MyRepublic Big Launch

[Silkworm]

Our installer are working extremely hard, rushing from places to places to get everyone's connection up.

Even machine cannot tahan (Car broken down) =(. So please bare with them if they are late by a little or so.

MR should sponsor each installer a Lamborghini Aventador ride.

Confirm can reach customer place in time. Most probably reach early too.

 

[ntec66]

Ah well. Since I'm not getting any answers from MR, i decided to do my own research and I managed to resolve my own issues.

For those who are interested, this is my solution (it basically solved all my connectivity issues so far, including connection to Crashplan cloud servers):

Issue - Can ping and tracert to (some) websites, but cannot use browsers to connect to them

The issue is due to my MTU on my Ethernet LAN port needs to be set at a lower value than the default 1500.

Something is seriously wrong with MyRepublic network if it really can't support a MTU size of 1500, a default standard.

This is fibre in 2014, nobody should need to lower MTU. What is your ONT model? Plan? Static IP?

 

[Silkworm]

Something is seriously with MyRepublic network if it really can't support a MTU size of 1500, a default standard.

This is fibre in 2014, nobody should need to lower MTU. What is your ONT model? Plan? Static IP?

ONT is given by MR - Alcatel-Lucent I-010G-U
on 1Gbps
Non static IP.

It did work for me (when previously it wasn't-several sites can't load, Crashplan can't connect to cloud, etc), so I'm not complainin'.

 

[imacbie]

aside from the upload issue i have with android devices.
i also encounter netflix being not able to cast to my chromecast.

(this actually is an issue alot of chromecast owners are facing recently, there is an active thread on google product forum regarding this issue)

surprisingly after doing the MTU change, the netflix casting issue got resolved!
not sure if the MTU change helps lol.

ok ok now back to topic!

 

[ntec66]

This may be the smoking gun to all the problems.

Thankfully you solved it. Still it is at best a workaround until MyRepublic fixes it, can't expect thousand of customers to change MTU settings for all their devices, simply unthinkable.

Alcatel-Lucent I-010G-U - that will be the white, non-voice ONT?

 

[ComPuiTer]

Didnt follow this thread for many months...since day 1 sign up for the 1Gps...till now still no news...really WTF

 

[Silkworm]

This may be the smoking gun to all the problems.

Thankfully you solved it. Still it is at best a workaround until MyRepublic fixes it, can't expect thousand of customers to change MTU settings for all their devices, simply unthinkable.

Alcatel-Lucent I-010G-U - that will be the white, non-voice ONT?

no. its the black one, smallish in size, and is a non-voice (no voice ports)

 

[ntec66]

Interesting, can't find a black model on google image search. Pretty obscure ONT.

 

[aptget]

Just got 1Gbps plan installed, above acceptable ?

Oddly when i tried speedtest with Telin, I was getting REALLY horrible speed.

 

[cyberet]

Spoiler

Ah well. Since I'm not getting any answers from MR, i decided to do my own research and I managed to resolve my own issues.

For those who are interested, this is my solution (it basically solved all my connectivity issues so far, including connection to Crashplan cloud servers):

Issue - Can ping and tracert to (some) websites, but cannot use browsers to connect to them

The issue is due to my MTU on my Ethernet LAN port needs to be set at a lower value than the default 1500.

Step 1 - Find your ideal (best) MTU value from this instructions:

Best MTU and MRU settings for ADSL2 Modems? - The Warcom Blog

or

MTU Limit - Test and change your connection's MTU limit - Windows 7 Help Forums

Step 2 - Edit your Ethernet LAN port MTU to the (best) value found in Step 1.

