My First Day As A Smart Bro User
Posted on | May 3, 2008 | No Comments
May 2, 2008
“Its today! Its today!”
– George Little of the film “Stuart Little”
Finally, I have an Internet connection. I was really excited to go home and start surfing. For weeks I have been looking at consumer forums about ISPs in San Pedro, Laguna until I finally decided to settle for Smart Bro. Actually, I’m not at all convinced that it is the best ISP, but the ease of application really tipped the scales in its favor. I just presented my ID and paid the first monthly fee of Php999 and I immediately got a call confirming an installation date. No long waits and, most of all, no hassle in gathering documentary requirements. I just hope the connection speed is as fast as the installation of the system.
So you could just imagine my disappointment when I came home and found that I can’t sign in to Yahoomail, Gmail, Friendster, and my company’s web site. All I was able to see were the homepages of these web sites. Grrr.. ( I smell blood). So I called Smart Bro’s hotline and got connected to technical representative. (I’d like to point out that I called their hotline at least five times before I finally got to talk to a tech rep) She asked for my IP address, Physical address, and other Internet Security settings before we got to the root of my problem: why can’t I sign in to the above-mentioned web sites? She put me on hold three times before I figured out the answer: my security settings do not accept cookies.
No, I’m not a genius. Yahoo helped me figure out this one (Yehey!). When I tried signing in to Yahoomail, the system prompted me that the browser does not accept cookies. So I tweaked the settings and I was able to sign-in the aforementioned web sites. When the tech rep returned on the line, I told her that I have already found the solution to my problem. Three claps for me and one for the ever-patient tech rep, Kate.
Fast forward a few hours later, I’m starting to question the wisdom of choosing Smart Bro. I keep being disconnected from the server. When I open Yahoo using Mozilla Firefox I get the error message “The connection was reset.” With Internet Explorer (IE) I get “The page cannot be displayed.” Then I noticed that if i turn-off my Yahoo Messenger (YM) I get connected to the Web and can browse. If logged in again, I get disconnected. I called the Customer hotline again and complained about the problem. The agent told me to disable my firewall and my antivirus, delete cookies and temporary Internet files, and start browsing again. I questioned the wisdom of the agent’s suggestions and he told me that I can enable them again when I start browsing. It worked and I was able to check my emails. Unfortunately, I got disconnected again. What a waste!I decided to call it a night (or is it a day coz it’s 2:30am of May 3 already) and call the hotline tomorrow. Maybe they will have an answer by then.
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