users is going to be pretty disappointing.

Anyway, I don’t want to be pessimistic about the upgrade plan, but let’s just keep our fingers crossed until it is all done.

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Yamammy.com

yamammy

My wife and I recently had a gorgeous baby, and if there’s anything I really agree on with Darine Sabbagh, the founder of  a new website called “Ya Mammy“, it is that your house will quickly be filled with baby gear that were sometimes used for a month or less and you no longer need.

And that’s what Ya Mammy is trying to solve by serving as a parent to parent network for exchanging baby gear and toys and getting great bargain deals.

I’m sure it will be of good use for you whether you’re already a parent with some items you no longer need, or even a parent to be and looking for some good deals. So make sure to keep on checking the website or the Facebook page as it will be launching soon.

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Lebanon’s 4G speed test

huawei

I was luckily among the people who were selected for the trial phase of the 4G network, so I got my dongle from Alfa yesterday and below are some random tests I performed today after I got my connection activated.

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As you can notice the speeds and ping delay are less than what one would expect on a 4G network but that might be due to my location since my reception meter was half full, so I’ll soon try to repeat the test from another place.

Note that Alfa 4G currently covers Beirut only and will slowly expand to other regions, same as what happened when 3G was launched.

Update:

I performed two additional tests near Tayouneh today and got the below speeds.

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Mobile internet users behavior in Lebanon

Alfa Telecommunications released some nice infographic during Arabnet 2013 two weeks ago showing the most popular smart phones among their users along with the most visited websites and what services are mostly used.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

alfa telecommunications

For more about internet usage in Lebanon and e-commerce habits, make sure to check this inforgraphic compiled by Jad Rahme using data released by Ipsos MENA also during Arabnet 2013.

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Everybody can hack into your Blink wireless router!

It’s not a secret anymore that the routers you get from Ogero once you subscribe to their Blink DSL service can easily be hacked since their WiFi password is very easy to retrieve.

First of all, Blink routers are by default secured using WEP encryption which is very weak and can be cracked using wireless penetration tools. Second, they can easily be identified since they all have an SSID (network name) following this pattern “BlinkXXXXXX” where XXXXXX is a 6 character code, and this isn’t just any random code as it is derived from the router’s serial number. Unfortunately, the same applies to the WiFi password, it isn’t generated randomly but rather derived from the router’s serial number as well.

Logically speaking, if you encounter a Blink network and were able to reverse the operation in a way that lets you guess the router’s serial number from the 6 character code in the SSID, retrieving the password would then be a piece of cake since it can be derived from this serial. That’s basically what some people have been doing for a while now since several tools are already available online allowing you enter the 6 character code once you stumble across a Blink network, and gives you the password in a few seconds.

Up until lately, I was thinking the usage of these tools was somehow minimal and limited to techies since you will rarely find them on Lebanese website, until I lately came across this new Android application called “Hack Blink” with a download count of over 10,000 and rapidly increasing.

hack blink

Using the application is very straight forward, you enter the code and wait for the password, I tried it and it does work. So if you have a blink subscription, be sure someone around you will soon or later have this application and eventually start consuming your bandwidth.

Fortunately, there is a way to stop people from doing that by reconfiguring your router using this manual I found on Ogero’s website (which applies to Thomson routers). I strongly recommend you use that manual to change your SSID and setting the encryption algorithm to WPA2, in addition to of course changing the default wireless password. If you encounter any difficulty, make sure to either contact their customer support or just head to the nearest Ogero office in order for some support person to help you do it.

Best solution is definitely for Ogero to stop ordering their routers to be configured this way!

Thanks to @ZuZ for the information he previously provided in this post.

Update:

@AbirGhattas just informed me “Hack Blink” was removed from the Play Store. I still recommend you change your router’s default settings.

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Disciplinary actions against the Lebanese football players involved in match fixing

Lebanese football

Following the reports about illegal betting and match fixing affecting the Lebanese football league started emerging last year with news about players, coaches, and even administrative staff being involved in this scandal. Al-Jadeed TV started tweeting a while ago about the actions to be taken by the Lebanese Football Federation against the involved players.

In total, 24 players turned out to be involved. Two of them will banned for life, Mahmoud Al-Ali who currently plays for Persiba Balikpapan in the Indonesia Super League, and Ramez Dayoub who plays for Selangor FA in the Malaysia Super League. Two others, Hasi Sehmarani and Hadi Jaafar, will be suspended for 3 seasons, in addition to 20 other players who will be suspended for 1 season each.

I’ll be updating the post once a full article is posted somewhere about the issue, but meanwhile you can follow the tweets by Al-Jadeed.

Update:

Check this article for more about the results of the investigation carried by the Lebanese Football Federation.

The 20 players who will be banned for 1 season are Ali Bazzi, Ali Faour, Ahmed Zreik, Hassan Mazhar, Abbas Kanaan, Mohammad Hammoud, Muhammad Abu Atiq, Hussein Dakkik, Samer Zeinedine, Hassan Alawiyeh, Mohammed Baqir Younis, Ali al-Saadi, Omar Aweidah, Tariq Ali, Akram Al Maghrebi, Sadek Assad, Bashar al-Miqdad, Hussein Sharifeh and Ahmad Younes.

So we will basically have to recruit a new national team!

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Waiting for Godot

The government always succeeds to leave us on our tiptoes waiting for the “next big thing” to solve the problems with our cellular networks.

It started with the poor service following the expansion two years ago, then the absence of 3G, and now the whole mess they got themselves into after introducing 3G! Thus the need for $110 million now to enhance the two networks and eventually put an end to the problems in 8 months.

“I am happy to announce to the Lebanese that the National Quality of Services for the cellular networks will put an end to the poor mobile services. This plan will take eight months to be completed. But the Lebanese will feel the positive results in two to three months. Today I have signed the appropriate investment decision which will allow the two cellular companies, Mtc Touch and Alfa, to start work on this big project,” the minister said. Source

I wonder what are we going to anticipate next!

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