STARHUB = MASS PORT BLOCKER !!! :(

[06294086]

[THESE ARE PAST ISSUE, THE LATEST ISSUE IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST]

More than a week ago I had this port number blocking issue and after a long long talk, I finally got my ports opened...

Now guess what ? When I checked my port numbers starting several days ago, I found out that ALL my ports are AGAIN BLOCKED except the ones that I'm currently using...

I'm not lying here, you can check whether your ports are opened or not through tools or online resources.

Since they also like to BLOCK WEBSITES, I won't mention any websites for checking the ports, you can search them through yahoo or google...

Here is one more clear example of how starhub block ports :

I have a Megaupload premium account and for downloading I use the Mega Manager. Correct if I'm wrong - for downloading it can only use ports 80,800 and 1723.

Everything is OK until several days ago when all my downloads at Mega Manager suddenly stopped. :(

At first I though that the links are broken or already deleted and when I checked them closely, they turned out to be OK... Which confirmed that ports are blocked.

First the issue with Sandvine, after that MASS PORT BLOCKING, not to mention WEBSITES BLOCKING, low speed, and last but not least = HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT ! :(

I sent them emails regarding this issue 4 days ago and I didn't receive a single phone call. Is this how they treat the customers ???

I guess it's high time to seriously consider dumping Starhub...

If they treat the customers like trash then why don't I treat them the same ? :(

I've heard good things about Pacnet lately, could some Pacnet customers kindly share with me your experience ?

If possible through PM please, since it's very likely that some people from starhub are lurking around...

If anyone from Starhub is in this forum then why don't we settle this issue once and for all ? Post through this thread though, and don't PM me so everyone can see clearly what we are talking about !

I posted the same thread at VRZONE...

Just checked and found out that their forum is CLOSED...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LATEST UPDATE (27-11-2008)

I'm now get really, really angry and sick with starhub, They're BLOCKING THE PORTS AGAIN; OK they're not really BLOCKING but they STEALTHING ports which are also BAD.

Stealth ports = ports rejecting incoming packets / with no response

This is my PC and connection status :

1. I'm able to PING to 127.0.0.1 and other websites
2. I'm able to use IPCONFIG and my IP exists,
3. I'm able to use NETSTAT and TRACERT
4. I'm able to use bit torrent although I need to enforce encryption
5. I have mentioned that I'm not using windows firewall, I'm using Zone Alarm FREE and
I always turn it off before I go to GRC SHIELD website to check my ports
6. I'm using avast and I have never heard anything about avast blocking ports
7. I'm not using a router, I'm on direct connection to my cable modem
8. I'm able to surf internet and download files from websites

I've been wondering why bit torrent is still able to download if used with encryption.

Perhaps bit torrent can force encryption, that's why it's still OK.

The other p2p program that I want to use cannot use encryption and it cannot go through stealth ports.

Here's the result of one stealth port (30284) on my STARHUB MAXONLINE checked using GRC SHIELD website :

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/867/port30284cl8.jpg

For comparison, below is the result of the same port (30284) on my friend's SINGNET ADSL checked using the same website :

http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/4497/port30284singnetsh7.png

From the 2 results, it's clear that the port in question is being stealthed by STARHUB and it's an open port on SINGNET ADSL connection...

For more comparison, here are the comparison of common port results from both ISPs :

A. STARHUB

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/8241/common1pi3.jpg

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/5862/common2rq1.jpg

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/9317/common3wu1.jpg

B. SINGNET

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/6420/common1xr6.jpg

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/5600/common2bb8.jpg

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/888/common3zr1.jpg

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/2196/common4vg8.jpg


What a difference ! Those A**h*l*s at STARHUB !!

Could anyone post results of common ports and 30284/other random ports from other
ISPs such PacNet ?

This is the website of GRC SHIELD to check your ports :
https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?rh1dkyd2

Does anyone also know other softwares having problems with this stealth ports ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On several days before 17 Dec 2008, I went to one of Starhub's customer service center and I lodged a complain accompanied by printings of the stealth ports and those of Singnet. I asked them to get their technical department to call me back the next day.

The next day, one of their staff call me back and we talked about the stealth ports issue. She still insist that nothing was wrong with the ports and after a long talk, she told me that she will call me back later in the night.

There was no call back until the next morning so I call starhub again and this time asked them to send one of their technician the next day.

On 17 Dec 2008 at around 2-3 AM, I was checking the ports status using GRC shield again when suddenly the ports change from "STEALTH" to "CLOSE" several minutes later and later on to "OPEN".

At around 11.45 the technician came and I showed him that the problem has been solved. The technician mentioned to me that Starhub do some maintenance from time to time and I also agreed with him saying that there might be some misconfiguration and these "stealth ports" are the side-effect of these misconfiguration.

My conclusion from this problem is that some starhub engineer might misconfigured the network but he didn't want to admit that it happened OR they might deliberately set the ports the stealth; I won't be able to know the truth.

The point is that it's no use to debate with the staff over the telephone over certain technical problems and I should have asked them to sent the technician
right away so that I can show them the proof.

The problem is SOLVED for now but I will keep a look out and should similar problem happen again in the future I know what to do...

[liangtam]

Ports for BT or HTTP traffic??

[calvin_]

Ports for BT or HTTP traffic??
he say megaupload premium account.

i guess maybe SH doing maintenance to their servers.

[suntzu]

Think you can forward this complaints to IDA together with all your evidence.


Write to them info@ida.gov.sg




More than a week ago I had this port number blocking issue and after a long long talk, I finally got my ports opened...

Now guess what ? When I checked my port numbers starting several days ago, I found out that ALL my ports are AGAIN BLOCKED except the ones that I'm currently using...

I'm not lying here, you can check whether your ports are opened or not through tools or online resources.

Since they also like to BLOCK WEBSITES, I won't mention any websites for checking the ports, you can search them through yahoo or google...

Here is one more clear example of how starhub block ports :

I have a Megaupload premium account and for downloading I use the Mega Manager. Correct if I'm wrong - for downloading it can only use ports 80,800 and 1723.

Everything is OK until several days ago when all my downloads at Mega Manager suddenly stopped. :(

At first I though that the links are broken or already deleted and when I checked them closely, they turned out to be OK... Which confirmed that ports are blocked.

First the issue with Sandvine, after that MASS PORT BLOCKING, not to mention WEBSITES BLOCKING, low speed, and last but not least = HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SUPPORT ! :(

I sent them emails regarding this issue 4 days ago and I didn't receive a single phone call. Is this how they treat the customers ???

I guess it's high time to seriously consider dumping Starhub...

If they treat the customers like trash then why don't I treat them the same ? :(

I've heard good things about Pacnet lately, could some Pacnet customers kindly share with me your experience ?

If possible through PM please, since it's very likely that some people from starhub are lurking around...

If anyone from Starhub is in this forum then why don't we settle this issue once and for all ? Post through this thread though, and don't PM me so everyone can see clearly what we are talking about !

I posted the same thread at VRZONE...

Just checked and found out that their forum is CLOSED...

[06294086]

Think you can forward this complaints to IDA together with all your evidence.


Write to them info@ida.gov.sg------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the honest comment.

I see that you're a Starhub supporter but you still reply to my post objectively and I really appreciate that.

I would rather posted this around first and let as many people know about this matter...

The main reason why I would rather not sending email - I believe all of you know that all the blocked websites display "IDA blocking page" which means that Starhub is very likely to get backing from IDA.

It will be pointless to write email to IDA as it will go through their left ear and out of their right ear... Not to mention that they can link this issue to BT and p2p, if you get my meaning...

Regarding the port blocking itself is not urgent, since I still can use my current unblocked ports, and I can log in megaupload and after that manually click the megaupload links and download the files.

I'll see how thing's going before deciding to move to other ISP...

Everyone is welcome to give their comment :)

[Visitor]

pacnet is no good!, thier cable internet disconnect every 15min if u are not active.

[suntag881]

pacnet is no good!, thier cable internet disconnect every 15min if u are not active.
so we're only left with the RED? i better start stocking up their shares. :)

[liangtam]

pacnet is no good!, thier cable internet disconnect every 15min if u are not active.
Why does ur story sounds so diff from other PacNet Cable users?? :s22:

[Greentea81]

can i check whether is port 21 shutdown. I cannot do 21 for few week liao. Last time is ok then suddenly cannot use. Internal no problem but external got problem

[gundamz]

I think this port blocking seriously do not help the consumer. With such high speed internet..don't tell me we can only use to surf net and chat?

[blacklotus]

Best option is to vote with your wallet. Once your contract has ended, terminate the service. Then consider if you still need paid up Internet access compared to free wireless@sg. If you still need the paid-up service, I suggest you sign up for the cheapest option, since the so-called high end premium service also sucks big time.

[Greentea81]

that why they alway come out some good freebie for you to continue his service. Unless u can resist the good freebie

[06294086]

I think this port blocking seriously do not help the consumer. With such high speed internet..don't tell me we can only use to surf net and chat?You know what ?

I think that exactly what they have in their mind !

I'll tell you why :

When I talked with customer service regarding port blocking for the 1st time, the guy that I talked to keep pretending that starhub don't do mass port blocking and he kept acting dumb and avoided talking about the port blocking and instead talking about internet surfing and such !

Frustratingly I told him that there is no BLOODY problem with website surfing and that I pay monthly for FULL broadband access and not just surfing and such and I want my ports opened, no need to talk about other bull**** !

I bet that this guy was told to do so by his superior to deal with customers which are aware of their "technical issues". To what ? To act dumb and act as if nothing happened. :(

After talking for a long time, he told me to wait. Suddenly my ports which were previously blocked were opened and I told him that I have known they blocked my ports and now they just opened it - He keep saying that Starhub don'd do port blocking.

If not, how come suddenly my ports opened ? Are you doing some magic at the back ? I really want to laugh at these people...

Another thing : my download speed when I use Mega Manager since I have megaupload premium account is considerably not bad (can reach hundreds of kB/s).

After a while as in my story, Mega Manager suddenly stop downloading since they BLOCK everything ! :(

I don't know what's in their mind, but my guess is they want to limit your download and upload speed as much as possible and they also want to make it as difficult as possible to download anything from internet using BT and p2p.

It looks like they're getting more and more stingy with bandwidth and they gave promotions and such to get customers attention away from these matters...

What a disappointing ISP ! :(

[calvin_]

You know what ?

I think that exactly what they have in their mind !

I'll tell you why :

When I talked with customer service regarding port blocking for the 1st time, the guy that I talked to keep pretending that starhub don't do mass port blocking and he kept acting dumb and avoided talking about the port blocking and instead talking about internet surfing and such !

Frustratingly I told him that there is no BLOODY problem with website surfing and that I pay monthly for FULL broadband access and not just surfing and such and I want my ports opened, no need to talk about other bull**** !

I bet that this guy was told to do so by his superior to deal with customers which are aware of their "technical issues". To what ? To act dumb and act as if nothing happened. :(

After talking for a long time, he told me to wait. Suddenly my ports which were previously blocked were opened and I told him that I have known they blocked my ports and now they just opened it - He keep saying that Starhub don'd do port blocking.

If not, how come suddenly my ports opened ? Are you doing some magic at the back ? I really want to laugh at these people...

Another thing : my download speed when I use Mega Manager since I have megaupload premium account is considerably not bad (can reach hundreds of kB/s).

