Bye Bye Blogger

OK, It's bye time to Blogger. I've decided to move away to WP, with my own hosting. So no more posts here. Please meet me at DesertWind

Changing the Plans: Planning the Changes

I'm planning to move on to my own hosting, with WordPress installed. Im also planning to have a domain of my own like riyazusman.info or desertwind.info. I'm quite not satisfied with the default templates and modules of WordPress. I'm trying several hacks. Or any other service ...

The BIT, Inc.

I was the one who suggested this name for our website. I think i'm good at naming. Many of my friends loved this name. The BIT, Inc. is all about our batch. Its the community of 29 students who made a difference. We were good at studies, at the same time we were excellent at extras. We made JMC look different. The BIT, Inc. is our home at web. Photos, Blogs, News, Views and all the Juice. (Courtsey: Tehelka). Have a visit and leave some comments here.

DataOne - Free Uploads ???

A discussion is going over here, at my friend Ashwin's blog, that only downloads get charged for BSNL DataOne BB. But my experience is not like that. Let me display the detailed bill I got from BSNL. This is the exact replica of the detailed bill they gave me for the month of October. Just look at the Total Usage;, which I highlighted in the table. It is the sum of Send and Recv Mbs, which clearly shows that uploads are charged. At least it was like that till October 2005. May be they have changed policy after that, I don't know about that. If they have made uploads free, Thats good for BitTorrent users, lot of people including me will turn into seeders!!!

New Year - New Problems

Long time no post doesn't implies that everything has been fine with DataOne. I have been very busy with two of my brothers marriage, and starting of some new ventures by my family, so that i have hardly some free time enough for blogging. There are several new problems after my last post 1. Really (Yes, I mean it, Really!!!) Slow speeds and downtime several times a week. 2. For about a week I was not able to use the connection for more than half an hour. The connection is on, but Data Transfer is Zero. 3. I am not able to use my telephone and BB simultaneously. Whenever there is an incoming/outgoing call, my BB simply disconnects. Hmm... Its not all bad news. There is something for celebrations too. Billing is proper now, and for last two months, I'm well in my datacaps. But my complaint about My First Bill is still there. They provided me an unusable idiotic Detailed Bill after having a Struggle with the Customer Care.

Detailed Bills - The BSNL Way

Send MBs: 3989 Recv Mbs: 13786 Total Usage : 3896 Less free usage: 1024 Chargeable Mb: 3872 - Charge 2872 x 1.2 = Rs. 3446.4 I got a reply from BSNL for my request for a Day-by-Day detailed bill of my DataOne Usage. And thats what you see above. Nice Detailed info !!!

Customer Service - The BSNL way

So, yesterday I went to BSNL Accounts Officer to complaint against my DataOne overcharging. This was yet another bitter experience. He told me that there is nothing like Happy Hours (Free usage at 0200 - 0800 hours) in DataOne. I argued him that it exists, and I've confirmed it from various sources. I asked him to check with the BSNL site. Guess what his answer was ? "We've no Internet connection available here" Wonderful!!! I found one brochure of BSNL DataOne on his table which clearly confirms the availability of Happy Hours. He was not convinced even then. I asked him for a detailed bill of my usage, which he refused for. "Who said you that there's a provision for supplying a detailed bill ? I can do nothing on this issue, Give me a written request/complaint, I'll look into it" He also told that the metering is not done here in Kerala, but in Pune. So as he requested i give a written complaint, and asked for an acknowledgment. "Acknowledgment? what acknowledgment ? If you want one send it by registered post." After half an hour of argues, he agree to seal and sign on the xerox of the application to keep with me. At last for my mistake i asked, "When can I expect a reply ?" "How can I say ? I can't even say we will reply you. We will call you when your complaint is replied from the officials. Do not call us until we contact you." So I started waiting.

DataOne - My First Bill

My Last Month Telephone Bill Details DATAONE NEW CONN-PLAN=DH1MB INITIAL+RECRG to-05/10/05 = 1350 USG-010905 TO 300905 9568,F: 819,408.00= 408.00 BRDBAND USG-200510 17775 F: 1024, Net 2872, Rt:1.20 = 3446.40 So Here is what i understand I got an extra usage bill of 408.00 (340 MB) for September and 3446.4 (2872 MB) for October. No chance !!! So for the first time i visited the usage statistics page. Wonderful!!! I have to calculate my statistics by manually adding 1200 entries which spans over 60 pages. Why can't they do simple math ? Keeping the free, paid and mixed hours details seperate ? Well, I've done it manually. The real problem is that mixed usage hours. I've setup a cron job on my computer to disconnect from internet on 01:58, Connect to internet on 02:02, and disconnect again at 07:58. My computer does it, but BSNL won't. There are still mixed usage hours, which makes the calculation a real pain. My Paid Usage was calculated as 830 MB + Mixed hours. I'm sure the Mixed hour usage wont cross 200 MB, or in a worst situation 400 MB. So that means a usage of 1250 MB at the maximum. So what the hell is this 2872 MB ??? The same is the case of September too. The paid hours usage counts some 800 + mixed usage hours. I'm gonna request a seperate detailed bill of my dataone usage. Will lodge a complaint to the BSNL DE too.