Arun

Just a few clarifications... does it keep showing dormant mode in the handset and doesn't respond if you try to access the net through your PC... or does it get disconnected after getting connected ? Is it a CA-42 cable ?

Press Trust of India New Delhi, July 29, 2006 India’s teledensity is improving by the hour and the country has joined the prestigious 100-million mobile club. Good news both. But the bad part is, the level of congestion between telecom operators is getting worse. The quality of service of mobile operators has deteriorated over the last five months with the latest TRAI figures stating that the number of points of interconnection (PoI) having congestion has increased by over 50%, and most of which are with state-run BSNL. “The PoI congestion report for the month of January to May shows that the number of PoIs having congestion has increased from 390 in January to 616 in May”, Trai said. The Trai parameter implies that not more than one call out of 200 should face any congestion problem. However, in reality, the congestion levels are alarming, at times even touching 100% — or nearly every call facing a hiccup — in some parts of the country. PoI congestion in the network is due to inadequate junctions between the two networks and this leads to loss of calls and also results in poor quality of service to telecom consumers. The worst affected PoIs where congestion level on PoIs is 80% or more, from private operator to BSNL, the regulator said. The PoIs congestion in the network is on account of inadequate junctions between the two networks and this leads to loss of calls and the consequent poor quality of service to the consumers. The benchmark notified by Trai in the QoS regulation of July 2005 for this parameter is less than 0.5%. Trai has been monitoring the level of congestion at the PoI between various service providers on a monthly basis. This parameter signifies the ease by which a customer of one network is able to communicate with a customer of another network. This parameter also reflects as to how effective is the interconnection between two networks. For instance, Bharti Airtel’s congestion level, where the PoI is with BSNL, touched a high of 86.21% in Sasaram (Bihar); 94.4% in Jaunpur (Uttar Pradesh); and 89.11% in Churu (Himachal Pradesh). In the case of Hutchison Essar, the congestion level was recorded at 87% in Gazipur, where again the PoI is with BSNL. Similarly, with BSNL as the PoI, Reliance Infocomm reported 100% congestion at Durg, and 95.40% at Pune. Others such as Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have also shown over 80% congestion levels in some parts of UP and Bihar, when PoIs are with BSNL. But there’s some good news as well. Bharti’s congestion level in Shimla dropped from 19% in January to 11.66% in May. Also, in Bikaner and Kota, congestion has been reduced from 38.28% and 41.53%, respectively, to 0% each. In the case of Tata Teleservices, Alwar has shown a drop from 19% congestion in January to 9.65% in May. Reliance Infocomm’s congestion level in Patna has reduced from 20.5% in January to 1.4% in May. The private telecom industry is discussing ways to set up an interconnect exchange, on the lines of the “Telehouse” in Europe, US and Canada.

If it was today, then it has nothing to do with the database restore issue that occured on July 30/31. Or did you say that the post count was 92 on July 31st morning ? If you find that your post count has decreased automatically, then check this topic. Other than that, if your post was deleted, then it would be in the Junkyard forum, but there is no post from you (vishal) when I checked there now.

14 tips from ASUS India, to keep your laptop fit ! Buying a notebook PC is easy, but taking care of one is equally essential. ASUS India, a leading manufacturer of notebook computers, guides notebook-users on the proper usage and maintenance of notebook PCs. Laptops and notebooks are terms that are often used interchangeably as both are portable computers. However, there is a slight difference between the two: notebooks are generally thinner than laptops. Given below are some basic tips suggested by ASUS which would help users ensure a long life for their notebook: Do not place the notebook on uneven or unstable work surfaces. Seek servicing if the casing has been damaged. Do not place or drop objects on top of the notebook and do not shove any foreign objects into the notebook PC. Do not press or touch the display panel. Do not place together with small items that may scratch or enter the notebook PC. Do not expose to or use near liquids, rain or moisture. Do not use the modem during an electrical storm. Do not expose to strong magnetic or electrical fields. Do not throw batteries in any fire as they may explode. Check local codes for special battery disposal instructions. Do not leave the notebook PC on your lap or any part of the body while it is turned ON or is charging in order to prevent discomfort or injury from heat exposure. Do not expose to extreme temperatures below 0°C (32°F), otherwise the notebook PC may not boot. Do not expose to extreme temperatures above 50°C (122°F) or to direct sunlight. Do not block the fan vents! Input rating: Must only receive power input of 19VDC, 3.42A (65W). Safe temperature: This notebook PC should only be used in environments with ambient temperatures between 0°C (32°F) and 35°C (95°F).