After a while as in my story, Mega Manager suddenly stop downloading since they BLOCK everything ! :(

I don't know what's in their mind, but my guess is they want to limit your download and upload speed as much as possible and they also want to make it as difficult as possible to download anything from internet using BT and p2p.

It looks like they're getting more and more stingy with bandwidth and they gave promotions and such to get customers attention away from these matters...

What a disappointing ISP ! :(
lol... you aren't the first person that starhub treated as computer idiots. starhub treats all their customers as idiots, try to lie smoke and cheat their way through.

[mikeeeey]

how to check what ports are closed?

[buaytahhan]

pacnet is no good!, thier cable internet disconnect every 15min if u are not active.
What rubbish! I'm a PacNet cable subscriber and I've never experienced that before!

[LemonT]

What's the megaupload server ip? you tried telnet 'server ip' 'port number' (without ')?
If so what error does it give you?

[Sendoh82]

u should actually tell us what tools so starhub ppl can test

[leaving_footsteps]

I gave up on MOL years ago simply because they blocked port 80 and 21. And I can only use port 80 at work.

[cschua76]

You know what ?

I think that exactly what they have in their mind !

I'll tell you why :

When I talked with customer service regarding port blocking for the 1st time, the guy that I talked to keep pretending that starhub don't do mass port blocking and he kept acting dumb and avoided talking about the port blocking and instead talking about internet surfing and such !

Frustratingly I told him that there is no BLOODY problem with website surfing and that I pay monthly for FULL broadband access and not just surfing and such and I want my ports opened, no need to talk about other bull**** !

I bet that this guy was told to do so by his superior to deal with customers which are aware of their "technical issues". To what ? To act dumb and act as if nothing happened. :(

After talking for a long time, he told me to wait. Suddenly my ports which were previously blocked were opened and I told him that I have known they blocked my ports and now they just opened it - He keep saying that Starhub don'd do port blocking.

If not, how come suddenly my ports opened ? Are you doing some magic at the back ? I really want to laugh at these people...

Another thing : my download speed when I use Mega Manager since I have megaupload premium account is considerably not bad (can reach hundreds of kB/s).

After a while as in my story, Mega Manager suddenly stop downloading since they BLOCK everything ! :(

I don't know what's in their mind, but my guess is they want to limit your download and upload speed as much as possible and they also want to make it as difficult as possible to download anything from internet using BT and p2p.

It looks like they're getting more and more stingy with bandwidth and they gave promotions and such to get customers attention away from these matters...

What a disappointing ISP ! :(
I dunno why this is happening to some of you, it doesn't happen to me before not even once, i have no problem using torrents/megaupload or even any other 3rd party d/l tools. My guess is you d/l tons of GBs and maybe got blacklisted by them lol.

[Sendoh82]

I dunno why this is happening to some of you, it doesn't happen to me before not even once, i have no problem using torrents/megaupload or even any other 3rd party d/l tools. My guess is you d/l tons of GBs and maybe got blacklisted by them lol.

hmmm if they really did black list. thats even worse. its supposed to bu UNLIMITED!!!!

[jellyboy]

Sometimes its not that the CCC want to lie to you. But honestly they cant do jack. They're all aware of the problem, but think of it this way, they're the smallest fry in the company. They are paid to take all these complaints and escalate them upwards (supposedly), whether or not the people up there wants to spend money and buy more bandwidth is another thing..

[Sendoh82]

Sometimes its not that the CCC want to lie to you. But honestly they cant do jack. They're all aware of the problem, but think of it this way, they're the smallest fry in the company. They are paid to take all these complaints and escalate them upwards (supposedly), whether or not the people up there wants to spend money and buy more bandwidth is another thing..

thats why we all LLST.

media dont dare report. awareness not there. competition unfair.

[carey]

hmmm if they really did black list. thats even worse. its supposed to bu UNLIMITED!!!!

My thoughts exactly if not don't put unlimited there hor :s27:

Stupid StuckHub - going retro is the trend ah - let us re-live the 56k dialup era

[Darkfyre]

My thoughts exactly if not don't put unlimited there hor :s27:

Stupid StuckHub - going retro is the trend ah - let us re-live the 56k dialup era

Let's hope that we don't TOTALLY relive the 56k era...

:s13:

[pessimist]

still got 56k dial-up plans available ? :s11:
these days my SH connection is getting slower each day, i tink i wan to terminate it soon. :s7:

[kchinbeng]

Same here last night i can't even open certain website which during the day i can open it without any problem. Any idea is pacnet going to have a booth at the upcoming sitex?

[sinned_82]

I, too, have been experiencing slow HTTP surfing speeds for the past 2-3 mths, esp. so for streaming media. Its so bad sometimes it stops streaming altogether.

Now i'm no networking expert, just a regular guy who wants his some decent online experience. So could this "port blocking" thing be the cause of my slow streams/ surfing? Or is my wireless router faulty? I'm trying to troubleshoot here, so any constructive comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)

[calvin_]

I, too, have been experiencing slow HTTP surfing speeds for the past 2-3 mths, esp. so for streaming media. Its so bad sometimes it stops streaming altogether.

Now i'm no networking expert, just a regular guy who wants his some decent online experience. So could this "port blocking" thing be the cause of my slow streams/ surfing? Or is my wireless router faulty? I'm trying to troubleshoot here, so any constructive comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks :)
no, the "port blocking" thing is not a cause of your slow speeds.

you just can't stream videos properly because sh has very poor intl' bandwidth.

in fact, all these port blocking and traffic shaping tools are supposed to help sh reduce traffic intensive flow like heavy bt'ing, uploads and downloads, so as to allow a fairer distribution of traffic to all of us, so that moderate users will enjoy relatively good speeds.

however, it seems the case that everyone is experience LagOnline... so i also don't know why.

[mikeeeey]

u should actually tell us what tools so starhub ppl can test
erm, can someone answer this qn and teach those of us who are not so technically good at port stuff, on how do we check?

[sAxman_Returns]

i also realize some lagging in speed, dunno izit somebody in my block cheong P2P all the way.....

[Plutonian]

What's the megaupload server ip? you tried telnet 'server ip' 'port number' (without ')?
If so what error does it give you?
hmm....
so ppl here just complain and follow suit but no comment on technical side?

[sinned_82]

no, the "port blocking" thing is not a cause of your slow speeds.

you just can't stream videos properly because sh has very poor intl' bandwidth.

in fact, all these port blocking and traffic shaping tools are supposed to help sh reduce traffic intensive flow like heavy bt'ing, uploads and downloads, so as to allow a fairer distribution of traffic to all of us, so that moderate users will enjoy relatively good speeds.

however, it seems the case that everyone is experience LagOnline... so i also don't know why.
Thing is, i tried streaming the same videos wirelessly at work, where we use SH Corporate ADSL, and it streams fine. Are they denying the same bandwidth they give to corporate accts from the consumer accts>?

[OmegaSupreme]

SH connection speed varies 4 mi, @ times normal, @ times slow esp evening time, sumtime day time oso affected. Aiyo really headache, wanna upload files oso must c timing gd or not.

need a stable connections n decent speed, seems pacnet rx good input......but well dunno north side got their cable???

Now gotta bid time n c how ting goes.......

[suntzu]

Attached is the performance for PacNet Cable 6Mbps.

They look alright during peak hour from 6pm to 12midnight.

LINK (http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061213184450.aspx)
http://www.ida.gov.sg/images/content/Publications/Publications_Level3/rbs/hpSinglethruputPacnetUS6000.png


SH connection speed varies 4 mi, @ times normal, @ times slow esp evening time, sumtime day time oso affected. Aiyo really headache, wanna upload files oso must c timing gd or not.

need a stable connections n decent speed, seems pacnet rx good input......but well dunno north side got their cable???

Now gotta bid time n c how ting goes.......

[06294086]

-UPDATED-

I just received reply from them after waiting for almost a bloody week and you guess what ?

They keep pretending not doing any port blocking as instead asking me unrelated questions :

1) The connection that the other party is using E.g. 56k/Cable/DSL
etc.
2) The upload speed cap (if any) of the other party.
3) The other party may be uploading and/or downloading many files
simulaneously.
4) Network Congestion on the foreign link.
5) The application may not handle/divide the traffic of each upload
request equally

I already told them I want all my ports to be opened !

What does it have to do with downloading speed ?

Some ISP this is !

[06294086]

SH had a issue of people setting up servers using their consumer lines.. not the cooperates one .. so their upload decreased from last time and also block ports.. thats what i hear from my friend..

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just to let you guys know.

Someone posted the above statement in the same thread at VR-ZONE.

Quite an interesting info I must say...

[liangtam]

SH had a issue of people setting up servers using their consumer lines.. not the cooperates one .. so their upload decreased from last time and also block ports.. thats what i hear from my friend..

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just to let you guys know.

Someone posted the above statement in the same thread at VR-ZONE.

Quite an interesting info I must say...
hearsay stuff ish not reliable.

My friend oso said he downloaded alot of fish with MOL recently :P

[suntzu]

This is the latest performance result from IDA website. Dated Oct'07

Apparently IDA is helpless against StarHub. :(

LINK (http://www.ida.gov.sg/Publications/20061213184450.aspx)

http://www.ida.gov.sg/images/content/Publications/Publications_Level3/rbs/hpSinglethruputStarhubUS12000.png
SH had a issue of people setting up servers using their consumer lines.. not the cooperates one .. so their upload decreased from last time and also block ports.. thats what i hear from my friend..

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just to let you guys know.

Someone posted the above statement in the same thread at VR-ZONE.

Quite an interesting info I must say...

[kchinbeng]

Bloody hell starhub block port 80 now i get this message "Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache Server at www.xxxxxx.com Port 80

So does that means sh have block this website? if yes then this coming com fair i confirm change isp liao.

[LemonT]

hmm....
so ppl here just complain and follow suit but no comment on technical side?

ehh ??? :s11:

[KingOfHell]

Bloody hell starhub block port 80 now i get this message "Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache Server at www.xxxxxx.com Port 80

So does that means sh have block this website? if yes then this coming com fair i confirm change isp liao.
huh u r hosting porn site on ur comp?

not afraid of cid ar

[MaXifLeX]

huh u r hosting porn site on ur comp?

not afraid of cid arya lor

[bykte]

cid loves porn..

[kchinbeng]

huh u r hosting porn site on ur comp?

not afraid of cid ar
No lah i just mark out the website address. Sorry i dun surf porn

[Magnolia]

just ans the ques la .. how to check if a port is blocked .. wah lao eh ..

[torxxx]

Friendly reminder! Please wear condoms when probing!

[animeonegai]

what more can we do? we are controlled what

[Sendoh82]

wonder if alot of users can get together to sue them or not sia.

sianz i using ultimate but my connection overseas almost same as those using express sia

[LemonT]

just ans the ques la .. how to check if a port is blocked .. wah lao eh ..

telnet ip port

eg

telnet 127.0.0.1 21

[BlueCloud85]

buay tahan the speed liao. sent them this to let out the steam

I am a shared starhub user in the household. I am sending this email with regards to recent slow connection especially during the evenings.

Refer to the chart generated by IDA

http://www.ida.gov.sg/images/content/Publications/Publications_Level3/rbs/hpSinglethruputStarhubUS6000.png

It shows a huge drop in speed towards the evenings, where most people will be home surfing the net. I felt shortchanged as Starhub has claimed that the fat green pipe will never be congested.

