Thread: Reliance Wired Broadband: review & tips

Finally I said a good bye to the several years of my BSNL, thanks to the persistent problems that the public sector behemoth didn't care to address over months. I chose a Reliance wired broadband 300Kbps unlimted line, primarily because I had a Reliance box which carried OFC right on to the top of my house.
It has not been an easy experience and I learnt a lot from the experience. I also didn't find a dedicated thread for Reliance wired broadband or a how-to, so I will share my experience and tips I picked up on the way.

Sales Process

If you don't have time for the whole post, it is "HORRID" in one word.

First, you can not find a sales person even if you search the whole of the internet. You send a mail to the customercare id and then they send a mail asking your FULL Address. Then you send back your details. Totally takes a sweet week.

Then you are encountered with a burst of sales guys calling you and telling you to take connection only from them. They are super prompt and call you every hour though they hardly know what plan or offers are available.

They will rush to you to pick your cheque even in the middle of the night, though they won't even come with a brochure of the plans or an application form. Then back at office, they fill the application form with whatever details they want, including your name, address, PIN code and email id the way they think is best for you. This, in spite of the fact that these are needed for you to recieve your bill, and your original email id is needed to register for online bill view. And they don't care what address you have provided in email or proofs.

Changing each of these needs a request and a submission of a proof copy. And mind you, customer care takes only one request each 48 hours and will not respond to you if they are not able to take up a change as requested.

Once you have handed over your cheque, you no more exist for Sales. Even if they have given umpteen commitments that a wifi will work, the installation will happen in 2 days, I will come and supervise installation etc. etc., no one will lift the phone for you to talk to, forget act. Talk to customercare and you don't exist for them until 72 hours after installation is complete. So, you are suddenly in a vacuum with no one to talk to once your cheque leaves your hand! Completely at the mercy of someone who might knock your door someday for installation. In my case, I am very sure the technical folk actually did a feasibility study at some other place which had the first three letters same as my area before they installed my connection. Another Sales guy told me if wifi works with other providers, it will work with Reliance!

The culture of not lifting the phone drives you mad in no time... don't trust the Reliance Sales guys whatever they say. I don't know how senior management allows this to happen. :sleep:

why u misleading dude, when i applied for connection i just simply call them on their toll free no and after 2 days their person came filled the form and after 5 days connection was up and running.

*****Post removed****


First and last warning. Do not get personal with other members here.

Thanks
Admin

Originally Posted by ||||

why u misleading dude, when i applied for connection i just simply call them on their toll free no and after 2 days their person came filled the form and after 5 days connection was up and running.

Well, you are lucky in that case.
The toll free number did not work from BSNL.

[QUOTE=Glass;180190]Well, you are lucky in that case.
The toll free number did not work from BSNL.


just mail at broadband@relianceada.com

with ur CAF no

[QUOTE=||||;180194]

Originally Posted by Glass

Well, you are lucky in that case.
The toll free number did not work from BSNL.


just mail at broadband@relianceada.com

with ur CAF no

Please read my post above. That is what I did.
I have the connection now and that was jsut the first part.

Bsnl unlimited 256kbps plan is working at its promised speed from 30KB/s to 32KB/s (multiply by 8 to convert to kilobits (kb) / sec.

Unfortunately for any product, whichever company you go to, whichever plan you choose, the experience will be the same. Such is the after sales service of companies now a days, you become pest from God with they being confirmed that you are a customer now. Be it Indicom, BSNL, Reliance or Airtel. Profiteering and cheating have become the order of the day. They extract the last paisa they can, and then they go for unethical tactics which are not illegal but designed to fool us! Fair Usage Policy, Reducing the package weights of FMCG goods, printing their package weights, are such tactics!
We were taught Values and Ethics in Business for the last 6 months and I always thought we were being taught 'What not to do in a business'!

Installation Process
The installers turned up the 6th day the cheque was given. Basically Reliance hires some local contractors who come and do this - so first had two guys who came and pulled the cable, then another two who installed the phone and modem.
Overall the knowledge of the installers was very limited. They did not know how to find LAN in Win ME and actually fiddled with the domains etc. in my absence without success. The old modems they brought did not work, and so they left and came back day 2 to get another used one - this worked. This whole thing took 2 days, and finally I set it up myself. The phone provided lacks a conferencing button, though the technology supports conferencing.

Quick summary of issues I now had/have to coordinate:

• Correction of name, address, PIN code, email id
• Phone noise when modem is on - some jumper was not properly configured on the main box
• Phone does not allow conferencing - need an instrument replacement
• Phone dead for 2.5 days in the first week itself - some wire is supposedly cut affecting my area

Some of these issues needed me to go the nodal officer to get sorted out.

Originally Posted by Glass

• Phone does not allow conferencing - need an instrument replacement

Ok, a correction, the phone allows conferencing, it is just that no one knew how to do it and hence claimed this instrument does not support conferencing.

