Category: Internet

Remember a months back when we informed Fasttelco users that their personal information was being leaked by their ISP.

Well, their official response by their Marketing Manager, Ali Dervasi, was that our post is “propaganda” to further our “history of hostility against FASTtelco“.

Sorry to burst your conspiracy bubble .. but we don’t carry any ill will towards any companies, just their services (or lack thereof). As for our ‘propaganda’ post .. In addition to FTs users experiencing the issue (and posting screenshots), Google themselves confirmed that there was a problem. And our “history of hostility” is a direct result of FT’s poor service, which isn’t limited to the following: blocking sites, high prices, false advertising, security issues and all-around shitty ads.

FT needs to take a step back and reevaluate their services (and prices) before pointing fingers at its users. The other ISPs have stepped up their services and offerings (except for UCC, they are terrible). Reading reviews on blogs and through word-of-mouth, end customers are more aware of the alternatives available. Until FT fixes its issues, I continue using (and recommending) الخمطة بربع.

Link to original article [here]

Posted by K.

I was just checking Q8car and I couldn’t access it, when I tried Q8showroom I also couldn’t access them. Can’t be a coincidence that both sites are down. They’re both hosted in different places so I am guessing they’ve been hacked?

Update: Q8car is now back up, Q8showroom is still down.

Update 2: Both sites working fine now.

A full list of local online stores. I will keep updating this post in the future whenever I find something new.

All in One
7arai
Kuwait Mall

Books
Ketaaby
Q8 Book Shop

Cars, Bikes and Boats
GCC Motors
Gulf Ride
Kuwait Cars
Q8 Boom
Q8 Car
Q8 HP
Q8 Showroom
Q8 RPM
Sell 11
Seyayer

Computers & Electronics
Click N’ Buy
Q8 Cost

Dessert
Dessert Kuwait
Choco Bite
Choowy Goowy
Little Treats
Pop Up

Fashion
3arabana
7ata 7eet
CASHART
Catalog Express
Catalog Plus
H&H Fashion
Fashion Addicts
La Merletto
Nafnofy
Nizaka
Oleana Boutique
Pink Moon Boutique
Powder Talk
Pret-A-Souk
Q8 Fasion
Raveena
She Style
Verona

Flowers
Q8 Flowers
Ward Q8

Food
6alabat
I Eat Online

Supermarket
Dekkany
Food Kuwait
Taw9eel

Thanks Half.Dead

I don’t know how this really works but I just created a 248AM facebook group. I guess its open to members now or something?

Update: Here is the link to the facebook group [Link]

Q8showroom.com is now launched although I think its still in trial stage since there are a lot of things that aren’t working right or not working at all. Some of the things also feel like they’ve just been ripped off from Q8car like the drop down list for the car models. In Q8car they have a mistake where they listed Range Rover as a brand on its own instead of it being under Land Rover, on Q8showroom they’ve made the exact same mistake. Even the “All Years” drop down list is a duplicate of Q8car’s.

Overall though the site is much better than Q8car’s but they still need to add a lot more cars to their database. What I want is an option to view larger pictures of the cars (like at least 640×480) and a better search function, maybe I’ll get that in the new Q8car redesigned website. Speaking of which, Q8car had a link up a week ago where you could get a preview of the new look but since then the link has disappeared.

Here’s a link to Q8showroom [Link]

Some users with Wataniya’s Wnet have reported having their account suspended without any kind of warning or notification for downloading too much. According to Wataniya, Wnet is an unlimited account but it seems there IS a limit and once you exceed it your account gets shutdown.

The most upsetting thing with all this is the fact that the users have paid big bucks for the Wnet hardware and now that they’re kicked out of Wnet the hardware is useless. Wataniya should do what Zain do which is provide unlimited downloads to the user but once the user exceed a certain amount of bandwidth (I think its currently 30GB) they just drop the users speed down till the end of the month. If you want to read up more on this there is currently a discussion open in the forum which you can read [Here]

Last week we wrote about the issue Fasttelco users were having with their private information being publicly available online. Cnet/News.com have published an article covering this subject and this is the result of the user (36o/Abdulaziz), who reported the issue on the forum and then passed on the details of the glitch to Google. Apparently, Google have contacted Fasttelco and offered their services to help resolve the issue.

Hopefully some good can come from this and Fasttelco will reevaluate their users security (a price cut and promised speeds would be do wonders too).

Cnet / News.com article [here]
Our original post [here]

Posted by K.

Thanks Abdulaziz

Some readers in the forum have been experiencing account access issues when using Fasttelco. When you login into a website (FaceBook, Gmail, Forum), it informs you that you have been logged out and then you have access to someone else’s account (and vice versa). There are screenshots in the forum of a user being redirected to several different gmail accounts and even gaining access to post under different user-names.

If you are unable to use another ISP to access your sensitive information, I suggest using a proxy, vpn or anonymizer (such as Tor) to bypass the Fasttelco cache server. For those who already logged into sensitive websites; login using a different ISP (or the methods suggested) and change your password.