I quote from your site:

"There's more than enough for all with MaxOnline.
Some service providers tell you that with 'shared' access, speeds will drop as more people on your block go online. That won't happen with MaxOnline. Because MaxOnline delivers a massive reservoir of bandwidth, there's always more than enough for everyone."

thus is there a possible explanation for this loss in speed?

There is also no point trying to ping your test site as advised by your phone operators. It will always register a high speed as server is based locally. If I were only interested in surfing local sites. I could have settled for a cheaper dial up account.

I hope you will take time to read my complains and get back to me.

Regards,
A vexed co-customer

[calvin_]

buay tahan the speed liao. sent them this to let out the steam

I am a shared starhub user in the household. I am sending this email with regards to recent slow connection especially during the evenings.

Refer to the chart generated by IDA

http://www.ida.gov.sg/images/content/Publications/Publications_Level3/rbs/hpSinglethruputStarhubUS6000.png

It shows a huge drop in speed towards the evenings, where most people will be home surfing the net. I felt shortchanged as Starhub has claimed that the fat green pipe will never be congested.

I quote from your site:

"There's more than enough for all with MaxOnline.
Some service providers tell you that with 'shared' access, speeds will drop as more people on your block go online. That won't happen with MaxOnline. Because MaxOnline delivers a massive reservoir of bandwidth, there's always more than enough for everyone."

thus is there a possible explanation for this loss in speed?

There is also no point trying to ping your test site as advised by your phone operators. It will always register a high speed as server is based locally. If I were only interested in surfing local sites. I could have settled for a cheaper dial up account.

I hope you will take time to read my complains and get back to me.

Regards,
A vexed co-customer
i'm sure they get alot of this. but in anyway, there is no constitution stating whether a company should deliver up to what is stated in their marketing materials. it is always ambiguous, relative and unquantifiable. in anyways, who doesn't know such materials are always very sales-pitched and sensationalised.

the only thing they have to bound to is the T&C.

[suntzu]

Please also forward this very well written complains to info@ida.gov.sg

I would suggest that you CC all your complain to IDA at info@ida.gov.sg
buay tahan the speed liao. sent them this to let out the steam


I am a shared starhub user in the household. I am sending this email with regards to recent slow connection especially during the evenings.

Refer to the chart generated by IDA

http://www.ida.gov.sg/images/content/Publications/Publications_Level3/rbs/hpSinglethruputStarhubUS6000.png

It shows a huge drop in speed towards the evenings, where most people will be home surfing the net. I felt shortchanged as Starhub has claimed that the fat green pipe will never be congested.

I quote from your site:

"There's more than enough for all with MaxOnline.
Some service providers tell you that with 'shared' access, speeds will drop as more people on your block go online. That won't happen with MaxOnline. Because MaxOnline delivers a massive reservoir of bandwidth, there's always more than enough for everyone."

thus is there a possible explanation for this loss in speed?

There is also no point trying to ping your test site as advised by your phone operators. It will always register a high speed as server is based locally. If I were only interested in surfing local sites. I could have settled for a cheaper dial up account.

I hope you will take time to read my complains and get back to me.

Regards,
A vexed co-customer

[06294086]

I just receive this email 2 days ago and finally my statement was proved !

I copy everything except my name and the person in charge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

helpdesk@starhub.com to me

show details Nov 24 (2 days ago)



Reply


Dear (MY NAME)

Thank you for your email.

We would like to seek your understanding that we are unable to
disclose to you which ports are close due to security issues.
Likewise for opening all ports. We are unable to open all ports which
is specifically close due to preventive measures to protect our
network so that our customer's Internet connection will not be
affected.

If you have any questions on StarHub Digital Cable and MaxOnline
services, please email to this address or fax in to 6725 1603.

Thank you for your understanding.


Best regards

XXXXX XXXXX
Customer Affairs
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems that they gave up and finally forced to admit that they do port blocking and not in small numbers but in fact at least thousands of them OR all with the exception the ones that you're using or you have specifically ask them to open !

Final conclusion : STARHUB is REALLY a MASS PORT BLOCKER !!

[06294086]

IMPORTANT UPDATE (03-12-2007)

I just checked my ports today and found out that most of the ports have been opened :)

This is a very good development and I hope that it stay like this and not reverting back to the mass port

blocked situation again in the future.

I will keep this thread just in case they do mass port-blocking again in the future.

I will check my ports from time in time...

CURRENTLY I HAVE NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER WITH STARHUB

[suntzu]

Sure or not!

Can you tell us what are the ports that were opened?


IMPORTANT UPDATE (03-12-2007)

I just checked my ports today and found out that most of the ports have been opened :)

This is a very good development and I hope that it stay like this and not reverting back to the mass port

blocked situation again in the future.

I will keep this thread just in case they do mass port-blocking again in the future.

I will check my ports from time in time...

CURRENTLY I HAVE NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER WITH STARHUB

[frozenkid]

just ans the ques la .. how to check if a port is blocked .. wah lao eh ..type port checker in yahoo or google

[carey]

i'm sure they get alot of this. but in anyway, there is no constitution stating whether a company should deliver up to what is stated in their marketing materials. it is always ambiguous, relative and unquantifiable. in anyways, who doesn't know such materials are always very sales-pitched and sensationalised.

the only thing they have to bound to is the T&C.

That's because our consumer watchdog here is toothless and more than likely to side the big boys than us...

What we need is a strong pro-consumer commission to ensure that we as consumers are not short-changed by all the marketing crap...

[Parka]

Testing out web hosting functionality yesterday on 8080 and was fine.
Today not fine.

Check my OS, it says 8080 is open.
So who blocked it?

It's a $0 question.

[dk2000]

You know what ?

I think that exactly what they have in their mind !

I'll tell you why :

When I talked with customer service regarding port blocking for the 1st time, the guy that I talked to keep pretending that starhub don't do mass port blocking and he kept acting dumb and avoided talking about the port blocking and instead talking about internet surfing and such

What a disappointing ISP ! :(

lololololol

[hj_dragon]

when check for port checker on google. it point a link to http://www.canyouseeme.org
and having display below :


Background
Most residential ISP's block ports to combat viruses and spam. The most commonly blocked ports are port 80 and port 25.

Port 80 is the default port for http traffic. With blocked port 80 you will need to run your web server on a non-standard port in conjunction with a port 80/web redirect from No-IP.com.

Port 25 is the default port for sending and receiving mail. ISPs block this port to reduce the amount of spam generated by worms on infected machines within their network. If you need to send legitimate email and your ISP blocks port 25. Consider the solutions from No-IP.com.


Common Ports

FTP 21
SSH 22
Telnet 23
SMTP 25
Web 80
Pop 3 110
IMAP 143
Other Applications
Remote Desktop 3389
PC Anywhere 5631

So I think SH block the port to prevent virus/spam mail but to mass block most of the port is really bad.
They already capped us on uploading so what the point of mass block us on port.
Anyone know how to send mail to ST forum and complain

[qsgsgs]

BUMP.............

Ok guys, i've been having my ports all blocked. I thought it was the router firewall. I Disabled it, ran a mass port scan online, all were still blocked. Uninstalled my firewall, rebooted and scanned again, all still blocked. Pissed and knowing who was at fault i called the customer service hotline. They made me do the speed test and traceroute after getting my WAN IP address and instructed me to submit the stats. I knew all that was bs and unnecessary. An hour after the call, all ports were open.

So guys this is additional proof that Starhub does employ mass port blocking.

[info_guy]

i updated to AVG 8.0 and my BT becomes all red, anyway to open ports manually? or i lan lan change anti virus.

i'm getting red arrows for all my uploads, dunno why suddenly.

there's 3 trackers there, 2 private and all red from this morning onwards.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1659/redarrowspx6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Feador]

this explains why my torrent speed suddenly plunges when it hits a certain speed

[liangtam]

BUMP.............

Ok guys, i've been having my ports all blocked. I thought it was the router firewall. I Disabled it, ran a mass port scan online, all were still blocked. Uninstalled my firewall, rebooted and scanned again, all still blocked. Pissed and knowing who was at fault i called the customer service hotline. They made me do the speed test and traceroute after getting my WAN IP address and instructed me to submit the stats. I knew all that was bs and unnecessary. An hour after the call, all ports were open.

So guys this is additional proof that Starhub does employ mass port blocking.

u nid to hook direct to modem for such testing

[LemonT]

BUMP.............

Ok guys, i've been having my ports all blocked. I thought it was the router firewall. I Disabled it, ran a mass port scan online, all were still blocked. Uninstalled my firewall, rebooted and scanned again, all still blocked. Pissed and knowing who was at fault i called the customer service hotline. They made me do the speed test and traceroute after getting my WAN IP address and instructed me to submit the stats. I knew all that was bs and unnecessary. An hour after the call, all ports were open.

So guys this is additional proof that Starhub does employ mass port blocking.

SH does not mass port block, except for some which is due to security reasons.

[dk2000]

No lah i just mark out the website address. Sorry i dun surf porn

lolololol,..

[edren33]

doesnt the more opened up ports means open up to more trojan or malware attacks?

alot of trojan and worms make use of port 80 for back-door attacks, wouldnt it be opening up to nasty crap if needed port 80 to be opened up?

unless you have appliance-based network security solution in the network, opening up all ports are still not a good option as venerabilities are still posed a threat

bottomline, be good lah, dun surf questionable sites or carrying out infringement acts. :)

to date most trojan, melware or any other back-door exploitation makes use of to known 434 ports which includes multiple ports exploitation

wants more speed? tweak your TCP like your MTU, RWIN, or your network card abilities to optimized

happy surfing~

me running on 8mb SH service
http://www.speedtest.net/result/280083856.png :D

[kingkoh77]

Is been goin on for days but I just simply unable to download from megarotic/megaupload.
I able to get the file but the downloading process simply just stalled.

Does this has to be with starhub port blocking too??

[Maximetn]

Is been goin on for days but I just simply unable to download from megarotic/megaupload.
I able to get the file but the downloading process simply just stalled.

Does this has to be with starhub port blocking too??

mi too help

[kivine]

this explains why my torrent speed suddenly plunges when it hits a certain speed

it could mean ur disk is overload.

[nudream]

Common Ports

FTP 21
SSH 22
Telnet 23
SMTP 25
Web 80
Pop 3 110
IMAP 143
Other Applications
Remote Desktop 3389
PC Anywhere 5631




http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/4350/21kv6.jpg

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/922/22br2.jpg

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9563/23mt7.jpg

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/8608/25qj5.jpg

http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/9478/80nv4.jpg

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6109/110ds8.jpg

http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/143/143jj3.jpg


So...........any comment?

[nudream]

No comment ah???

Ok, so i guess it's a "you win HUB-BY, me no choice" :s13:

[CoolRock]

Starhub now still blocking port?

[Trees]

You know what ?

I think that exactly what they have in their mind !

I'll tell you why :

When I talked with customer service regarding port blocking for the 1st time, the guy that I talked to keep pretending that starhub don't do mass port blocking and he kept acting dumb and avoided talking about the port blocking and instead talking about internet surfing and such !

Frustratingly I told him that there is no BLOODY problem with website surfing and that I pay monthly for FULL broadband access and not just surfing and such and I want my ports opened, no need to talk about other bull**** !