Keep the review going. Most useful. Rep awarded.

Glass which city do u live in ?

Nice Info...
but is it different with the Modem Connection..

Originally Posted by sharadkumar

Unfortunately for any product, whichever company you go to, whichever plan you choose, the experience will be the same. Such is the after sales service of companies now a days..

Right. And the more processes the company has set a procedure for, the better. I believe companies as Airtel have most standard processes mapped, but newcomers such as Reliance have fewer. The moment you have a non-standard situation, you have trouble with customer care having no clue of what to do, be it Reliance or Airtel for example.

Originally Posted by just4kix

Keep the review going. Most useful. Rep awarded.

Thanks, more coming!

Originally Posted by deep_nx

Glass which city do u live in ?

Hyderabad.

Originally Posted by rohitrohen

Nice Info...
but is it different with the Modem Connection..

Not sure what you mean, but this is a modem connection. I have replaced the modem with an ADSL wifi router... details to come shortly.

By the way, I have most initial troubles sorted now, hoping the going will be good.

The Economics

My plan is a wired Rs. 649 + tax per month unlimited 300Kbps plan. This includes a rent-free modem and a decently featured telephone connection. In addition, there is a free call value worth Rs. 150, and a local call costs Rs. 1.10 per unit. It is a shame the updated plans do not show up on the Reliance website - so if you are doing a cost compare to pick an ISP, you don't get to have a proper picture.
This seems to be truly unlimited with no FUP being mentioned either on the website or by the sales executive or customercare on query. A decent deal overall. Reliance does not provide a wifi router for home customers however; so you will need to buy a router if you need wireless - more on this later on the thread.

I tried haggling unsuccessully for the installation charges of Rs. 500 to be waived, especially because Reliance has a junction box on my terrace, and since they promised the earth when the box was being installed a few years back. But I see that members from some cities were offered a waiver, maybe not so in Hyderabad.

There appears to be an option to view and pay bills online or physically, so that seems good enough.

What are the prices of other plans (asking since RCOM has not updated their site)?

Originally Posted by just4kix

What are the prices of other plans (asking since RCOM has not updated their site)?

Good question! All I recollect is that the next higher unlimited flat fee plan is 600Kbps at some 1100-1200 range.

Interestingly, the current plans don't even appear on the IVR; only customercare can tell on query.

I'm from pune and am currently using BSNL broadband(2 Mbps/2.5gb/500p.m). My current connection is working perfectly but since Bsnl don't provide any unlimited plans for 1/2 Mbps, I want to change my connection. Along with changing the connection I also want to set up WiFi at home(for 2 laptops,my pc,my ps3 and my psp). I have narrowed down my choices to reliance and tata. Tata has given me all the info (rates,compression ratio,static/dynamic IP,etc.)Now about Reliance; I checked the website and there wasn't adequate info available(only rates nothing else);I called the customer and all the representative told me was that there are two types of reliance broadband available, one is completely wired with a modem (same like a BSNL,which i already knew) and the other once uses some kind of antenna on top of my building(i assume it's Wimax), which i don't know anything about (neither did that person explain it to me cause he himself didn't know anything about it).

Now i'll come to the point of creating this thread.
1. Can someone enlighten me on this second type of reliance broadband and which one is better.
2. If someone already has reliance WiFi, Can that person give me their feedback.
3. Any suggestions on WiFi router will be accepted.
4. since I'm confused over which ISP to choose(tata or reliance) can anybody from pune tell me about the connection(stability and all the things you can share except the rates) and the customer services from both reliance and Tata.


Looking forward for some help.

nice reading so far.waiting for more

Technology & Line Quality etc.

I read somewhere Reliance has OFC upto the junction boxes though I do not know if that is true. However I have a junction box right on my terrace and the box is under lock and key. A thick cable joins this box to a bigger box (DSLAM?) in a nearby apartment.

Phone line quality: Is very crisp and clear. The dial tone comes up very bright and conversations have nice voice quality. Reliance supports phone features such as conferencing, caller id, dynamic lock etc. etc. This is quite good. The bad part I have in my locality is that the phone and broadband die in about 45 minutes, when the power goes off. I have been assured this will be taken care of - some backup batteries have to replaced somewhere.

Broadband quality: Very good. All the troubles I mentioned aside, the signal and attenuation numbers are excellent by any standard, but this could be because I have a box close by. There are hardly any disconnections and the line is stable and provides the promised speeds. The SNR etc. on two different routers at two different times:




I trust my netmeter more than online speed tests and the average download is 300Kbps and average upoad is 270Kbps (each Kbps of 1024 bytes), which is decent. Torrents with Reliance peers get me 1Mbps and even more at times.







