Category: Internet

Just when I finally get comfortable with their website they suddenly go and drastically change it. I hate it when they do that. Last time they redesigned was back in 2007 but I thought it was their best design yet. But, they dumped that design for one that I think is more entertainment based than news based. Why? If you check the screen shot above, the first column on the left is where the news is, the other columns to the right don’t have any news. Sucks. [Link]

Today’s giveaway is courtesy of Zain and they’re giving away a Zain e-GO2GO device with credit. The e-GO2GO is different from the regular e-GO because you don’t need to have a contract and you don’t pay on a monthly basis. The e-GO2GO is a prepaid mobile internet connection that is useful for people who require internet for a short term basis.

For example, lets say you have a DSL connection at home but on the weekend you go to the chalet and need internet over there. Instead of subscribing to a monthly connection at your chalet you can just take the e-GO2GO with you and pay for your weekend use. You just charge the e-GO2GO with regular eeZee cards or from their website and you keep the credits until you need them.

One day of internet is for KD1.5 while three days is for KD3.

All you need to do to win the Zain e-GO2GO with credit included is to leave a comment below and later on in the evening I will use random.org to select a winner.

For more information on the Zain e-GO2GO visit the Zain website [Link]

Rules: You need to put your proper email in the email field while commenting since the winner will be contacted by email. You also need to respond to my “You Won” email within 24 hours or I will have to make another draw and choose another winner. You can only comment once, anyone caught commenting more than once will get disqualified.

Update: The post was closed for commenting at around 8PM.
The winner is…

[YouTube]

Comment #46, you’ve got mail!
Everyone else check back tomorrow for another giveaway.

I’ve always wanted Craigslist to open a Kuwait section and it looks like they just did. Check kuwait.craigslist.org, they’ve even kept the erotic section which should be interesting!

A blog reader just emailed me saying that my blog is blocked by KEMS. Can anyone confirm that?

Update: It seems this isn’t true, my site isn’t blocked with KEMS. Must be a fluke?

Update2: The error message the blog reader is getting is

This site is blocked according to the goverment filtering policy. If you feel this page has been blocked in errors kindly fill out the form and we will investigate thank you.

Very strange, is this because I said the bollards were ugly?

Update3: My site is now no longer blocked on KEMS.

Teddy On The Go is an interesting social experiment by a Kuwaiti architecture student that recently moved back to Kuwait. To keep herself in check and out of a routine she decided to start the website Teddy on the Go as a way to motivate her into doing something interesting or new everyday and also as a way of expressing her opinions subtly through the bear. Her project is going to last for 365 days only after which the bear will be sold for charity. Currently she is at day 11. Check out her experiment by visiting her website www.yearofteddy.com

Qualitynet are having problems again! I can’t even talk to support because their lines are so loaded. The automated answering system won’t even put me on hold because there are no waiting slots available, they’re all taken by other customers waiting. Sucks!

Update: Qualitynet were just over. According to the support guy my DSL modem was very old and was causing me the problems. They’ve swapped my black wireless Speedtouch modem with a white wireless Netgear. Hopefully I won’t have anymore problems after this!

I am not sure if this site is supposed to be humorous or serious but its funny anyways. I’m Halal is a search engine that only shows you Halal results. So if you try to search for sex, pork, beer etc.. you will not get a result. Try it! [Link]

The prices are not that bad but the bandwidth limit sucks. I have 5GB for breakfast!

I got a phone call yesterday from a friend at Zain. He wanted me to try out their new e-GO which can hit speeds of up to 21.6Mbps. Sadly I couldn’t pass by to pick it up since I had to catch a flight to Lebanon but I was just catching up on some blogs and it seems some other bloggers managed to get the e-GO and try it out. So far the reviews have been positive. Here are some blogger reviews on the new 21.6Mbps e-GO:

zDistrict
Review: Zain E-Go 21.6 MB/s

4th Ring Road
Zain e-go 21.6 mbps…. we like.

Some Contrast
Exclusive: Zain’s latest E-GO 21.6 Mb/s

Blushberry
Review : Zain 21.6 Mbps Internet

I should get my hands on the new e-GO once I get back to Kuwait in a couple of days. The picture above is taken by zDistrict.

Update: According to Some Contrast, the new e-GO and 21.6Mbps connection is available right now at every Zain branch. The new e-GO sells for KD45 and the monthly membership is KD32 but if you sign up for 1 year you get the new e-GO for free.