I bet that this guy was told to do so by his superior to deal with customers which are aware of their "technical issues". To what ? To act dumb and act as if nothing happened. :(

After talking for a long time, he told me to wait. Suddenly my ports which were previously blocked were opened and I told him that I have known they blocked my ports and now they just opened it - He keep saying that Starhub don'd do port blocking.

If not, how come suddenly my ports opened ? Are you doing some magic at the back ? I really want to laugh at these people...

Another thing : my download speed when I use Mega Manager since I have megaupload premium account is considerably not bad (can reach hundreds of kB/s).

After a while as in my story, Mega Manager suddenly stop downloading since they BLOCK everything ! :(

I don't know what's in their mind, but my guess is they want to limit your download and upload speed as much as possible and they also want to make it as difficult as possible to download anything from internet using BT and p2p.

It looks like they're getting more and more stingy with bandwidth and they gave promotions and such to get customers attention away from these matters...

What a disappointing ISP ! :(

You guys never cease to amaze me, always complaining about the Fat Green pipe. Just dump them and move on to Singnet. If they threaten sue you for breaking your contract, tell them to go ahead. Collect all your evidence so that you can present them at small claims court.

Or get a lawyer to write to them, saying that they have not lived up the the spirit of the contract.

Anyway, stop moaning, you enjoyed their "freebees".

[jumpmanz]

You guys never cease to amaze me, always complaining about the Fat Green pipe. Just dump them and move on to Singnet. If they threaten sue you for breaking your contract, tell them to go ahead. Collect all your evidence so that you can present them at small claims court.

Or get a lawyer to write to them, saying that they have not lived up the the spirit of the contract.

Anyway, stop moaning, you enjoyed their "freebees".
:yawn: :yawn: :yawn:

[06294086]

The ports are being BLOCKED AGAIN by starhub ! I have updated my post...

[edwin21]

lol.. true starhub block some ports, and this has been blocked for years.

what you test for blocked ports are unrealiable and incorrect.

starhub only blocked the following ports

Ports found to be STEALTH were: 80, 135, 137, 139, 445

and b4 u start blabbering, check ur firewalls and router and find some decent port checker like GRC Shield Up https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 which detects your real ip rather than starhub transparent proxy

[s016]

How does starhub blocking the port affect you? My port 21 is blocked based on the website provided above. But i still can access ftp with port 21?

[06294086]

lol.. true starhub block some ports, and this has been blocked for years.

what you test for blocked ports are unrealiable and incorrect.

starhub only blocked the following ports

Ports found to be STEALTH were: 80, 135, 137, 139, 445

and b4 u start blabbering, check ur firewalls and router and find some decent port checker like GRC Shield Up https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 which detects your real ip rather than starhub transparent proxy

Since you insisted that I used unreliable and incorrect test, here are the
screenshot using GRC shield of the port in question :


http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/867/port30284cl8.jpg

You said yourself that STEALTH = BLOCKED, right ?

I'm on direct connection and I turned off my Zone Alarm firewall before checking the port in question.

I'm trying hard to be objective here, last time when Starhub opened the ports, I updated my post to reflect the latest development.

It's Starhub's fault to mess around by closing ports without subscribers' acknowledgment !

Do you have anything to say, Mr. Wise Guy !????

[liangtam]

30284 is what application?
Stealth means there is no responce, not that is it blocked

Try netstat -a to see if the port is binded in yet
Followed by any software firewall that you may have(hopefully ZA dun corrupt ur tcpip stack as it has been known last time)
Hardware firewall like your router, the IP entry must match the table

Lastly, ur router status page, WAN IP MUST BE same as the IP reported on the test site.

[06294086]

Yes, Stealth is not the same as closed , but it still means that my application cannot receive incoming data since the port is not responding to incoming packet...

While it's good as a protection against hackers/intrusion attempts, I want to have the freedom to do whatever I want to my own ports, to decide which ones are open and which ones are not.

I don't need any ISPs interference in stealthing my ports or whatsoever !

What do you mean by wan IP ? My IP address on IPCONFIG /ALL is the same as the one reported on the test website.

I don't use any routers (I'm on direct connection) and I always shutdown Zone Alarm before I do the test and of course I don's use other firewalls...

30284 is another random port that I choose for another of my p2p application (it's not BT), it can be any other port(s) as long as they're open (not stealth)...

I ping 127.0.0.1 and the response is fine, I don't think the TCP/IP stack is corrupted.

These are the definition of "Stealth Port" taken from GRC Shield website :

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internet Port Status Definitions

A "Stealth" port is one that completely ignores and simply "drops" any incoming packets without telling the sender whether the port is "Open" or "Closed" for business. When all of your system's ports are stealth (and assuming that your personal firewall security system doesn't make the mistake of "counter-probing" the prober), your system will be completely opaque and invisible to the random scans which continually sweep through the Internet.

Even if this machine had previously been scanned and logged by a would-be intruder, a methodical return to this IP address will lead any attacker to believe that your machine is turned off, disconnected, or no longer exists. You couldn't ask for anything better. Your personal firewall or NAT router protected system is acting like a black hole for TCP/IP packets. That's very cool.

If your system did NOT show up as Stealth, but you would like it to, you will need to use one of the many free or inexpensive personal firewalls that are now widely available. Of the many firewalls on that list, we recommend (in alphabetical order) firewalls from Agnitum, Kerio, Norton, Sygate, Tiny, and ZoneLabs. I describe the operation of personal firewalls on this page.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[n95crazy]

i think this has more to do with ts knowledge in port blocking than starhub blocking ports.
when IIS throws an error that access is forbidden, you do not have access to resource xxx on this computer, you are connected to the port and the error message is generated by IIS itself

there are MANY reasons why ports are blocked...
- windows firewall
- anti virus
- application error
- router without dmz set on

and many MANY other reasons... even a spoilt lan cable can block your ports intermittenly...
anyway it has been long known that starhub blocks port 80... if you want to host stuff or run IIS on your computer, use another port... simple as abc.

[liangtam]

You know what does the ping really does or not? It only loops the packet in the driver, it dosn't go to the hardware level. it is also a low level utility where it test very basic stuff like connecting means. By today standard, even if u ping 1000 times and get 0% drop, it really means nothing.

To be exactly sure that your PC is not affected by firewall or corrupted. You should at least:
confirm that your application has bind the port into the stack
Able to loopback access the port locally. Use program like IP and port scanner on localhost.

[06294086]

I simply don't understand why you say that my PC might be affected by firewall or corrupted.

1. I'm able to PING to 127.0.0.1 and other websites
2. I'm able to use IPCONFIG and my IP exists,
3. I'm able to use NETSTAT and TRACERT
4. I'm able to use bit torrent although I need to enforce encryption
5. I have mentioned that I'm not using windows firewall, I'm using Zone Alarm FREE and
I always turn it off before I go to GRC SHIELD website to check my ports
6. I'm using avast and I have never heard anything about avast blocking ports
7. I'm not using a router, I'm on direct connection to my cable modem
8. I'm able to surf internet and download files from websites

Please read what I have mentioned before saying anything about TCP/IP stack error, windows/other firewall blocking ports and anything about router.

If something is wrong with LAN cable or even my NIC, then how come I'm only having problem with these stealth ports ?

I'm not an internet expert and I don't know why I'm still able to download files, browse internet and use bit torrent.

All I know is the fact that ALL PORTS that I have checked using GRC SHIELD website are stealth ports.

Perhaps bit torrent can force encryption, that's why it's still OK and the other p2p program that I want to use cannot use encryption and it cannot go through stealth ports ?

It might be. Since the other p2p program that I want to use have error message "Disconnected due to port error"

I have never changed its port configuration before and suddenly it just get disconnected leading to my finding that ALL PORTS that I have checked are stealth ports.

[liangtam]

So is 30284 ur bittorrent port, and also, did u see a green icon/tick at the bottom of your bittorrent client?

[Resonance]

Btw, i found something interesting today while googling about these issues.
This is the quote from the website. (The website url is not convenient to show here =:p) :


As you may have noticed, Singapore's Starhub/MaxOnline have been recently throttling the bandwidth to our **** download servers to the point where you will get a connection reset or a timeout. They have changed the strategy from blocking our domain names outright, (as we kept on changing it on our servers) which was their initial course of action. This sort of over extreme throttling to discourage downloads seems to be happening at a majority of Starhub Network Operations Centers, but not at every single center, so few Starhub/MaxOnline customers are not affected but most are. The slow speed or the inability to sometimes download from **** is the complete result of of Starhub. (the website name) has never throttled bandwidth in its 7.5 year inception and does not plan to.

Please note that this case is very different from simply blocking an ***** site from you. Starhub does not really loose any money when they block or not block a site from you. Bandwidth cost is minimal for them. But allowing (the website name), which moves more than 30,000+ gigabytes into Singapore a month, the international bandwidth (transatlantic fiber optic transmission) prices for Starhub puts a big frown on their face considering bandwidth is expensive in your country and we are moving gigabytes, and not megabytes.

We are friends with many large ** sites who also operate servers in the United States and most are reporting that they are also experiencing the same problem we are experiencing. In addition, we are currenty in talks with Starhub AGAIN (third time) to see what they are up to and what compromise we can agree on. Everytime they deny there is a problem, everything becomes normal again for a short period, which in our minds is completely odd. If you work for Starhub, perhaps you should look into this matter for us.


Its a JAV website. sensitive to name it here.=:p

from the above, it seems that starhub just "control" people from "speeding" in their network in order to save bandwidth and cost!!! note that the above is a direct http downloading. WTF!

[krazyman]

Stealth doesn't equate to block, just no response. This could be due to no application listening on that port, so check the application. You mentioned SH blocks port 1723 on your 1st post, this can't be true as I can still use this port for PPTP VPN.

[boucyfirebal]

no constitution stating whether a company should deliver

ermm there is actually its call misrepresentation!

actually cannot blame your block people
why? cause they are using what they are paying everyone got cap on max speed

so blame starhub for not having a bigger network switchboard and many many more

[06294086]

So is 30284 ur bittorrent port, and also, did u see a green icon/tick at the bottom of your bittorrent client?

Yep, liangtam, I don't see the green icon/tick at the bottom of my bittorent client, instead I see a triangle with an exclamation mark inside saying that there's no incoming connection :s27:


Btw, i found something interesting today while googling about these issues.
This is the quote from the website. (The website url is not convenient to show here =:p) :



Its a JAV website. sensitive to name it here.=:p

from the above, it seems that starhub just "control" people from "speeding" in their network in order to save bandwidth and cost!!! note that the above is a direct http downloading. WTF!

Yep, I also believe that they don't want to spend more money to upgrade their infrastructure for accomodating more customers and more bandwidth requirements :s27:

Stealth doesn't equate to block, just no response. This could be due to no application listening on that port, so check the application. You mentioned SH blocks port 1723 on your 1st post, this can't be true as I can still use this port for PPTP VPN.

Sorry, I was unclear about the term of "stealth" and I mixed it up with the term "closed". I only knew clearly about the term "stealth" a few days ago...

no constitution stating whether a company should deliver

ermm there is actually its call misrepresentation!

actually cannot blame your block people
why? cause they are using what they are paying everyone got cap on max speed

so blame starhub for not having a bigger network switchboard and many many more

FINAL CONCLUSION : Starhub doesn't want to spend more money to upgrade their infrastructure for accomodating more customers and more bandwidth requirements. So what they do they do ? Stealthing port !!! :s27:

By the way, is anyone using/know other type of programs beside p2p which has problems with "stealth ports" ?