Authentication
Reliance has a non-standard authentication mechanism which at times proves a pain. The connection does not support bridge or PPPOE but instead needs you to enter a login id and password into an html page. The moment you do this, a popup window opens and stays in a corner until you logout.
Tip: Login in Opera and this will be less of a hassle. You can set the page auto reload every 30 minutes to avoid time out and consequent logoff too. There are a few scripts and small programs available on forums to automatically log you in and keep you logged in. Am trying some and they work fine.
The biggest trouble is when you have not logged off properly and have fiddled with the hardware of your system or the system crashes. You will remain logged in cannot login until the timeout period passes, which I think is 15 or 30 minutes; you will get an authentication failure until then.

Freebie Software
Reliance also bundles F-Secure antivirus antispyware and firewall free with every post-paid connection (I chose to stay with my Avast+Comodo+Spyware Terminator though).

@Glass: is that kind of junction box is installed on ur roof top?

2964d1243368065-info-reliance-metro-ehternet-me1.jpg

The Maze Called Wifi

One of the complex mazes I have been sucked into in the recent past has been to set up the wifi for Reliance broadband. You will see a path ahead of you and before you get excited over it, you have a wall ahead of you to work a way around. A great learning experience overall.

Sales had confirmed to me several times to my precondition, that wifi can be setup and will work for the Reliance wired broadband. When the installers were unable to set the modem up, I removed the modem and set the connection up myself with the UTStarcom WA3002-g1 ADSL wifi modem that I had from BSNL. Presto, wifi worked like a charm. Two days later, I went and put in an application to BSNL to buy the router outright for the residual cost before disconnection - I had it for >2 years already.

The router setup is straightforward - just that you have to have - VPI/VCI of 0/35, Dynamic IP/MAC Encapsulation Routing (MER) with LLC connection type; and obtaining IP, dNS, Gateway automatically.

The tragedy began after the 2 days - the router does not get an IP and just shows 0.0.0.0 - do whatever - disconnect/connect, power cycle, remove phone line for a while, repair connection etc. etc. Customer care just has a parrot response - we do not support routers, please contact the hardware vendor for more information. Interestingly, the modem works and gets an IP without a problem. I figured this is possibly to do with the MPOA link that the server has to provide to the router to connect. There is always a standard error in the router log 'netMakeChannDial: err=-3001' when this happens, which seems to indicate the server node is stuck connecting forever.

The solution? - time is a great healer - it starts working after a few hours or a day. Another modem or even another router might work at the same time though.


In summary, both of the following setups work in principle:

ADSL modem+router -> PC (LAN cord) & Laptop (wifi)
as well as
ADSL modem -> Router -> PC (LAN cord) & Laptop (wifi)

The problem is the occasional IP address not being obtained by the router. I now have replaced UTSTarcom W3002-g1 with a DNA-A211-I Router, which seems to be working fine for now. Will keep this thread updated if there is something that happens after 2 days, with Reliance trying to fiddle with the MAC ids or something, or if it is a pure server side issue. I will research this further if it comes back.

Originally Posted by Ookla

@Glass: is that kind of junction box is installed on ur roof top?

Yes, similar, though I don't have the rest of the paraphernalia as the smaller box and pipes and no power supply either.

Downloads, Rapidshare and Torrents

Standard downloads are quite fast, given the connection has the promised bandwidth and is stable. However if you are a great free rapidsharer who powers off the modem and starts a fresh new download with a new IP, Reliance is not for you. The server assigns a dynamic IP to you that remains with you for a full 24 hours (I think) however many times you connect. So once you are done with your first download, you will need to wait if you are a free user (unless you use Cryptload or something else - as mentioned on the forum somewhere).

Torrents are good and run full speed of the plan. Port forwarding works correctly - successful on three different routers that I have tried - no issues on incoming connections. As I mentioned before, peers on the same LAN (?) on Reliance network give you you great speeds, I believe restricted only by the upload speeed they have configured.

Persistent Issues

I can not use a Reliance email id yet, and complaints and a dozen followups have been on deaf ears over the months. I still live with my name in Reliance records as the Reliance guys like it and not as I was actually named.

The wifi router doesn't get an IP 2-3 days each week. The workaround is - remove the wifi adsl router and connect direct using the Reliance modem, or set the wifi adsl router in bridge mode and reboot; with the LAN properties set to acquire IP and gateway automatically. I now have two router config files to quickly change settings.

But this is not my idea of an internet connection when I rush home from office to be just in time for a meeting; but then have to make configuration changes first depending on how many lights are on on the router.
First level email from Reliance says they can't help because wifi router on this type of connection is not according to their policy, but I have asked them to point out why the Sales commitment was different from policy and where exactly this policy was mentioned. I have a backup of the Reliance website now just in case, and this policy is nowhere on the site.

I am still corresponding with the topmost resoluton representatives at Reliance to find a solution to this issue, in view of the commitment made by Sales. Unfortunately, each level in Reliance is equally unresponsive.

Watch this space for an update, while I research the other ISPs in my area!