For the last 2 weeks Google Reader hasn’t been working properly. You try to view the items but it just never syncs, anything you read will immediately be marked “unread” again.
Based on the many comments on Twitter I can only conclude one cause: STC. But I guess they don’t care about their customers or they should have fixed it already.
The possible solutions are: 1) Visit the secure https version of Google Reader. 2) Use a Google reader client instead of a web browser. 3) Change your DNS.
I hope that STC will fix this issue as soon as possible.
Saudi Telecommunication Company did not post this so I will post it here instead, with their obvious mistakes. So it’s as received.
A qualitative breakthrough in the Internet service in the Kingdom
STC provides its customers with the highest Internet speed in the region (100 megabytes) through FTTH technology
Saudi Telecom introduced a qualitative and remarkable breakthrough in the field of Broadband services in the Kingdom by launching, for the first time in the Middle East and North Africa “MENA” a (100 Mega) package which secures the highest Internet speed “100 megabytes/second” through the Fiber to the Home technology “FTTH” technology. The customer’s house is connected with modern and developed Fiber Optic cables which transmit very high speeds and provide Internet services at the best quality and efficiency as it is the best Broadband technologies in the world. Saudi Telecom Company emphasized that providing its customers with high speeds comes within its continuous efforts to propagate the Broadband services in the Saudi society and offer the best Internet services to its customers at the lowest prices in order to generate an added value to their life and assist them perform many services and businesses through the Internet with high quality and efficiency incomparable to other Internet technologies.
In a press declaration given on this occasion, Engineer Saud Bin Majed Al Daweesh, CEO of STC Group, said that the success of Saudi Telecom in launching the Fiber to the Home technology “FTTH” is a qualitative breakthrough introduced by the Company in the field of Internet services in the Kingdom and it supports STC pioneering leadership of Broadband services by providing various technologies in order to contribute to changing the lives of thousands of the members of the society. This stems from the fact that such technology provides real and safe Internet at very high speeds in browsing and downloading software reaching 100 megabytes / second. Thus customers could enjoy the various Internet services, content services, multi-play services, HD TV, video library, various types of electronic games and many other services offered by the Company to its customers.
Engineer Daweesh pointed out that FTTH service is the most prominent new generation in Broadband networks which shall allow customers to use the Internet in the various fields and new applications such as e-learning services, medical examinations, three-dimensional presentations (audio, video and data), holding international conferences, remote security and control and all Broadband applications which assist in reaching the house of the future. In such house, its owner shall deal with its electric and electronic appliances through smart modern technology without having to perform the works which used to take prolonged time and efforts.
The CEO of the Company also stressed STC incessant endeavors to lead the initiative in launching the all-new services in the Saudi Market especially Broadband services. All members of the society make use of such new services and the Company is working towards quickly and properly providing their requirements in a manner that copes with the Saudi society needs.
STC customer, Fahd Al-Ballaa, An-Nakhil District in Riyadh, expressed his utmost happiness and thanks to Saudi Telecom which makes him the first customer all over the Middle East who connects the 100 megabyte speed to his house. He added that providing this service by STC emphasizes its pioneering role in spreading real Broadband services at the highest speeds in the Saudi society which makes the Kingdom the first country in the region which launches the highest speed in the world.
Al-Ballaa stated that he really experienced an extraordinary experiment and felt a tremendous speed which enables him to download some videos and extremely voluminous data in a flash. He never imagined this to happen until he experimented this service. He added “I and all my family members are surprisingly impressed with this new technology. I hope that it will have a positive impact on the family members by allowing them features such as distance education and accessing online technical and educational files and materials in an unprecedented speed”.
HOME SECTORE
End of press release.
I have no idea what “home sectore” is. My rant will be posted on my personal site instead.
This is the latest innovation in the field of Mobile Internet telecommunications: print your team flag on it! That’s what STC and Mobily think is a good idea.
Here’s the STC “Quicknet“, sounds a lot like Quakenet.