[06294086]

I justed posted results of common ports scanning of MAXONLINE and SINGNET ADSL on the first page; anyone interested can have a look at them...

[Resonance]

Using Maxonline Premium. did the same test. all are stealth.

[krazyman]

MOL Express common ports scan.

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan.jpg

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan30284.jpg

[apatheticme]

Stealth is good. I like stealth :)

[krazyman]

The pic below show which ports (those stealth ones) among the 1st 1056 are blocked by starhub.

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan1.jpg

[06294086]

Stealth is good. I like stealth :)

Stealth ports are good for protection especially from hackers but only if there's no application using it.

Rather than having ISPs stealth or block my ports, I would rather have the freedom to do it myself using firewalls or other softwares.

If you use application then there's a possibility that stealth ports will interfere, for example non-encrypted p2p applications.

It's very reasonable to have several ports being stealthed for security reasons like what SINGNET did, but what STARHUB's mass ports stealthing was totally unacceptable since it only serve their financial interest, not subscribers' internet access...

[06294086]

MOL Express common ports scan.

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan.jpg

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan30284.jpg



I'm surprised that most of your ports are closed instead of stealthed. Are you using any firewalls and what type maxonline did you subscribe to ?

I'm using the cheapest type...



Stealth is good. I like stealth :)


Stealth ports are good for protection especially from hackers/intrusion attempts but only if there are no applications using them.

Rather than having ISPs stealth or block my ports, I would rather have the freedom to do it myself using firewalls or other softwares.

If you use certain type of applications then there's a possibility that stealth ports will interfere with them, for example non-encrypted p2p applications.

It's very reasonable to have several ports being stealthed for security reasons like what SINGNET did, but STARHUB's mass ports stealthing was totally unacceptable since it only serve their financial interest, not subscribers'...

[krazyman]

I'm surprised that most of your ports are closed instead of stealthed. Are you using any firewalls and what type maxonline did you subscribe to ?

I'm using the cheapest type...


Using MOL Express.

I've mentioned in earlier post that all port scan will report stealth if it doesn't get any response, ie no services is listening on the port. You get all ports stealth because you are not doing a scan correctly.

I did this scan to show you that SH is only blocking a few ports, not all as tested by you.

PS - you want to see them stealth, see pic below. Port 88 is open becos I've http server running. Notice the url of this pic? So you see, it depends on how you run your test.

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan2.jpg

[06294086]

Using MOL Express.

I've mentioned in earlier post that all port scan will report stealth if it doesn't get any response, ie no services is listening on the port. You get all ports stealth because you are not doing a scan correctly.

I did this scan to show you that SH is only blocking a few ports, not all as tested by you.

PS - you want to see them stealth, see pic below. Port 88 is open becos I've http server running. Notice the url of this pic? So you see, it depends on how you run your test.

http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan2.jpg

Hello,

what do you mean by running the test incorrectly ? I'm confused with what you say. I turned off Zone Alarm every time I do the check.

If needed, I can uninstall zone alarm and only depend on avast for protection but I don't think that the result will change.

I mentioned that the application which has problem with the stealth ports
is an uncrypted p2p application.

I don't know whether other application such as web servers are OK with stealth ports, that's why I ask anyone if they encounter any other applications having problems with stealth ports...

It could be that some applications are OK with stealth ports, if not why am I still able to download files, browse internet and bit-torrenting (event though by using protocol encryption) !?

Also, this p2p application clearly gives me an error message "Disconnected due to port Error". I tried other random port numbers and they all ended up with the same message.

Of course I also tried with the same exact port which is 30284 that the p2p application successfully used last time. If at that time everything was OK then how come I suddenly received port error message several days ago (on the same port) !?

I'm not someone developing programs using ports do I don't know...

Anyway, the point is something was suddenly wrong with the port that my p2p application used last time several days ago. I did the test and ports (perhaps all ?) were found to be stealthed. My p2p application cannot use the stealth port, so I complained to starhub...

[HeCToR]

iirc zonealarm still PROTECTS ur PC/notebook even if u turned it off.

do a uninstallation, or best, use vanilla OS and try doing the test again

[06294086]

iirc zonealarm still PROTECTS ur PC/notebook even if u turned it off.

do a uninstallation, or best, use vanilla OS and try doing the test again

No problem, but using vanilla OS (I assume you're talking about clean re-installation) is of course too troublesome.

I'll do the test again later...

[liangtam]

whether if the traffic is encrypted or not is a seperate issue with ports being open, closed or even stealth

[krazyman]

Hello,

what do you mean by running the test incorrectly ? I'm confused with what you say. I turned off Zone Alarm every time I do the check.

If needed, I can uninstall zone alarm and only depend on avast for protection but I don't think that the result will change.

I mentioned that the application which has problem with the stealth ports
is an uncrypted p2p application.

I don't know whether other application such as web servers are OK with stealth ports, that's why I ask anyone if they encounter any other applications having problems with stealth ports...

To test a port whether is blocked by ISP, you need something to listen to that port. Otherwise it will report as stealth. So stealth could mean block by ISP or no one listening and responded. Put an unprotected PC (ie no software firewall) in router DMZ (DMZ is to make sure all ports are forwarded to this PC) and run port scan again.


It could be that some applications are OK with stealth ports, if not why am I still able to download files, browse internet and bit-torrenting (event though by using protocol encryption) !?

The above statement just shows your lack of understanding.;) Blcoking incoming ports only block unsolicited incoming requests, so it does not affect browsing, downloading from http sites, etc which are out-going requests.


Of course I also tried with the same exact port which is 30284 that the p2p application successfully used last time. If at that time everything was OK then how come I suddenly received port error message several days ago (on the same port) !?

I'm not someone developing programs using ports do I don't know...

Anyway, the point is something was suddenly wrong with the port that my p2p application used last time several days ago. I did the test and ports (perhaps all ?) were found to be stealthed. My p2p application cannot use the stealth port, so I complained to starhub...

You should look at what changes you've made to your setup from then till now. I've shown you which ports SH block, and port 30284 isn't blocked. So making nosie at SH won't solve your problem.;)

[06294086]

To test a port whether is blocked by ISP, you need something to listen to that port. Otherwise it will report as stealth. So stealth could mean block by ISP or no one listening and responded. Put an unprotected PC (ie no software firewall) in router DMZ (DMZ is to make sure all ports are forwarded to this PC) and run port scan again.




The above statement just shows your lack of understanding.;) Blcoking incoming ports only block unsolicited incoming requests, so it does not affect browsing, downloading from http sites, etc which are out-going requests.




You should look at what changes you've made to your setup from then till now. I've shown you which ports SH block, and port 30284 isn't blocked. So making nosie at SH won't solve your problem.;)


Thanks for the explanation about browsing and downloading files being outgoing requests that's why they're OK since stealth ports only block incoming requests, correct !?

I have mentioned in the 1st page about my computer and connection status to internet, I'm connected directly to my cable modem and I just uninstalled zonealarm since someone mentioned that zonealarm still protect despite being turned off.

Since I'm now on direct connection with my cable modem and not using firewall (I'm only protected by avast) then my computer certainly qualify as an unprotected PC.

There are no changes in setup other than zonealarm which has been uninstalled now.

I run the test again and the results are exactly the same; all ports that I have checked are stealthed...

My problematic unencrypted p2p software still has port error problem with stealth ports.

For your information, when I call starhub regarding this matter, they told me that there's no way I can check my port status showing how dishonest they are by keeping the subscribers in the dark !

Also, the first time I wrote this thread I was using port detective which turned out to give wrong results before someone told me how to use GRC SHIELD to check the ports.

However, at that time the problematic application was also the same one and now I suspect that the problem might be the same; the ports were actually not closed, they were stealthed.

In the end starhub eventually opened the ports and my p2p application was working well.

The current issue is actually the repetition of the past issue...

Anything else ? The issue still remain the same...

[krazyman]

With direct connection to modem and ports are still stealth, take look at all the services in the Task Manager that are running. Post a screenshot of your task manager and see if we can identify them, no guarantee though.

[Enishi]

go into safe mode with networking and run the test again

[Trendnet18]

if ur complaining about speed buy the 100MBps lolz

[06294086]

I don't think there's any point in doing other things. It's already been proven that the ports are stealthed and I would rather do other things than wasting more of my time on this.

I just checked another friend of mine which is using starhub's wireless service (I forget the name) and the result is even worse than mine since almost all his ports are closed and the rests are stealthed.

He's also on direct connection and not using any firewall.

Now I'll only wait and see for starhub's response; if thing's doesn't get better ,several months ahead will likely change into singnet or other ISP. One of the consideration why I don't change to other provider now is because my telephone line is currently being used by other person and it will be only available next year...

[krazyman]

I don't think there's any point in doing other things. It's already been proven that the ports are stealthed and I would rather do other things than wasting more of my time on this.

I just checked another friend of mine which is using starhub's wireless service (I forget the name) and the result is even worse than mine since almost all his ports are closed and the rests are stealthed.

He's also on direct connection and not using any firewall.

Now I'll only wait and see for starhub's response; if thing's doesn't get better ,several months ahead will likely change into singnet or other ISP. One of the consideration why I don't change to other provider now is because my telephone line is currently being used by other person and it will be only available next year...

Suit yourself if your mind is already made up and just won't listen and learn.

I took the trouble to do the port scan and post them here to show you that they are not blocked by SH, and many others and myself tried to explained that stealth ports do not conclusively meant blocked by ISP.

From your this post (see highlighted in red), it also tell me you do not understand the term Open, Close and Stealth very well.
OPEN - means when probing that IP address, it gets a RESPONSE and can CONNECT to the server (or PC) on that IP address.
CLOSE - mean when probing that IP, it gets a RESPONSE but can't connect to the server. In orther word, CLOSE means it managed to get passed the ISP, NAT router, firewall all the way to the server or PC but just couldn't connect to it.
STEALTH - means when probing, it gets no RESPONSE. It could be blocked by ISP, NAT router, firewall or simply nobody is using this IP. This is why we say STEALTH is not conclusive of ISP blocking ports.

[Enishi]

well, noobs that think they know it all
what can we say

[apatheticme]

The more he talk, the more he reveals that he don't actually understand what he is talking about.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.

[Resonance]

There are some things that still very fishy about starhub obviously. Dont care about whether the ports are stealth or not...

1) A friend of mine when BT climbing in his house using Maxonline Ultimate. slow until like no tomorrow, spend 3 weeks downloading a "file". cannot tahan, when to his office running a "stated" slowler upload and download than his MOL Ultimate plan... (a commercial office use Line Singnet) 1 day download finish. He is a network admin. (he checked this ports and network routing, np)
(research did mention that starhub throttle and shape "residential" network, not commercial/cooperate line)

2) Some websites just could get connected. always get "connection interrupted" message. (was fine last time). Go through some proxy via "hidemyass" no problem.