How do I change the MTU setting in Windows 7? - Microsoft Community

[Summary steps for Step 2]

1. Open a command line window as an Administrator (ie. right click on All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select Run as administrator) ...
2. Type the command netsh and wait for the prompt to change to netsh>
3. Type the command interface and wait for the prompt to change to netsh>interface
4. Type the command ipv4 and wait for the prompt to change to netsh>interface>ipv4

5. Type the command show interfaces
6. Note the Name of your ipv4 interface
7. Type the command set subinterface "full Name of the interface" mtu=xxxx store=persistent

Where "full Name of the interface" = something like "Local Area Connection 4" (notice the 4 on the end) and "xxxx" = your router MTU, such as "1492"
8. Hit Enter and you should receive an OK. confirmation
9. Type the command show interfaces to confirm the MTU was updated to the new value
10. Type exit to return to the command prompt from netsh

Done!

Other Steps - I also altered the MTU settings for my Router, NAS, other PCs/Macs etc.

Hope this helps some folks here.

luckily Binaries did setup a speedtest server and so happens an adsl user reported good results, whereas everyone else on fibre couldn't get any upload from him

 

[cyberet]

Just got 1Gbps plan installed, above acceptable ?

Oddly when i tried speedtest with Telin, I was getting REALLY horrible speed.

depends, your hardware could be the limitation.
or even certain antivirus (such as avast) could be affecting the speed.

 

[Johnnny]

MyRepublic 1Gbps Rollout Big Update

Okay, over the past two days we've been having a number of meetings to review our current status of installations, teething issues and so on. Some figures to share:

Number of successful installations so far: 1000
Current average number of installations per day: 200

Yes, I'm serious. We'll have a another meeting on Monday where I can get a screenshot to show proof of this, but there you go.

Some of you may ask, "Then what about delays?" Delays are complicated to give a figure for, because they can vary from case to case. But here's what we've done to deal with it.

Customer support personnel increase (core team tripling in size)
Social media team personnel increase (core team doubling in size)
2 new lines for specific issues (numbers to announce soon)

We've basically thrown manpower and resources at the company in order to mitigate the issues OpenNet delays have caused our customers and us.

Why didn't we do this sooner? It's actually only been 2+ weeks since our 1Gbps has started rolling out, and frankly we didn't foresee that OpenNet delays would take such a toll on the company's customer service resources (a handful of cases per day is all you need for backlog to accumulate on our CS side).

This growth was done incrementally after the first week we rolled out, and currently our stats are as above.

On the performance side of our network:

China connection and gaming connection improvements
Kindle optimisation
Netflix optimisation

Just a couple of things we threw into the network backend to mitigate some issues people mentioned. Eh, we say first ah - China network infrastructure is still a mess in their country, so we can't promise how long our current optimisation will last, but we'll continue to monitor.

ASUS router firmware issues

We've spoken to ASUS already, who acknowledged the problem and will be updating their firmware soon. They couldn't give us a date yet, but we're keeping an eye on this.

Occasional inconsistent speeds on 1Gbps

We need to troubleshoot this on a case-by-case basis because so far, we found the following causes of such issues:

- old router
- old laptop
- wrong wires
- ASUS router firmware issues
- service DDoS in Europe (this affected Blizzard games)

We're more likely going to put an FAQ together (maybe infographic?) to help people self-troubleshoot first before escalating it.

Okay, and finally, other known issues we're tracking:

- Android connectivity issues (engineers looking into this)
- Some Static IP-related issues (engineers and IT team working on this now, believe they have found the issue)
- MyRepublic Engineers and IT personnel not getting enough sleep (hah).

We'll also be introducing a new member to the MyRepublic HWZ team soon. He's our new communications guy, once his account is up and running we'll introduce him properly.

Hope this gives some transparency and background into what's happening guys.

 

[imacbie]

Thank u very much Jonathan, that is exactly what we needed.
Know that things are being looked into.
Good'ol days

 

[creator88]

Some of you may ask, "Then what about delays?" Delays are complicated to give a figure for, because they can vary from case to case. But here's what we've done to deal with it.

