Getting a Better Internet Connection (With Globe Philippines)

Many people complain about their Internet Connection in the Philippines (and other places too!).  Most people do not realize there are things they can do to improve their Internet connection.  This is actually a reply to a man speaking about Globe, and is specifically about what he can do to help himself.  However, this pretty much applies to people all over the world.  I just thought I would share these tips with you…

A man named Clifford wrote: (I snipped most personal or identifying information.)

Wednesday, May 2, 2012, 4:46 am [EST]

im a retired ~snip~ living in talisay cebu phillipines area called lower ~snip~ cabinet or local cabineet he is over sold and or over loaded and we also need a main server in this area because of the huge amount or residential homes being built here and the internet is always crashing giong off line and ond or slow to no broswing for the entire area . and globe refuses to upgrede this area to ease the traffic on 20 year old cabinetts that are failing what can we do to force globe to spend big money to upgrade this area immidatly. as the tecs are here every week for hours

My Answer:

Nomaste (It just means “I bow to you!” ~ as with respect!)

Hello Clifford!

First, to be clear, I am not associated with Globe or any other Internet Service Provider any longer.  I am a customer, just like you.

Likewise I have Globe (although I have a Sun Cell Wireless for a back up).

Internet Frustration

I understand your frustration with Globe, believe me if there was anything better, I would have already switched by now.  It took me Feb., March and half of April to finally get someone to pass on information to a network engineer about how to fix the Router Problems (selective browsing) causing all their clients problems.  It took the engineer about 5 minutes to fix the problems for thousands of customers. (After I told him exactly where it was!)

However, as I said, I enjoy Globe because I know what PLDT and Sun are like! (Actually they are now the same thing!)

Forcing Globe

Forcing any big company in the Philippines to do anything is nearly impossible.  I was lucky enough to have Globe upgrade the cabinet I am in, with brand new fiber optics.  How?  Well, an over speeding, drunk, truck driver kind of smashed the old one with his truck!  I am not sure what it would cost to get someone to drive into your cabinet!   I am certainly not suggesting that!

New Globe Office

The good news is that Globe is building a big new switching office for Talisay (actually there is no switching office in Talisay at this time, we are just grouped and sent on old wires to Cebu City.  The new office is on the SRP.  If you go North on the SRP from San Isidro Road, on the right is the YU Apartments and it is across the Highway.  I have been watching them build it, install 2 back up generators.  And install fiber-optic cables to various places.  When it gets put online (a year?) I am sure things will get better.  But I do not expect a USA standards!

I do not know what is your skill level, but there are some things you can do to make a better connection through Globe.

1) Do NOT buy Globe’s cheapest connection – 1MB.

That is what all the Internet cafes buy and Globe does not maintain it.  Get the next one up2 MB or better.  It cost P200 more than the cheap one, but I found the service is better also.

2) Do NOT use WiFi in your house.

WiFi in the Philippines is NOT the same as in the States.  Better to just have an Ethernet cable.  The computers in my house have no WiFi router!  Besides, the World Health Org now says WiFi may be a cause of breast and prostate cancer!  Thanks but, No Thanks!

3) Do Not use Globe DNS.

DNS or the Domain Name Server, is what changes names, like NewLipHe.org into numbers (IP Addresses).  Everything on the Internet runs on numbers.  Globe has DNS servers that do this, when they are not broken.

One day my friend called me up and said he was mad at Globe because everyone on Globe was down for half a day.  I said I was on Globe and still working fine!  He came over to my house to see it for himself!  What we realized it that Globe, Sun and PLDT all have problems getting Server Admin’s (quality) for their DNS servers in Manila.  So when the servers fail, Globe clients are down.  The next two suggestions are solutions for this.

4) Cheap DNS

Find a good DNS server in another country (perhaps two or three other countries) and program your router to use those instead of using Globe.  This is better, but it does mean a total outage if Globe loses a line to those servers.

5) Install your own DNS server.

That is what I did for a while and I am going to do it again next week…  This is the best solution, but it requires putting up a small server on your site.  I do not know what your skill level is, but just about any computer (think cheap) can do this job well.  You can download the Ubuntu Server package and get the DNS server running.

I am planing to move all my movies to the server so they can be watched on any computer on my network.  I will need a slightly larger box for that.  I figure a new computer will cost about P13T.  But if you have a used computer laying around you could use that for a DNS server.  OR even a cheap used one.  DNS causes about half of my problems with Globe.

6) Get a STATIC IP Address.