3) as mention in my previous post. surfing the website has no problem, very fast. but once wanted to download a 1.5GB file via HTTP PORT 80. i could not resolve the File size and download has problem. Was OK last time... the website stated starhub is trying funny things from their server.
The download was tried in IP and URL, also failed. Use on "Hidemyass" straight download fast.

and the funny thing was... No 2 and No 3 happened at the same day...
Which means on 1 day, no problem, the next day, both thing happend, "Connection Interrupted".
AND tried at my friend's home which has the same setup as my network, everything the same... router brand and windows setup was the same. Only diff was his MOL Express. thats the only diff, but he can download and surf the web no problem!!!

What might be the problem if let say it wasnt starhub and my computer has no settings changed, that yesterday things was smooth but today isn't...

[JAson1980]

hmm... i am a noob in BTing...
but if i can clear >2Gb of D/L overnight means my port is ok?
MOL Express user here

[06294086]

Suit yourself if your mind is already made up and just won't listen and learn.

I took the trouble to do the port scan and post them here to show you that they are not blocked by SH, and many others and myself tried to explained that stealth ports do not conclusively meant blocked by ISP.

From your this post (see highlighted in red), it also tell me you do not understand the term Open, Close and Stealth very well.
OPEN - means when probing that IP address, it gets a RESPONSE and can CONNECT to the server (or PC) on that IP address.
CLOSE - mean when probing that IP, it gets a RESPONSE but can't connect to the server. In orther word, CLOSE means it managed to get passed the ISP, NAT router, firewall all the way to the server or PC but just couldn't connect to it.
STEALTH - means when probing, it gets no RESPONSE. It could be blocked by ISP, NAT router, firewall or simply nobody is using this IP. This is why we say STEALTH is not conclusive of ISP blocking ports.

So now, when I said that I won't do anything further to show that my ports are stealth-ed, some people start b***h*ng as if they know and are sure about everything.

I have said before that I'm on DIRECT CONNECTION to my modem and I DON'T USE any FIREWALL and the application in question is an p2p-type application, not something like a web server.

EVERY TIME, you just keep talking about Firewall and NAT router which shows that you don't pay attention to what I said and instead saying that I won't listen and learn to you.

Again, taken from GRC website :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stealthhttp://www.grc.com/image/blackpixel.gif A "Stealth" port is one that completely ignores and simply "drops" any incoming packets without telling the sender whether the port is "Open" or "Closed" for business.


When all of your system's ports are stealth (and assuming that your personal firewall security system doesn't make the mistake of "counter-probing" the prober), your system will be completely opaque and invisible to the random scans which continually sweep through the Internet.

Even if this machine had previously been scanned and logged by a would-be intruder, a methodical return to this IP address will lead any attacker to believe that your machine is turned off, disconnected, or no longer exists. You couldn't ask for anything better.


Your personal firewall or NAT router protected system is acting like a black hole for TCP/IP packets.

Closedhttp://www.grc.com/image/blackpixel.gif "Closed" is the best you can hope for without a stealth firewall or NAT router in place.


At least the port is not "Open" for business and accepting connections from the probes which are continually sweeping the Internet searching for exploitable systems.

Anyone scanning past your IP address will detect your PC, but "closed" ports will quickly refuse connection attempts.


OPEN!http://www.grc.com/image/blackpixel.gif
If our tests have shown one or more of your ports to be OPEN!, then Internet packets requesting a connection with your machine are being accepted and connections are being created.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From wikipedia :


The result of a scan on a port is usually generalized into one of three categories:

Open or Accepted: The host sent a reply indicating that a service is listening on the port.
Closed or Denied or Not Listening: The host sent a reply indicating that connections will be denied to the port.
Filtered, Dropped or Blocked: There was no reply from the host.There's no definition about "STEALTH", but since OPEN and CLOSED status are clearly defined; it means that the other status left; FILTERED / DROPPED / BLOCKED is the same as STEALTH.

It's only a matter of different terms related to the same meaning !

I'm not even actually wrong when I mention PORT BLOCKING instead of PORT STEALTHING in the first place !!

STEALTH ports can be either "OPEN" or "CLOSED" ports that drop incoming packets . However, ports that drop incoming packets (STEALTH PORTS) cannot be used for my p2p application.

That's why I'm complaining to Starhub about their port stealthing which interferes with my p2p appplication !

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

well, noobs that think they know it all
what can we say

The more he talk, the more he reveals that he don't actually understand what he is talking about.

Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.


I don't need any opinions from people who tend to defend starhub no matter how techie they are in networking; I have seen such people other forums before.

The definitions taken from both GRC website and wikipedia are there to see and I have read and understood them !

[ionicle88]

if what starhub has done is to stealth ports, there will still be open ports for ftp usage and web browsing that can be configured for BT. if u can find that... your torrent will still fly.. given that someone is seeding u @ 1MB/s

[n95crazy]

actually whats your problem with blocked ports i just don't understand...
have you tried connecting to these ports via LAN?
surely via LAN there'd be nothing to do with starhub

also i've hosted games and used weird port numbers before but never experieced any issues with blocked ports or connection

[edwin21]

i think he got himself confuse with starhub throttling p2p connection and port being stealth

[albertchng]

i would like to see you run a port scan on your very own localhost.

[n95crazy]

maybe he's confusing the issue between computer ports and ports in real life where computer ports are not open unless programs are listening onto the port... ie if there are no programs listening, then you'll never be able to connect to the port

[krazyman]

So now, when I said that I won't do anything further to show that my ports are stealth-ed, some people start b***h*ng as if they know and are sure about everything.

I scanned my ports and managed to get them (almost all) to show as CLOSE but you can't already speak about your inabilities!

Closed or Denied or Not Listening: The host sent a reply indicating that connections will be denied to the port.


Your own quote above. "The host sent a reply" already meant the GRC sacn got thru SH to the host and it respond with a reply. So how can there be any block in between????

The difference between our scans is mine are CLOSE and yours are STEALTH. May be SH did selective user blocking.:s22:

My last post here. Wish you well continue living in your well.:s27:

I've been pretty restrain in my post. But wth, let me give you another quote:

Even an idiot will pause to think why when the whole world disagree with him.

[largeresource]

if you attained the CCIE, CCSP

you will know that these P2P program will had their bandwidths and packets clipped and narrowed as the cisco feasture can provide.

today ISP switches and routers are programmed to sniff packets and bandwidth running on each L4 ports
they know even scan and sniff L5 - L7 packets

they can limit queue-request and threshold and connections on each packets and link
they can limit how many links and connections on each layers on each physical link established

i can have full resilent 100Mbps download on port 80 and 443 from USA
my USA line is a 400Mbps T1 line.
i cannot get full bandwidth on other ports.
i sometime has drop connection on other port.

i do not have any QOS and bandwidth clipping on connection within singapore.


in CCIE i learn that i can drop and closed L4 port after a volume / capacity has been reached

[n95crazy]

i can have full resilent 100Mbps download on port 80 and 443 from USA
my USA line is a 400Mbps T1 line.
i cannot get full bandwidth on other ports.
i sometime has drop connection on other port.


the internet is a shared resource...
unless you have direct, wired access it is impossible not to experience drop connection or constant full bandwidth all the time...

if you want to state a fact, make sure that your fact is based on legit, fair grounds

[MarineX]

if you attained the CCIE, CCSP

you will know that these P2P program will had their bandwidths and packets clipped and narrowed as the cisco feasture can provide.

today ISP switches and routers are programmed to sniff packets and bandwidth running on each L4 ports
they know even scan and sniff L5 - L7 packets

they can limit queue-request and threshold and connections on each packets and link
they can limit how many links and connections on each layers on each physical link established

i can have full resilent 100Mbps download on port 80 and 443 from USA
my USA line is a 400Mbps T1 line.
i cannot get full bandwidth on other ports.
i sometime has drop connection on other port.

i do not have any QOS and bandwidth clipping on connection within singapore.


in CCIE i learn that i can drop and closed L4 port after a volume / capacity has been reached

Mass port blocker? does it ? it seems that my side i ain't affected. The port that are being blocked off is my router restriction.

[boucyfirebal]

well it is a known fact port will be block!!

but not to such a extent lah. isp have to show themselves helping the "orginals" and reduce bandwidth babyee

[largeresource]

Mass port blocker? does it ? it seems that my side i ain't affected. The port that are being blocked off is my router restriction.

what line you subscript

[06294086]

i think he got himself confuse with starhub throttling p2p connection and port being stealth

edwin21, I'm well aware that Starhub did throttle p2p connection and it had been done a long time ago before I start posting this thread and I haven't yet any serious problem as long as nothing were wrong with the ports which only started when started this thread somewhere in this year.

if what starhub has done is to stealth ports, there will still be open ports for ftp usage and web browsing that can be configured for BT. if u can find that... your torrent will still fly.. given that someone is seeding u @ 1MB/s

I'm using bittorent and another p2p application. There's no problem with my bit torrent since I'm using "enforced encryption" but there's a problem with my other p2p application that doesn't have "enforced encryption" option and both are connected to stealth ports...

In the past, I can easily find other open random ports to use but if I'm not wrong, since somewhere around this year starhub did "something" to their network ; that's when I posted this thread for the first time...


i would like to see you run a port scan on your very own localhost.


What I know is I'm on direct connection to my cable modem and without any firewall. My anti virus is Avast free edition and I'm using Spybot and Ad-Aware frequently to clean out spyware and malware...

I'm aware that I'm connected to internet through Starhub's transparent proxies. I check my ports using GRC Shield website; how do I check a certain port number like 30284 on my own local host with a software ? Any freeware recommendation ?

Last time I'm using Port Detective but its result is somewhat different with GRC Shield...


maybe he's confusing the issue between computer ports and ports in real life where computer ports are not open unless programs are listening onto the port... ie if there are no programs listening, then you'll never be able to connect to the port

When I did the port testing at GRC website, I turned on the problematic p2p program and I'm on direct connection without any firewalls in between...
I don't get what you mean my no programs listening... ?



actually whats your problem with blocked ports i just don't understand...
have you tried connecting to these ports via LAN?
surely via LAN there'd be nothing to do with starhub

also i've hosted games and used weird port numbers before but never experieced any issues with blocked ports or connection


I'm directly connected with the modem and I'm not using any LANs or firewalls.
As mentioned above, the problem is that the STEALTH PORTS interferes with my p2p application; that's all.

Of course there are other programs that are working just fine with these ports.
The problem start happening somewhere this year when I started posting this thread...

[06294086]

I scanned my ports and managed to get them (almost all) to show as CLOSE but you can't already speak about your inabilities!



Your own quote above. "The host sent a reply" already meant the GRC sacn got thru SH to the host and it respond with a reply. So how can there be any block in between????

The difference between our scans is mine are CLOSE and yours are STEALTH. May be SH did selective user blocking.:s22:

My last post here. Wish you well continue living in your well.:s27:

I've been pretty restrain in my post. But wth, let me give you another quote:


Hey dude, you know what !? You may know something that I don't but you're very stubborn and won't listen to any that I said !

No matter how you defined, stealth ports, the fact still remains that my ports are stealthed and it interferes with my p2p application !

When you keep mentioning again and again about router stuff and firewall, I keep replying again and again that I'm on direct connection with modem and without any firewalls ! :s27:

I get this feeling that you don't want to admit that starhub is very likely did something "funny" with the ports so you keep pointing your finger to me instead !

AGAIN, I've seen people like you in other forums before and I told them to stop posting in my thread since they're being unreasonable ! No matter how knowledgeable you are it will be only a waste of my time !