@ Vishal's desktop:

There does seem to be a mySQL database restoration done early on Monday, but I am/was totally unaware of that. After I checked the raw logs for the day, I did find that there was a mySQL error logged which was caused due to memory allocation limit exceeding in Apache's setting. I am not very sure why my Administrator had to overwrite the database instead (I'm yet to contact him), or maybe the database could have got corrupted and had to be restored from the backup as Vishal pointed out. So I am inquiring with him on what really happened, and some of you have been sent PM regarding it, and hope your replies will assist me me finding out what really happened. If the database was restored, I assume atleast 6 hours of data was lost in the process, and I sincerely apologize to those who find their posts missing. Even if your post was removed by a moderator, it will land in the "Junkyard" forum as Puneet pointed out, so we should be able to check out why your topic/post was removed. And if your post wasn't a spam, then you should be receiving a PM from the moderator explaining why your post/topic was removed. Anyway, this particular case doesn't have anything to do with a moderator removing your topic/post, but it was a technical issue which I am investigating upon now. More updates will be posted here as the inquiry progresses. Update: PM sent to amitbt22, raccoon, patnaik and Vishal Gupta. If anyone has seen their posts missing, please do let me know by PM. Thanks !

Oh my God ! I don't know how you fell for that. No wonder these scammers are still living on the internet. abhishek, avoid them like plague !!!

er, can throw more light on that ?

I think this is a technique used to weed out active email addresses, since those "illeterate ones" who think it is a genuine email would reply to the email address mentioned. That would help them build an active email address database to send more SPAM or would sell off the database for some quick bucks. Thats how spammers operate. BTW, please do not post email address directly in public discussion forums like RIMweb. Its easy for spam bots to extract email addresses automatically from websites. So better post them like yourname (at) yahoo.com to avoid such spam bots from indexing your email address.

I receive lots like these per day, anyway my Outlook plugin (Inboxer) sorts them out to the Junkbox. Infact these russians have been spamming too much these days on RIMweb too, lots of spam posts have filled the Junkyard forum now which were deleted by the mods.

Schumi, try some of these.

Qualcomm not to negotiate royalties with Reliance New Delhi, July 26, 2006 Press Trust of India CDMA technology developer Qualcomm on Tuesday, said it was not negotiating with Indian telecom players, including the Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications, on lowering the royalty paid by them. "Qualcomm is committed to help the industry drive handset prices down and it involves multiple players and has nothing to do with negotiations on royalties with operators as they do not pay it," the company said clarifying media reports. The statement comes amid reports that Reliance Communications was putting pressure on Qualcomm for lowering the royalty on the ground that the US company was charging much higher rates from operators in India as compared to China. India has the lowest device prices in the world and royalties on the devices sold in India are the lowest in the world, the company said, adding "Qualcomm is working aggressively to enable even lower-cost devices." The average royalties paid on devices sold in India over the past 12 months have averaged 15 per cent lower than royalties that have been paid on devices sold in China and are far lower that royalties that have been paid to Qualcomm in markets like Korea, Japan and the US, it said.

I don't think you will find it easy getting a second hand PC for installments. Maybe you can try a low end new one and ask for finance options from the dealer who may have tie ups with Bajaj Auto Finance, etc.

I do agree this particular incident was covered by the media with too much hullabaloo. Zee News started it off when they telecasted the video of the boy inside the hole. These days its too much competition among the news channels, that if one channel covers it the others will loose viewership and so the other channels run after it too. These type of mishaps are quite common and likely in a country like India. I'm coming to the point that such incidents have happened before and not everyone were lucky like Prince. In April this year, a 5 year old in Kerala met with a very similar incident and where was the media that time and why didn't people in other parts of the country know about it ? I do feel that there was a bit of sensationalism involved in this incident, mostly the politicians trying to gain sympathy among the people. I'm sure these politicians wouldn't have been anywhere near if the media didn't cover the incident this much. Anyway, on a positive note, the media has gained much popularity that it can bring the whole nation to pause and changed the way we think and perceive our society. And thanks to the goodwill of those people mainly the army men, it was a happy ending after the boy was saved after a painful ordeal.