Customer support personnel increase (core team tripling in size)
Social media team personnel increase (core team doubling in size)
2 new lines for specific issues (numbers to announce soon)

We've basically thrown manpower and resources at the company in order to mitigate the issues OpenNet delays have caused our customers and us.

Why didn't we do this sooner? It's actually only been 2+ weeks since our 1Gbps has started rolling out, and frankly we didn't foresee that OpenNet delays would take such a toll on the company's customer service resources (a handful of cases per day is all you need for backlog to accumulate on our CS side).

Forgive me for being the devil's advocate here. If a handful of cases per day can cause a backlog on your customer service side, isn't it obvious that your CS has been understaffed right from the start?

Without giving more specifics about the size of the core team, everything is very iffy. If the core team had 1 staff in the beginning, adding 2 more staff will triple it. Not extremely reassuring if that really is the case.

2 new lines - But how many people manning these 2 lines? Are these people manning the new lines the same people who come from the tripling of the unspecified core team size?

Appreciate all the information given. But if more details are provided, you can better address the concerns of all existing MR and potential MR customers who frequent these forums.

 

[azrin619]

Okay, over the past two days we've been having a number of meetings to review our current status of installations, teething issues and so on. Some figures to share:

- MyRepublic Engineers and IT personnel not getting enough sleep (hah).

Hope this gives some transparency and background into what's happening guys.

The Field Engineers are getting Koyak too ok....so please don't push them too much or they go AWOL....*(or worse..called up for reservist)

In this case we may see Johnny doing field installation... heeeeee.

(Time to chao.....)

 

[creator88]

Okay, agreed. We can do better on communication. We've just beefed up the social media and customer service teams to help.

Okay, noted on this. We'll DM both of you something.

Thanks for your feedback guys, really appreciate it.

I'm still waiting to the information you promised earlier with regards to Opennet cancellation of appointments etc

 

[nivleK1985]

2012: The year fibre could take off

In 2012. AsiaOne reported this..

After all, Singapore's fibre-broadband rates aren't quite as attractive as Hong Kong's.

Ms Serene Chan, research director at Frost and Sullivan, told me that a 300Mbps fibre plan in Hong Kong can go for $48 a month, compared to $86 monthly for a 150Mbps plan here.

We certainly like to see how far things changed within 2 years. Pushing the price down to it's actual fiber price and making high speed internet access affordable to every single resident.

 

[cyberet]

2012: The year fibre could take off

In 2012. AsiaOne reported this..



We certainly like to see how far things changed within 2 years. Pushing the price down to it's actual fiber price and making high speed internet access affordable to every single resident.

since hk host some contents, equal or lower sg hosting might aid in the transformation?

 

[Johnnny]

Forgive me for being the devil's advocate here. If a handful of cases per day can cause a backlog on your customer service side, isn't it obvious that your CS has been understaffed right from the start?

Without giving more specifics about the size of the core team, everything is very iffy. If the core team had 1 staff in the beginning, adding 2 more staff will triple it. Not extremely reassuring if that really is the case.

Will try to answer your questions the best I can, creator88, but I need to say upfront that there're a lot of reasons why we cannot give specific numbers of our teams, such as for competitive issues, HR issues and industry courtesy.

When I said "handful of cases", I didn't mean a handful of extra calls per day. I meant a handful of OpenNet delays / no-shows, leading to more and more enquiries accumulating every day. That's what caught us by surprise initially.

Don't forget that more installations also means more new active subscribers, which also means more may need tech support etc. These are all things happening at the same time, which is why we needed to beef up the team.

Also note I said "core", there're also manpower increases to shift-based CS personnel.

2 new lines - But how many people manning these 2 lines? Are these people manning the new lines the same people who come from the tripling of the unspecified core team size?

As mentioned, can't share exact numbers but these aren't the same people who came from tripling the core team, so they are additional manpower.

 

[aptget]

depends, your hardware could be the limitation.
or even certain antivirus (such as avast) could be affecting the speed.

what sort of hardware limitation u talking about ? care to share ?