Every time the power of phone goes out, or you shut off your router, you get a new IP address from the Globe “pool”.  That is called a dynamic IP Address because it can change at any time.  If you want to run an incoming server (host your own web pages) you need to have a Static IP Address – it never changes.  I told Globe it was for my kids school… The reason I got it is to make my connection more stable.  A Static IP Address does not change each time you use the Computer.

Picture this, say Globe had 8 problems with their network.  Now figure you are in a pool with 10 connections.  Eight of them have DIFFERENT problems.  So each time the problems is different.  A tech who actually fixes a problem (and I doubt most do that) would fix one of them, when you shut down, and turn on your computer the next day, you have the same problem.  Think Carefully, what is the first thing they tell you to do… Power down the Router, right?  So then you come up with a different IP Address and maybe one of the 2 our of 10 that work!

With a STATIC IP Address, that won’t work, so they must fix the problem YOU are having.  And when you shut down, and power up, you have the SAME address that was really fixed.  Does this sound like what is happening to you?

They used to charge a one time fee for a Static IP Address.  But I love mine!

With the pool address (look below at your information when you sent me that message, you are in the Globe-VISMIN-IP-POOL (no surprise, right?). With a Dynamic Pool address, people suspect you are bad.  Say that a spammer and cracker and all around evil Internet person just had the IP Address 180.190.165.19.  He (or she) did all kinds of evil things all over the Internet, and plenty of systems put up 96 hour (4 day) road blocks…  This guy was trying to break into all kinds of systems to rob and steal and destroy.  Automatically when these attempts were discovered, servers started blocking that address… just for 4 days or so.

He got tired, or just hung up to get a new, fresher IP ADDRESS.  75% of Non Card Internet Fraud from this country is on the Internet in another country – so Dynamic addresses in the Philippines are automatically suspect.  Now that address is dynamically assigned to you.  He was hacking, cracking, committing fraud, spamming and doing all sorts of evil… Now you get the same address dynamically assigned to you.  IP Address 180.190.165.19 is blocked for 4-7 days so any place he was doing his stuff will now BLOCK YOU!  They do not know why you are, they only know your IP Address!

Try this out for yourself…

http://whatismyipaddress.com/blacklist-check

REAL CHEAP METHOD: If you get any red, you can likely shut off your router, restart it after a minute and test again and you IP will change and the red may be gone!

7)  Praise the techs that come to your house!

It may sound strange, but usually the guys that come to your house cannot do anything to fix your problem.  If you complain at them they will just want to do less and leave as fast as they can.  Instead, appreciate them.  Treat them well, chat with them about other things.  Sometimes then they will think out of the box and offer a solution they would not normally offer.  And sometimes they will bump you up to their supervisor.  Asking to talk to their supervisor is a waste of time, but showing them they have an intelligent question for their supervisor, may just get the attention you need to solve your problem.

I have been in the Philippines more than 25 years, and one thing is for sure, it is not Japan, Canada, Germany, the UK or Missouri or California!  My Honeybun saw a Globe guy working on the new cables the other day… one of the guys we had been nice to and you know what he told her?  He was saving one of the first connections for us!

Part of living in the Philippines is accepting that this is a 3rd world country.  More than that, it is a Filipino World.  Don’t try to make it something else!  Services are NOT on par with the Bill Gates in the States.  Power, water, Internet, you can expect outages on a regular basis.  When I have a brown our here, I go to the mall, or go to the beach.  So now, I kind of look forward to these failures and complain when things work to well… or not!

8) Your Computer and Internet (Phone) needs to be grounded!

Wherever you were in the world, your computer was likely plugged into a grounded three prong outlet.  Here your computer is likely plugged into an ungrounded outlet.  In the States your phone box (Telephone fuses on the outside wall of your house) was likely grounded too (go check! Find your phone box, and see if there is a wire from it to a ground stake!  Make sure it is not broken and it is tight!).  If your computer, or your phone box, is not grounded, you will continue to have problems.

Adding a ground to your compute plug is not a hard job… It just takes a little time.  Did you ever touch your computer and get a low voltage shock.  It did not really hurt, but you were aware of it.  That is really a danger that kills people every year in the Philippines.  When there is a brownout / black out, on one side only, and no ground, the whole 240 Volts can be connected to the case of the Computer!

If your telephone cabinet is 20 years old, it likely has little to no grounding, so grounding at your house on your phone and computer is even more important.  I have seen house that did not even have fuses, just drop wire twisted to house wire… DEMAND a grounded fuse on the side of your house, if you do not have one.  I know Globe will give you that!

Well, there are Eight Solid and Proven Ideas on how to get a better Internet Connection Through Globe.

Take Care,

Lan