I'm attaching the Product Note of Nokia 6265 released by Reliance. The Dealer Price is around Rs.15,500 to Rs.16,200 - so thats the expected price range. P.S: I'm note sure if this same product note was posted elsewhere in other threads, please let me know if it was already posted. Product_Book__Nokia_6265.zip

Belated Birthday wishes to Abhay !!! (sorry, I missed it by a few minutes :wink: )

Interesting read there Kagashe, and I would say "Human Security Hole" is the biggest of them all !

They get more bucks if they sell that bandwidth to other countries. Just like FLAG Telecom recently signed a deal to provide 40 giga bytes of international bandwidth to China Netcom and Batelco of Bahrain has also selected FLAG for its international circuits for voice telephony.

well, they do recommend 10 days for installation (yes, they are very lazy) and in my case they said 14 days, but they installed it around the 7th day or so. The big problem with them is that their Sales team and Technical team do not have any sort of co-ordination. Are you calling their Sales team or Technical team ? For installtion, contacting the Sales guy would prove worthy. E-mailing or calling their outsourced customer care for installation won't work at all.

penny in case of pound in UK, buddy ! not cent

India blocks Blogger, TypeAd and Geocities blogs - MoneyControl.com / Rediff.com Tuesday July 18th 2006, 12:08 am The Indian Government has issued an order to all Indian ISPs for a ban on various blogging sites. While no official release has been made on this front, the reasons being attributed to this ban range from it being a preventive measure to stop sleeper terrorist cells from accessing instructions contained in blogs, to a new measure to try and control the spread of information through blogs. The order was issued by Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The known list of blocked domains is *.blogspot.com, *.typepad.com and geocities.com/*. It leads me to wonder if this is a case of ISPs overreacting, which would not be the first. Three years ago, they had rather zealously blocked groups.yahoo.com in a similar manner when all they wanted to actually do was to block a particular group. As of now most of the large ISPs have already complied with the DoT order and a large population of Indian bloggers has been cut off from their own blogs. Bloggers in India are getting together to protest against the sudden blocking of popular Google-owned blog-hosting site Blogger by some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Spectranet, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Reliance Powersurfer, Airtel Broadband and Sify. On July 15, Mridula Dwivedi, a teacher of management studies in Gurgaon first discovered that visiting any blogspot blog -- such as, say Mumbai Help -- returned the message, 'Site Blocked!' Her ISP, Spectranet, confirmed they had blocked some sites based on government directives. J Grewal, Spectranet's Delhi representative at the National Internet exchange of India, told this reporter that, on July 15, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had sent ISPs a list of sites to be blocked. R H Sharma, senior engineer with MTNL, said the list ran into some 22 pages. Now, several bloggers have organised themselves into a Bloggers' Collective and are planning to file a Right To Information application to obtain the list. Anil Saxena of Spectranet confirmed that the list sent by the DoT contained names of particular blogs, but added that Blogspot as a whole had not been blocked. This is contrary to the experience of customers like Dwivedi, who are still unable to view sites hosted on Blogspot, in addition to those on Typepad and Yahoo!'s Geocities. "The list is confidential and I can't make it public," said Saxena. Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, a body called the Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-IN, was created along the lines of similar authorities the world over. Although its main task is in the domain of Internet security, it also oversees Internet censorship under a clause that seeks to ensure 'balanced flow of information.' Any government department seeking a block on any web site has to approach CERT-IN, which then instructs the DoT to block the site after confirming the authenticity of the complaint. Web sites can be blocked if they contain pornography, speeches of hate, contempt, slander or defamation, or if they promote gambling, racism, violence or terrorism. "Such sites may be blocked within the provisions of the Fundamental Right to free speech and expression, granted in India's Constitution," said cyber-law expert Praveen Dalal, adding, "If, however, the blocking is arbitrary, unreasonable and unfair, it would be in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India." The trouble is bloggers don't even know which sites the DoT wants blocked. To make matters worse, ISPs seem to be blocking entire domains on which these blogs are hosted. In 2003, one of the first things CERT-IN did was to approve the blocking of an obscure mailing list run by a banned militant outfit, the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) of the Khasi tribe in Meghalaya. Ironically, the popularity and visibility of the list went up by leaps and bounds, despite it being blocked by all ISPs. Many could still see the list via email or proxy surfing. This time, something similar seems to have happened, to not one but three domains. However, CERT-IN's Director, Dr Gulshan Rai, said he was unaware of the problem and would not be able to respond "off-hand". In a telephone interview, he told this reporter, "Somebody must have blocked some sites. What is your problem?" Bloggers certainly think of it as a problem though, and are all set to react. Click here for a list of ISP's who are blocking the domains and more details about them. Please add yours too if your ISP blocks too and not listed there. I'm on TATA Indicom broadband and it seems blogspot blogs are blocked (getting timed out) for me now. Hope they won't start blocking forums next. Reminds me of the yahoo groups block earlier !