And Mobily’s “Connect AL-Zaeeem” for Hilal, that’s too many eees.
My advice to the 2 companies: Mobily, just make sure you have enough iPhone 3GS in stock and STC, improve your DSL lines and allow me to use BeejiveIM, open these ports!
Update: More people are having problems (here and here). The problem is apparently caused by using any external DNS (Google DNS for example). This is very weird.
This is not surprising. Some STC customers (including me, Muneeb in Dhahran and Abdullah in Riyadh) are having problems accessing Google. This appears to be random because others told me that it’s working properly.
This is not only effecting searches but Google Reader, Google Analytics, Youtube and other services! This is the error message by the way:
Network Error (tcp_error)
A communication error occurred: “Operation timed out”
The Web Server may be down, too busy, or experiencing other problems preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time.For assistance, contact your network support team.
Please, STC: fix your servers already.
I am about to purchase a Novatel MiFi 2352 or 2372. The MiFi shares a 3G data connection as a wireless access point and it’s battery powered. The difference between the 2 models is this:
MiFi 2352 uses the following bands: Tri-band HSUPA/HSDPA 900/1900/2100 MHz and Quad-band GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. The MiFi 2372 however is: Tri-band HSUPA/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz and Quad-band GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.
According to this page: STC, Mobily and Zain all use the 2100MHz band for 3G.
Here are the STC Afaq DSL Shamil modem passwords. Thanks to Aly in the comments of this post for posting these.
This will hopefully help frustrated users who can’t change the settings:
Sagem - F@st 1201 (Sagem Firmware) admin admin
Sagem - F@st 2404 (Sagem Firmware) admin admin
Sagem - F@st 2504 (Sky Firmware) admin sky
Sagem - F@st 2604 (JaWeb French Firmware) admin admin
Sagem - F@st 3102 (Sagem Firmware) user user
Sagem - FST 3202 (Livebox English Firmware) admin admin
Sagem - FST 3202 (Livebox French Firmware) admin admin
Check the comments provided kindly by Aly for more info.
Update: a friend forwarded this to me “We would like to inform you that the Internet service has been restored. According to the ISP, the problem was in the IGW which caused slowness in internet browsing”. IGW is managed by STC apparently.
Everyone (at least in Riyadh) is complaining about extremely slow Internet connection (twitter links: 1, 2, 3, 4).
I noticed it as well, here is my speedtest.net results with STC’s server:
Of course it takes full advantage of my DSL bandwidth. It’s like running a speed test on a local Intranet.
However try a US based speedtest server and you get:
Very slow, it’s taking me an hour to upload 1MB via FTP! Do you have similar problems? Please share below.
Qanawati (my channels) is a new service from Saudi Arabia based company Remal IT. The service allows you to check your flight reservations status via SMS.
You can check for available flight reservations on the following airlines: Saudi Airlines, Nas air and Sama. You can also check for reservations on all airlines using IATA, check the status by flight number and check the arrival/departure activity in Saudi airports.
The service is charged by each individual SMS message. Currently only works with Mobily and Zain cell networks. STC is “coming soon”.
Via Saleh at Saudi Geeks.
Saudi Telecom Company has signed a deal with Alcatel-Lucent to upgrade their network so they can serve additional 2 million customers by 2010.
Under the agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide its packet optical transport solution for DSLAM traffic aggregation and Ethernet business services, along with its DSL and GPON /MSAN technology.
STC needs to work more on improving their infrastructure. Via Saudi Gazette.
The Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is now taking pre-booking requests for their upcoming HTC Magic, a Google Android based phone.
The phone will be sold for 2,399SR ($631) and includes a free subscription to a 12-month data plan with a limit of 1 Gigabyte each (notice that STC‘s site called it Gega).
STC will hopefully open an Android app store and add Arabic language support when the HTC Magic is released. You can read more about the HTC Magic at HTC’s website. Via Maxer.