Online Masai :: The Digital Nomad » Onlinemasai

KDN Box – Review

OnlineMasai — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:40:50 +0000

After 10 weeks of chasing up on getting my box connection at home, I got home today to find it connected.

First thing I got round to doing was hooking up my wireless network onto the IDU provided to me by KDN for free. I got the 1mb/1mb link broadband of course, and I have no idea what the contention rate on this thing is. No one at KDN gives that information out either.

Now we all know that KDN are the last mile service providers of Seacom in the region and have the largest fiber network in the region. For an ISP this big they sure are poor at following up with their potential clients and totally suck at marketing. I wonder if they have enough clients for their own liking.
Trust me, following up with these guys to get this link at home was no easy task. It is completely difficult to get hold of anyone at KDN who would have any useful information regarding your installation status, at times it is just impossible to get anyone on the phone (about 65% of the time).

Lets get down to the chase. After all the excitement of getting this connection, I faced nothing but DISAPPOINTMENT (typical from Kenyan ISP’s isn’t it guys). Now this link for one doesn’t even go through Seacom but through KDN’s fail over satellite links

Tracing route to www.facebook.com [66.220.145.10]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 * * * Request timed out.
2 * * * Request timed out.
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 204 ms 230 ms 254 ms l3.london.kdn.intersatafrica.com [212.113.15.97]

5 227 ms 370 ms * ae-34-52.ebr2.London1.Level3.net [4.69.139.97]
6 601 ms * 350 ms ae-44-44.ebr1.NewYork1.Level3.net [4.69.137.78]

7 * * 262 ms ae-3-3.ebr4.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.132.93]

8 264 ms 271 ms * ae-84-84.csw3.Washington1.Level3.net [4.69.134.1
86]
9 261 ms 263 ms 266 ms 4.68.17.149
10 263 ms * 259 ms FACEBOOK-IN.edge3.Washington4.Level3.net [4.53.1
16.6]
11 262 ms 346 ms 267 ms ae2.bb01.iad2.tfbnw.net [204.15.20.88]
12 331 ms 400 ms * xe-1-3-0.bb01.sjc1.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.170]
13 330 ms 332 ms * ae1.dr02.snc4.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.185]
14 328 ms * 331 ms eth-17-2.csw01a.snc4.tfbnw.net [74.119.76.46]
15 411 ms * 350 ms www-10-01.snc4.facebook.com [66.220.145.10]

Trace complete.

Secondly the local loop connection just doesn’t do it for me. The latencies are so high & inconsistent it is unbearable, a simple ping to Access Kenya’s DNS shows this

Pinging 196.200.16.2 with 32 bytes of data:
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 196.200.16.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 1, Lost = 3 (75% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 4ms, Maximum = 4ms, Average = 4ms

Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=79ms TTL=58
Request timed out.
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=41ms TTL=58
Reply from 196.200.16.2: bytes=32 time=9ms TTL=58

Ping statistics for 196.200.16.2:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 3, Lost = 1 (25% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 9ms, Maximum = 79ms, Average = 43ms

So far this link is good for nothing. Really I have always complained about Access Kenya, but there link’s have been far more consistent and better. This product from KDN is a total rip off, more so because it simply fails on the local loop network too.

For now I will be hoping to see some sort of improvements made to this service and strongly advise anyone willing to go for this service to keep off for a while.

[Notice] – Downtime

OnlineMasai — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:44:05 +0000

I will be updating some DNS records for onlinemasai.com, there will be down time for about 12 hours or so.

Happy New Year (Belated)

OnlineMasai — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:38:40 +0000

Hello all! I know January already, but I felt that it would never be too late to wish all our readers out there a Happy New Year & wishing you all the success life can bring you.

Its been a long time since I last posted a blog as I was away, however I am back and will be posting more often and also have a fellow blogger Batian blogging with me here on onlinemasai.com. Batian has posted some amazing posts so far In classy business: Nokia E72 Review & Netbook: fashion statement or work tool?

Onlinemasai

Final Logo Selection

OnlineMasai — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:27:26 +0000

I would like to thank all you guys who helped me select a logo for onlinemasai. I finally selected the logo as you guys had pointed out. Hope you guys like it just as much as I do.

Help Me Select A Logo

OnlineMasai — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:34:31 +0000

Online Masai has gained quite a fan base over the past few weeks since I started, and with time, I do hope the blog does become popular amongst many of you. I thank you all for your continued support. A start up blogger never finds it easy to get going and find an audience, but you guys have been fantastic and have given me tonnes of confidence to move forward.

I would like to involve you in helping me choose a logo and online identity. I will be attaching a couple of samples in a short while. In the mean time maybe you could give me ideas as to what you feel online masai’s identity should be.

Edit 1 – So here are some of the logos so far

Edit 2 – Below are the final set of logos.