Update2: 360Dewan tried his 7.2Mbps connection after Zain upgraded the network to 21.6Mbps and he was able to achieve download speeds of up to 758kb through a connection via his iPhone 3GS. So it looks like everyone’s connection has benefited from this upgrade. [Link]

Last week I posted about my problems with Qualitynet and since then they’ve contacted me a number of times to see how they can solve my problem. Tonight they finally sent over the head of corporate support with a small KD5,000 device to see if they can fix my problem.. and they did!

The picture above is the readout on the devices screen before he fixed it while the one below is after. They were able to double the speed my line can handle from 1.5MB to 3MB. So will I be leaving Qualitynet? No I won’t. They read my blog and they care that I stay happy which is fantastic for me.

I am really getting frustrated with my Qualitynet connection. It’s like every week they have some kind of major problem and their DSL connection either crawls to a halt or just stops working completely. Currently I can barely load websites because the connection is so bad. I am trying to call qualitynet support but they keep hanging up. After around 9 or 10 minutes being on hold the music stops and I think someone is finally going to pick up when they end up hanging up on me. This happened 3 times now. Last week they had issues and the week before that. Qualitynet are you reading this? This is frustrating!

Anyone else having problems with their internet provider?

Update: Ok I am definitely changing providers. I just had my worst experience with customer support in my 3 5 year history with them. I finally got through to customer support and a guy picks up. I tell him I have a major issue with my connection. He goes uhum. I am like yeah its been like this since 5pm. He was like is this Patrick? I was like WTF? No I am not Patrick. I then proceed to give him my DSL phone number and he then replies you have a problem with your internal building line. I was like dude are you reading random notes off your computer screen? The building line problem is a completely different issue, yesterday the engineer was over trying to see if I could install 4MB and the internal line issue is that the building gets 4MB but by the time it gets to my apartment the max is 2MB. He then proceeds to explain to me I can only get 512kb. I was like what are you talking about? I was using 2MB until a month ago and up until 5 minutes ago I was on 1.5 what do you mean I can only get 512kb? Anyway long story short he had to be the most incompetent customer support person I had ever dealt with. In the end I ended up closing the phone with him and calling them back up again to talk to another support guy. Everything is back to normal now finally.

Update2: Called Kems (Zajil) and spoke to a guy who sounded like he was asleep. I asked him a few questions and he answered but he didn’t sound too confident. He told me if want to get 2MB for KD200 I need to act now because their offer expires on September 5th. So I need to make my decision in the next couple of days if I want to move either to Fasttelco or Kems. Kems I think would be more practical since our new office is going to be located right next to their head office which makes it easier in case I need to pass by them.

Update3: Qualitynet just called me and told me my problem is my internal building/house wiring and because I was a loyal customer they would send a technician to swap out the whole wiring at their expense. I told the guy that I live in a huge complex and it’s not possible to swap out the line or I would have paid for it myself. I told him I had been using 2MB for 8 months and 1.5MB for like 2 months and yesterday I was told my line could only handle 512kb. He insisted to send someone over so I agreed. Will see what happens.

Update4: Well just an update, I don’t think I will be moving over to Kems. Ever since my post multiple people have been calling me from qualitynet to see what problems i have and trying to solve it. They even offered to rewire my phone line throughout the building! Qualitynet reads my blog and they want to keep me happy so that’s more than enough to convince me to stay with them.

The website Yearbook Yourself has relaunched after being down for some time. There are some new additions to the site but most importantly there are new pictures to be super imposed onto. Yearbook Yourself is a website where you upload your picture to it and it will then super impose your face onto different yearbook pictures from the 1950 up to the year 2000. You get to see how you would have looked like if you had lived back in that era. It can be a lot of fun. [Link]

Kuwait Government Online is a very helpful site with information and forms on different government procedures. [Link]

Thanks K.TheKuwaiti

I’ve been given the go ahead by NBK to give you all a sneak peek into the brand new NBK website. They will be launching their new updated website sometime this month but before they go live they want to get some feedback. They do care what everyone thinks and if anyone spots any issues or has any comments on what they need to improve leave your comment below so they can read it. Check out their new website by visiting beta.nbk.com

Kuweet.com is like KuwaitBlogs.com except instead of tracking local blogs it tracks local tweeters. A lot of people in Kuwait have recently jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon including politicians so Kuweet is a nice site to be able to keep track of all their tweets without needing to have your own twitter account.

What is twitter? I think the easiest explanation is that its like blogs except every post is limited to just 140 characters.. perfect for people who don’t enjoy or have the time to read a lot of long posts. [Link]

Note: If you have a twitter account and want to be added to Kuwait just follow @Kuweet