Let me tell you something; I've been with starhub for quite some time and I only start complaining somewhere within this year when they started doing "funny things" !

If I'm a new starhub customer and suddenly start complaining without any valid reason then yes, I'm an unreasonable person than. But hey, this is not a first time issue !

When the 1st issue (the time when I started this thread) was solved, I never expected that Starhub will do "funny things" again. So when the 2nd issue occured, I felt betrayed by starhub !!! :mad:

ALSO, just to let you know that this wednesday I gave them a call since I have sent 2 emails to them without any replies at all !!!

Last wednesday, when I casually asked them when my contract finish they tried to change my attention to other things and said that they will do something about it but until now nothing has been done and there's no reply yet !

When I asked them how I check my ports they lied to me by saying that there's no way I can do it ! Now, what do you call an ISP like that !??

Why don't I move to their ISP ? It's simply because singnet is one of other ISPs that I might jump in but currently my phone line is being used by other people and also I only have this particular issue with stealth ports and this p2p application; I can do bittorenting, surfing and downloading files from website... I'm not in such a desperate situation to jump to other ISP...

I don't want to be emotional whenever possible but I won't keep quiet when someone bashing me !

[liangtam]

If you understand application networking, then you will know any application listening to a specific port above 4 digits is very much likely a P2P client than anything else. No matter how much higher security u have apply, it makes the activities transferred/conducted more suspicious than anything.
With that said, if you're not experiencing problems with encrypted P2P connection, you will definitely NOT have problem with any other application

Lets go into details on 'problem(s)'. Your claim on port being stealth on MOL is contradictive to what others have provided, e.x. by our lich unkle, krazyman.(Oops, hope u dun find it offensive :o)

Why not you prove it to us that
- Your application has had its listening port binded in windows stack
- Your PC is indeed not corrupted by well-known f/w corrupter, e.g. Norton IS, ZA etc.


The first part can be shown to us easily by
netstat -ab in command prompt as well as IP scanner on local loop(try angry ip scanner)

The second part by using another PC(preferably with no firewall installation before) is to ensure the incoming traffic is not restricted even as the f/w is uninstalled. Some software f/w is really annoying n difficult to use also.

This way, u can keep us shut if you're showing it as per what you've claimed.

[phuque99]

belligerent poster and posts are fun to read :)

[krazyman]

Hey dude, you know what !? You may know something that I don't but you're very stubborn and won't listen to any that I said !


I've gotta eat my words. Just thought of something, so 1 more post.

Talk is cheap, put our money where our mouth is. How about a wager? $2k should be enough to move my butt.

I'll bring my notebook to your place and connect to your cable modem and your MOL. Run the GRC port scan on port 30284. If the result of the scanned port is anything but OPEN, you are $2k richer. Also, if it takes me more than 15 minutes, you win too. If my notebook works and yours don't, it can't be the ISP problem, can it?

To make it more transparent, we can invite someone here to withness and he can take a 20% ($400) of the winnings.

You've been very confident right, so how that's sound?


http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan3.jpg

[liangtam]

krazyman unkle is really, truly lich~!
gotch so much marnee to prep n burn :o

[krazyman]

krazyman unkle is really, truly lich~!
gotch so much marnee to prep n burn :o

Woah! you mean I'm gonna lose.....:D

[liangtam]

Woah! you mean I'm gonna lose.....:D
Nope, unrikely, but...

$2k ish peanuts to chiu mah :s22:

[largeresource]

Hey dude, you know what !? You may know something that I don't but you're very stubborn and won't listen to any that I said !

No matter how you defined, stealth ports, the fact still remains that my ports are stealthed and it interferes with my p2p application !

When you keep mentioning again and again about router stuff and firewall, I keep replying again and again that I'm on direct connection with modem and without any firewalls ! :s27:

I get this feeling that you don't want to admit that starhub is very likely did something "funny" with the ports so you keep pointing your finger to me instead !

AGAIN, I've seen people like you in other forums before and I told them to stop posting in my thread since they're being unreasonable ! No matter how knowledgeable you are it will be only a waste of my time !

Let me tell you something; I've been with starhub for quite some time and I only start complaining somewhere within this year when they started doing "funny things" !

If I'm a new starhub customer and suddenly start complaining without any valid reason then yes, I'm an unreasonable person than. But hey, this is not a first time issue !

When the 1st issue (the time when I started this thread) was solved, I never expected that Starhub will do "funny things" again. So when the 2nd issue occured, I felt betrayed by starhub !!! :mad:

ALSO, just to let you know that this wednesday I gave them a call since I have sent 2 emails to them without any replies at all !!!

Last wednesday, when I casually asked them when my contract finish they tried to change my attention to other things and said that they will do something about it but until now nothing has been done and there's no reply yet !

When I asked them how I check my ports they lied to me by saying that there's no way I can do it ! Now, what do you call an ISP like that !??

Why don't I move to their ISP ? It's simply because singnet is one of other ISPs that I might jump in but currently my phone line is being used by other people and also I only have this particular issue with stealth ports and this p2p application; I can do bittorenting, surfing and downloading files from website... I'm not in such a desperate situation to jump to other ISP...

I don't want to be emotional whenever possible but I won't keep quiet when someone bashing me !

my BT download using MOL ultimate is 20-50Mbps

my friend also has MOL ultimate but manage to get 64Kbps download speed

i managed to get that speed because i used AES / 3DES VPN encryption to one of my static IP router in USA
and from there it encrypt and send all the BT port down to a VPN port. the method is called tunneling


i only get 64Kbps without VPN

webvpn port 443 that i am using

[albertchng]

I've gotta eat my words. Just thought of something, so 1 more post.

Talk is cheap, put our money where our mouth is. How about a wager? $2k should be enough to move my butt.

I'll bring my notebook to your place and connect to your cable modem and your MOL. Run the GRC port scan on port 30284. If the result of the scanned port is anything but OPEN, you are $2k richer. Also, if it takes me more than 15 minutes, you win too. If my notebook works and yours don't, it can't be the ISP problem, can it?

To make it more transparent, we can invite someone here to withness and he can take a 20% ($400) of the winnings.

You've been very confident right, so how that's sound?


http://krazyman.homeip.net:88/webpic/PortScan3.jpg


woah! wat an interesting bet... unkle krazyman is lich man, can afford.

[negativzero]

my BT download using MOL ultimate is 20-50Mbps

my friend also has MOL ultimate but manage to get 64Kbps download speed

i managed to get that speed because i used AES / 3DES VPN encryption to one of my static IP router in USA
and from there it encrypt and send all the BT port down to a VPN port. the method is called tunneling


i only get 64Kbps without VPN

webvpn port 443 that i am usingsorry for hijack
how do you tunnel torrent connections? i have a box located in the US with a dedicated 1MBps line. can teach? so far all i can do is tunnel http connections.

[boucyfirebal]

ill be the witness;)

[zero7090]

i stopped using direct torrent and switch to torrent from imageshack age ago. better pivacy and speed for torrent user

[apatheticme]

Can I be second witness? I dont want the money. Just want to see his face when realisation hits him.

(okie how about $100? :D )

[largeresource]

sorry for hijack
how do you tunnel torrent connections? i have a box located in the US with a dedicated 1MBps line. can teach? so far all i can do is tunnel http connections.

webvpn

expansive CISCO router only
not cisco.... no can do

understand basic concept of VPN
VPN means moving you local ISP network to the other ISP network on the other side Virtually
so my gateway to the internet become the USA gateway not Singapore gateway anymore until i disconnect VPN.

my cisco ASA VPN router sit in a USA datacenter with a dedicate 415Mbps upload and 415Mbps download line (~1Gbps line)

[WheelOftime]

webvpn

expansive CISCO router only
not cisco.... no can do

understand basic concept of VPN
VPN means moving you local ISP network to the other ISP network on the other side Virtually
so my gateway to the internet become the USA gateway not Singapore gateway anymore until i disconnect VPN.

my cisco ASA VPN router sit in a USA datacenter with a dedicate 415Mbps upload and 415Mbps download line (~1Gbps line)

Only applies to VPN connection
BT will be fast coz SH trottle by connection.
Peak hours like now. 1 TCP connection = 20-35KB/s
So if ur bt got 300 TCP connection = 6000-10500KB/s

When comes to surfing/streaming, browers only used one TCP connection tats why so bloody slowwww.

[largeresource]

Only applies to VPN connection
BT will be fast coz SH trottle by connection.
Peak hours like now. 1 TCP connection = 20-35KB/s
So if ur bt got 300 TCP connection = 6000-10500KB/s

When comes to surfing/streaming, browers only used one TCP connection tats why so bloody slowwww.

yes. Peak hours like now. 1 TCP connection = 20-35KB/s
but after VPN i get 1 TCP connection around = 50 - 150KB/s some even 270KB/s

yes bt got 300 TCP connection = 6000-10500KB/s
but after VPN i get 3000 TCP connections, depend on what torrent thread, that can reach an overall speed of 50Mbps.

[albertchng]

if everyone go vpn torrent, stuckfug's end is near.

[negativzero]

webvpn

expansive CISCO router only
not cisco.... no can do

understand basic concept of VPN
VPN means moving you local ISP network to the other ISP network on the other side Virtually
so my gateway to the internet become the USA gateway not Singapore gateway anymore until i disconnect VPN.

my cisco ASA VPN router sit in a USA datacenter with a dedicate 415Mbps upload and 415Mbps download line (~1Gbps line)Wah! This one I cannot fight liao, mine is just a Linux sedicated server used for hosting several popular forums. Trying to wire it up for VPN just for fun to see what kind of overseas performance I can get as I can max out my speed on this server.

[largeresource]

in USA business and marketing world
everyone there, are either on mobile or in mobile office so VPN is always a must

especially for network engineer to VPN in to check servers and networks

just my finding is that the MOL QOS BT L4 ports to very low bandwidth.

[06294086]

my BT download using MOL ultimate is 20-50Mbps

my friend also has MOL ultimate but manage to get 64Kbps download speed

i managed to get that speed because i used AES / 3DES VPN encryption to one of my static IP router in USA
and from there it encrypt and send all the BT port down to a VPN port. the method is called tunneling


i only get 64Kbps without VPN

webvpn port 443 that i am using



Hello ? Please note that I'm on direct connection and not using any routers.

I'm also not using firewalls. Why still there are people keep saying about routers and bit torrent !? Those are irrelevant issues.

I'm not talking about any problems with my bit torrent; the problem lies with one of my uncrypted p2p application.

[liangtam]

So TS has any intention on wager with krazyman?

[06294086]

Nope, I have no intention to have any wager with krazyman; I cannot afford the money and despite the possibility of getting more money and satisfaction it still won't solve this particular problem so why should I wager !???

This issue is not some critical issue like cannot download files from any sources at all / cannot browse any websites; it's more of an inconvinience. I'll go directly to some starhub customer services centers and if the issue is not solved then I might just go with other ISP.

Wager or no wager doesn't change the fact that starhub hasn't replied back to me since the last time I called them wednesday ago which shows their lack of response.

Also it doesn't change the fact that starhub lied to me that there's no way customers can check their port status.

