Noulakaz

The blog of Avinash, Christina, Anya and Kyan Meetoo.

Livebox in Mauritius: zero professionalism

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As I wrote in my previous post, my set-top box stopped working on the 18th (less than 24 hours after being installed). I must have called Mauritius Telecom around 8-9 times since (twice today). And, of course, no bloody technician has come to my house yet to get that thing replaced.

My Livebox (with Wi-Fi) works perfectly and that’s the only reason I’ve not launched a Bazooka rocket on Mauritius Telecom Tower yet…

So unprofessional :-(

An update

A nice lady just called me to tell me that technicians will come at 14:30 today. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…

Another update

Two technicians came and I told them that the power supply was surely dead. They replaced it and voilà… the set-top box is alive again. Here are two problems I’ve noticed:

  • The TNT channels BBC World and Doordarshan have only left audio. There is no audio in the right channel. I don’t really know if the problem is with the MBC or the set-top box.
  • I’ve noticed that the set-top box stops sending a proper colour signal after some time (i.e. the image becomes monochrome with some high-frequency artifacts). I am still investigating this matter (don’t forget that I’ve not used the set-top box a lot).

Livebox + Wi-Fi + Kubuntu Linux AMD64 = Bliss ;-)

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Yep! The Mauritius Telecom guys came to my house today to install the Livebox… Here are my first impressions:

  • Video on demand: Nice selection of films but the image quality is slightly worse than Parabole Maurice (and dreadful compared to DVD).
  • TNT: 6 free channels and I think I’ll only regularly watch BBC World.
  • ADSL: Fantastic! I’m now surfing at 256kbit/s when accessing sites outside Mauritius (and at 2Mbit/s inside Mauritius).
  • Voice over IP: Not activated yet…
  • Wi-Fi: I’m over the moon… I’ve tested the wireless connection using a laptop (a Centrino-based Dell Inspiron 9300) and the signal strenght is excellent even if I’m in another room. I have also done a test from my desktop computer using a Sagem XG760N USB Wi-Fi adapter which is also freely given by Telecom Plus as part of the Livebox offer and I’m satisfied even though the signal strength is much lower compared to the laptop.

Installing the Sagem XG760N USB Wi-Fi adapter in Kubuntu/Ubuntu Linux

 

The Sagem XG760N USB Wi-Fi adapter comes with a CD-ROM containing Windows drivers. But, for once, a Linux driver is readily available and is not too difficult to install. The adapter, in fact, is a rebranded ZyDAS device with contains a ZD1211 chipset. ZyDAS has an opensource driver and some nice guys have enhanced it. The latest version is currently Release 83.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Make sure your compiler and headers are correctly installed. The simplest way to do this is to run:

    sudo aptitude install linux-headers-`uname -r`
    sudo aptitude install build-essential

  2. Download the driver and uncompress it somewhere
  3. Replace the Makefile by this one
  4. make
  5. sudo make install

and a kernel module called zd1211b will be installed in /lib/modules/

Add this (for example using sudo vi/gedit/kate) to /etc/network/interfaces:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
pre-up modprobe zd1211b
post-down rmmod zd1211b
wireless-mode Managed
wireless-key restricted xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

… and you’re done! Wi-Fi rules ;-)

19 July : an update

Yesterday, when I returned home from work, I noticed that my set-top box was not working anymore (so no Video on Demand and no TNT until the problem is solved). According to me, the external power transformer has died and need to be replaced. I’ve had to call the My.T hotline four times before I managed to convince them that a technician needs to come to my house to solve the problem :-(

Please note that the Livebox is still working (so Wi-Fi still rules ;-) ) but I’ve noticed that instead of having a (more or less) sustained rate of 256kbit/s when downloading something from a server outside Mauritius, the rate varies from 40 to around 200kbit/s and this is so painful… The technician (who will normally come tomorrow) will also look into this…

Wanadoo Livebox to be launched in Mauritius

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There is an interesting article in today’s edition of Week-end on the launch of France Telecom’s Livebox in Mauritius next Tuesday.

From the Livebox manual, here are its main caracteristics:

  • High performance, secured bridge/router with ADSL interface,
  • Ethernet 10/100BT, USB1.1, 802.11b/g (Wi-fi) and Bluetooth user ports,
  • DHCP server, DNS relay,
  • NAT/PAT router – FTP, IRC, Net2Phone, Netbios, DNS, Netmeeting H.323, SIP, RTSP, MGCP (RFC 3134), VPN passthrough (IPSec, IKE, PPTP, L2TP), CUSeeMe, RealAudio, AOL, Microsoft IM and other compatibilities,
  • Firewall,
  • Quality of service (QoS) management for protecting sensitive flows such as Voice over IP,
  • H.323 Voice over IP,
  • HTTP server for easy configuration,
  • FTP server for software updating.

Looks like a very decent list of features to me. According to Week-end, these services will be offered in Mauritius as from next week:

  • TV (TV5, Doordarshan, BBC World, CCTV9, B4U music, MTV, MBC1 and MBC digital 6)
  • “Broadband” Internet access (I suppose the existing 128, 512 and 1024Kbit/s offers)
  • Internet Telephony (to be confirmed…)
  • Video on demand (from a limited selection of films)

By using some magic incantations, Week-end has come up with a fixed fee of around Rs. 1000 to Rs 1500 for subscribing to the service. They have also announced that it will cost around Rs. 10 to Rs. 50 to rent a film for one day. In my opininion, Internet Telephony will also be separately charged (or restricted to some specific countries). In some countries, the Bluetooth antenna is disabled and a transfer limit is imposed for the Internet connection.

I’ll post an update on Tuesday. Let’s all cross our fingers ;-)

First update 11 July

A nice lady from Telecom Plus has called me today and has offered me the Livebox at the same price I’m paying ADSL right now, that is Rs. 950+VAT (i.e a little over Rs. 1000 for 128Kbit/s). A Telecom Plus salesman/technician will come at my place tomorrow for a demo of the Livebox. I’ll keep you posted.

Second update 12 July

Two salesmen (so only salestalk and not a real demo) from Mauritius Telecom came to my house today (notice not Telecom Plus) and offered me the MY.T service at exactly the same price I’m paying ADSL 128 (i.e. Rs. 950+VAT). I get:

  • A Livebox ADSL modem with Wifi / Bluetooth / Ethernet at 256kbit/s (twice my 128kbit/s bandwidth!!!) and 2Mbit/s (for local servers i.e. servers physically found in Mauritius!!!)
  • A set-top-box for the MBC + TNT channels (using a normal aerial) and the Video on Demand (obtained from the Livebox)
  • Rs. 500 to buy films using the Video on Demand capabilities of the Livebox
  • No VoIP for the time being but only preferential rates (for example, Rs. 6+VAT per minute for France using a normal analog phone)

Lots of pros, isn’t it? Twice my previous ADSL bandwidth! A set-top-box for TNT! But, unfortunately, there is one massive catch:

  • Internet data transfer is limited to 1Gb per month. Every additional Mb costs Rs. 0.50 up to Rs. 910 (around 2Gb)

Personally, I don’t care as I don’t indulge in piracy. But I know a lot of people that won’t like this “feature” a lot :-)

Technicians will come for the installation in (maximum) 5 days. I’ll keep you posted.

Third update 14 July

Another lady called me today and told me that MT technicians will come to my place on Monday (17 July) to install the Livebox and the set-top-box. As usual, I’ll keep you posted.