This is most likely due to the Fasttelco cache server (which stores information locally to speed/conserve bandwidth) incorrectly passing data. If you are a user of Fasttelco, call up the help desk and demand that the cache server be disabled until they can fix it.

Link to the topics [here] [here] [here]

Thanks 36o!

-Posted by K.

This is the list of torrent sites sent out by the MOC to the ISP’s to block (here is a link to yesterdays post in case you missed it). On my offices FastTelco connection most of them are already non accessible.

www.demonoid.com
www.extratorrent.com
www.fulldls.com
www.meganova.org
www.seedpeer.com
www.nfo.co.il
www.piratic.org
www.worldnova.org
www.power-portal.to
www.smartorrent.com
www.thepiratebay.org
www.torrentazos.com
www.torrent-base.dl.am
www.torrentlounge.com
www.torrentplaza.be
www.tvtorrents.com
www.xphilez.com
www.zakatron.com
www.zonaemule.com
www.zoozle.de

Thanks MX5

The Ministry of Communications has sent a letter to all the Internet providers in Kuwait to block all the torrent sites. They sent out a list of sites today to be blocked which I am trying to get a hold of. Hopefully my favorite torrent site (I won’t mention the name) is not on that list.

the Internet is fixed .. long live the internet.

There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel (pun intended). Flag Telecom has reported that both links will be fully operational by February 10th now.

Cut # 1: FLAG EUROPE ASIA Cable cut between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy)

• The repair crew of marine experts, optical engineers has reached the site yesterday and it is expected that the splice work will be carried out today. It is currently planned that the repairs will be completed by Sunday, February 10th 2008.

Cut # 2: FALCON Cable cut between Dubai (UAE) and Al SEEB (Oman)

1. The ship loaded with spares, marine experts, and optical engineers have reached the site yesterday. The crew has recovered the one end of the cable and cable joining work is in progress.
2. The repair team has observed steady progress and the repair work are expected to be completed by Sunday, February 10th 2008.

I personally find it quite ironic that the Internet issue is fixed the day after InfoConnect; memo to Gitex, there is no need to sabotage our event (the organizers are doing it for you). Until the internet is fully operational, I suggest you check out Mark’s post on the ‘The internet’s undersea world‘. One of the more unnoticed parts of the image is the available/used capacity of the underwater link.

The fiber links around the world can handle up to 7.1 tbps. The capacity ‘purchased/reserved’ by ISPs is 5.7tbps. Which leads us to ask .. how much of the internet capacity is actually being used? 2.1tbps. In theory, everyone (around the world) could have triple the internet speeds and the fiber links would still have roughly 15% left of unused capacity.

-Posted by K.

I was expecting more cables. [Link]

Flag Telecom has released a press bulletin with an updated status on the cut fiber links:

Cut # 1: FLAG EUROPE ASIA Cable cut between Alexandria (Egypt) and Palermo (Italy)

• The ship loaded with spares has reached the fault location and has initiated the repair work; the repair work is estimated to be completed within 6-7 days.
• The Mediterranean network will be fully resilient with the addition of FLAG Mediterranean Cable current under implementation.
• The cable cut was reported at 0800 GMT on January 30th 2008 around 8.3 Km away from Alexandria cable landing station between Egypt – Italy segment.

Cut # 2: FALCON Cable cut between Dubai (UAE) and Al SEEB (Oman)

• The ship loaded with spares, marine experts, and optical engineers have reached the site yesterday. The crew has recovered the one end of the cable and cable joining work is in progress.
• The repair team has observed steady progress and the repair work are expected to be completed in next 3 – 4 days.
• The weather conditions are not favorable but the crew is continuing with the repair process.
• The cable cut was reported at 0559 GMT on February1st 2008 around 56 Km from Dubai, UAE on segment between UAE and Oman.

We should expect internet to return to normal within the next week. The official press bulletin is updated daily and can be found [here].

-Posted by K.

From all the online dessert/munchies stores that are opening up in Kuwait this has to be the strangest one so far. I was checking out the blog Some Contrast today when I found out about an online store here in Kuwait that makes and delivers flavored popcorn! They deliver popcorn to your house.. thats nearly weirder than the idea me and Nibaq came up with for selling flavored banank online! [Link]

Picture above taken from Some Contrast

As promised, here is the breakdown of current DSL speeds/prices (as of InfoConnect 2008):

If you are looking speeds of 2mb or higher .. you can’t beat Qnets pricing (infoconnect special). And in addition to a free wireless router you also get a scratch (instant prize) and raffle (Mini) coupons for every 20kd spent. I upgraded my connection to 4mb and ‘won’ a extra couple of weeks on my subscription through the scratch coupons.

For those interested in speeds of 1mb or lower; Zajil is the clear choice with their aggressive pricing structure with 1mb at 300 KWD (almost 1/3 the price of last year).

Apparently, there is a new DSL company called Wasel, which has recently been placing advertisements in the newspapers. And while they might be advertising offering DSL, they don’t have a booth at InfoConnect or even a website; We don’t have much information on their offers.

-Posted by K.

*Prices listed are collected from Brochures, Official Websites and Sales Representatives .. prices displayed are for yearly subscriptions.