One more thing; I'm currently on an "extended subscription" with starhub. I cannot remember exactly when but when my last written contract ended one of their staff called and she asked whether I want continue with starhub or not at that time. I said yes to her but I didn't sign any papers at that time; the subscription continues until now.

krazyman can say what he wants but I won't pay attention to him anymore and I deem anything that he said / will say as not relevant / helpful to my problem anymore but it doesn't mean that I won't be bullied
or bashed.

I have done my best to delete anything left out in registry by previous installation of ZA through CC cleaner and registry easy; I have also manually deleted some entries that are clearly related to Zone labs/ZA.

Netstat -ab's output it not organized so I used Active Port, another freeware program that functions like netstat.

Screen shots from Active Port and Angry IP Scanner :

START

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5415/startln9.jpg

SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3749/latercb7.jpg


ANGRY IP SCANNER

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4712/port11056yh1.jpg

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/597/port3000035000doneot3.jpg


I won't mention the name of p2p program that I use, simply said it's doesn't have force encryption capability like bit torrent and it's currently using port 30284.

From Active Port screenshots, it can be seen that it was OK in the beginning but several minutes later the p2p program at port 30284 suddenly didn't listen anymore and I received error message "Disconnected due port error" in the program's log.

[liangtam]

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/597/port3000035000doneot3.jpg


I won't mention the name of p2p program that I use, simply said it's doesn't have force encryption capability like bit torrent and it's currently using port 30284.

From Active Port screenshots, it can be seen that it was OK in the beginning but several minutes later the p2p program at port 30284 suddenly didn't listen anymore and I received error message "Disconnected due port error" in the program's log.

You have to eat your words now
When you try to do a port scan on your public IP, all traffic will be rerouted back to ur PC internally. Since you have bypassed sending out the traffic to the ISP n back, and still NOT able to get connected to port 30284. This is the program's problem then.

BTW, whats so secrective about the program? If you're claiming ignorance of non-encryption = port blocked. You can go ahead, turn off your utorrent's one and it will still work fine.

[largeresource]

Nope, I have no intention to have any wager with krazyman; I cannot afford the money and despite the possibility of getting more money and satisfaction it still won't solve this particular problem so why should I wager !???

This issue is not some critical issue like cannot download files from any sources at all / cannot browse any websites; it's more of an inconvinience. I'll go directly to some starhub customer services centers and if the issue is not solved then I might just go with other ISP.

Wager or no wager doesn't change the fact that starhub hasn't replied back to me since the last time I called them wednesday ago which shows their lack of response.

Also it doesn't change the fact that starhub lied to me that there's no way customers can check their port status.

One more thing; I'm currently on an "extended subscription" with starhub. I cannot remember exactly when but when my last written contract ended one of their staff called and she asked whether I want continue with starhub or not at that time. I said yes to her but I didn't sign any papers at that time; the subscription continues until now.

krazyman can say what he wants but I won't pay attention to him anymore and I deem anything that he said / will say as not relevant / helpful to my problem anymore but it doesn't mean that I won't be bullied
or bashed.

I have done my best to delete anything left out in registry by previous installation of ZA through CC cleaner and registry easy; I have also manually deleted some entries that are clearly related to Zone labs/ZA.

Netstat -ab's output it not organized so I used Active Port, another freeware program that functions like netstat.

Screen shots from Active Port and Angry IP Scanner :

START

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/5415/startln9.jpg

SEVERAL MINUTES LATER

http://img123.imageshack.us/img123/3749/latercb7.jpg


ANGRY IP SCANNER

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4712/port11056yh1.jpg

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/597/port3000035000doneot3.jpg


I won't mention the name of p2p program that I use, simply said it's doesn't have force encryption capability like bit torrent and it's currently using port 30284.

From Active Port screenshots, it can be seen that it was OK in the beginning but several minutes later the p2p program at port 30284 suddenly didn't listen anymore and I received error message "Disconnected due port error" in the program's log.



i have CCIE, CCSP, CCSE, CCP

they can do L4 - L7 port inspect and controller on any port above 1024
if the condition in their script is met they can subroutine or sub-function it to do clamp down or shutdown

they cannot inspect certain VPN port like 443
there is no restriction on port 443

[liangtam]

i have CCIE, CCSP, CCSE, CCP

they can do L4 - L7 port inspect and controller on any port above 1024
if the condition in their script is met they can subroutine or sub-function it to do clamp down or shutdown

they cannot inspect certain VPN port like 443
there is no restriction on port 443

Quote chiu first.
Can block 443 notch? :s11:

[edwin21]

I won't mention the name of p2p program that I use, simply said it's doesn't have force encryption capability like bit torrent and it's currently using port 30284.

From Active Port screenshots, it can be seen that it was OK in the beginning but several minutes later the p2p program at port 30284 suddenly didn't listen anymore and I received error message "Disconnected due port error" in the program's log.


it clearly not starhub problem

check ur event log for any warning or error message

my guess the program u using is call share or now known as perfect dark

[negativzero]

If its share or perfect dark, all you need is a recent updated node list to ensure you get full speeds. You don't even need to forward and both have encryption so blocking as such is not an issue.

[liangtam]

Oh, so its winny. no wonder so secrective

[06294086]

On several days before 17 Dec 2008, I went to one of Starhub's customer service center and I lodged a complain accompanied by printings of the stealth ports and those of Singnet. I asked them to get their technical department to call me back the next day.

The next day, one of their staff call me back and we talked about the stealth ports issue. She still insist that nothing was wrong with the ports and after a long talk, she told me that she will call me back later in the night.

There was no call back until the next morning so I call starhub again and this time asked them to send one of their technician the next day.

On 17 Dec 2008 at around 2-3 AM, I was checking the ports status using GRC shield again when suddenly the ports change from "STEALTH" to "CLOSE" several minutes later and later on to "OPEN".

At around 11.45 the technician came and I showed him that the problem has been solved. The technician mentioned to me that Starhub do some maintenance from time to time and I also agreed with him saying that there might be some misconfiguration and these "stealth ports" are the side-effect of these misconfiguration.

My conclusion from this problem is that some starhub engineer might misconfigured the network but he didn't want to admit that it happened OR they might deliberately set the ports the stealth; I won't be able to know the truth.

The point is that it's no use to debate with the staff over the telephone over certain technical problems and I should have asked them to sent the technician
right away so that I can show them the proof.

The problem is SOLVED for now but I will keep a look out and should similar problem happen again in the future I know what to do...

[liangtam]

I have doubts when..
no one has even got to tried your connection, YET?

[krazyman]

Self-pwned by showing even ports are blocked with a loop-back scan with Angry IP Scanner, and now claimed SH can do something on their side to open the ports when they are blocked at the PC. What an increditible ego saving story.:s13:

And liangtam, me not rich lah. That why trying to get some bucks to have a Merrier Christmas.:D

[liangtam]

Self-pwned by showing even ports are blocked with a loop-back scan with Angry IP Scanner, and now claimed SH can do something on their side to open the ports when they are blocked at the PC. What an increditible ego saving story.:s13:

And liangtam, me not rich lah. That why trying to get some bucks to have a Merrier Christmas.:D

lich unkle is ebil~ :sad:
poor peasants where ish will eben habe ho ho ho day huans :(

[largeresource]

On several days before 17 Dec 2008, I went to one of Starhub's customer service center and I lodged a complain accompanied by printings of the stealth ports and those of Singnet. I asked them to get their technical department to call me back the next day.

The next day, one of their staff call me back and we talked about the stealth ports issue. She still insist that nothing was wrong with the ports and after a long talk, she told me that she will call me back later in the night.

There was no call back until the next morning so I call starhub again and this time asked them to send one of their technician the next day.

On 17 Dec 2008 at around 2-3 AM, I was checking the ports status using GRC shield again when suddenly the ports change from "STEALTH" to "CLOSE" several minutes later and later on to "OPEN".

At around 11.45 the technician came and I showed him that the problem has been solved. The technician mentioned to me that Starhub do some maintenance from time to time and I also agreed with him saying that there might be some misconfiguration and these "stealth ports" are the side-effect of these misconfiguration.

My conclusion from this problem is that some starhub engineer might misconfigured the network but he didn't want to admit that it happened OR they might deliberately set the ports the stealth; I won't be able to know the truth.

The point is that it's no use to debate with the staff over the telephone over certain technical problems and I should have asked them to sent the technician
right away so that I can show them the proof.

The problem is SOLVED for now but I will keep a look out and should similar problem happen again in the future I know what to do...

wow you are willing to go to such extend
they will never admit their intentions and their reasons
it's always a misconfiguration

you got stamina.. man

:s13:

[krazyman]

I have doubts when..
no one has even got to tried your connection, YET?

No need the trouble to go test his connection.

He knows and did grc.com ports scan. He knows and did upload pic and posted link. Since he claimed problem solved now that SH opened all his ports, do a grc.com scan on the common ports and shows us that all the ports are indeed OPEN (not CLOSE or STEALTH). I'll bet he won't be able to do so.:s22:

[cleodux]

as 1 of starhub customer who experiencing port blockade.

i went to grc site and test my ports. and all indeed i see blue color for most of the port. there are 5 green (stealth including port80)

my question is. am i seeing the real deal here? starhub is blocking ports?

cause the last time my husband call starhub hotline, the cso said they don't block ports and ask him to do trace route (their catchphrase) to which my husband reply that is got nothing to do with ports. He asked the cso to log a complaint. and ask them to call back after the technical side done something with it.

are there any tricks to see our ports are open or not? cause it is weird i can upload file through ftp when my port 21 and 22 are closed (according to the grc site) although connections got interrupted and transfer failed like most of the time. ow i just checked my ftp client got disconnected again. but from what i know if the ports are closed i can not even establish connection right?

im connecting through modem directly without firewall or antivirus.

[krazyman]

as 1 of starhub customer who experiencing port blockade.

i went to grc site and test my ports. and all indeed i see blue color for most of the port. there are 5 green (stealth including port80)

my question is. am i seeing the real deal here? starhub is blocking ports?

cause the last time my husband call starhub hotline, the cso said they don't block ports and ask him to do trace route (their catchphrase) to which my husband reply that is got nothing to do with ports. He asked the cso to log a complaint. and ask them to call back after the technical side done something with it.

are there any tricks to see our ports are open or not? cause it is weird i can upload file through ftp when my port 21 and 22 are closed (according to the grc site) although connections got interrupted and transfer failed like most of the time. ow i just checked my ftp client got disconnected again. but from what i know if the ports are closed i can not even establish connection right?

im connecting through modem directly without firewall or antivirus.

I believe you've run the common ports scan and ports 80, 135, 139, 445, 1720 are shown as STEALTH. These are blocked by SH. Those shown as CLOSED are normal if you do not have any application listening and allowing connections at those ports.

Uploading of files are out-going requests and will not be affected even if ports are blocked by ISP as they are blocking unsolicited in-coming requests, ie affect only if you are hosting on those ports. Eg with port 80 block, you still can surf but can't host http server on port 80 only.

FTP get disconnected can be due to server too.

[cleodux]

krazyman thank you for your clarification, so when ports closed thats mean that there is no establish connections on the ports.

About the ftp connections, when i tried using StarHub mobile broadband, it can connect and uploading at steady speed, compare to MOL premium at that same moment, could it be because they are in different network, and MOL has high traffic compare to the Mobile bb?

I can upload using mega manager using port 89 from my bro's place (mioplan) what can you advise about this?
When i tried to upload at my home, the error read as no.2 means time out no response from port 89.

Thanks in advance