Ah, atlast they are back on their senses... Blog blockade will be lifted in 48 hours - Rediff.com July 19, 2006 22:13 IST The blocking of blogs hosted by sites such as Blogspot, Typepad and Yahoo! Geocities by Internet Service Providers is likely to be lifted within 48 hours. At least that is what Amitabh Singhal, a spokesperson of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) told this correspondent on Wednesday. Singhal said representatives of various ISPs met on Wednesday to discuss the issue after the media took it up earlier this week. He acknowledged that some ISPs -- he insisted it wasn't all -- mistook the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) notice and blocked entire blog domains, adding that it was technically feasible to block a sub-domain and leave others still accessible. If, for instance, DoT wanted a certain blog -- say shivam.blogspot.com --blocked, it was feasible to just block that URL, without restricting access to other blogs with the blogspot.com extension. "An advisory is being sent from ISPAI to member ISPs saying they should configure their Domain Name Servers (DNS) in such a way that they block only the sub-domains DoT wants blocked," said Singhal, adding, "It would help if, in future, DoT could also mention the mechanism by which sites should be blocked." The advisory is a result of a meeting held on Wednesday between executive members of ISPAI, representatives of DoT and the Department of Information Technology. "We expect the problem to be resolved within 48 hours," said Singhal. As news of the blockade spread to the national and international media, Indian bloggers -- organised under the Bloggers Against Censorship banner -- continued to devise a strategy to counter it. Some have filed Right to Information applications, while others are considering a Public Interest Litigation. They say they are against any kind of censorship, even that of non-blog Web sites such as HinduUnity.org Interestingly, the Indian consulate in New York has also sought to explain the ban. According to e-mail sent by A R Ghanashyam, deputy consul general, to a representative of the South Asian Journalists Association, a write up containing derogatory references to Islam and had the potential to inflame religious sensitivities, had appeared on a blog. DoT took up the matter but, because of a technological error, ISPs went beyond what was expected of them, resulting in 'the unfortunate blocking of all blogs.' HinduUnity.org and HinduHumanRights.org are among 17 sites sought to be blocked, on the grounds that they are spreading Hindu nationalist propaganda. Accessed through an anonymizer, HinduUnity.org was found to have articles against Congress party President Sonia Gandhi and Indian Muslims. It also had a 'hit list' of people it considered anti-Hindu. Another site on the list is Rahulyadav.com, set up by a US-based person who calls himself a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Dalitstan.org, on the other hand, calls itself a 'human rights organisation working for the upliftment of Dalits.' None of the sites seem to possess any direct security threat to India, or have any connection with the recent Mumbai blasts. Even more bizarre are the blogs sought to be blocked. 'Princess Kimberley' is a defunct blog with just two postings in 2004 about an American teenager's depressing life. 'Commonfolk Commonsense' is a Chinese language blog, while 'Exposing the Left' is written by someone in Southern Illinois! DoT has not explained why these sites need to be restricted from viewing by Indians. Amitabh Singhal said the ISPs were not in favour of Internet censorship, but were bound by terms and conditions of the license granted to them by the government. LIST OF 17 BLOCKED SITES 1. www .hinduunity.org 2. mypetjawa.mu.nu 3. pajamaeditors.blogspot.com 4. exposingtheleft.blogspot.com 5. thepiratescove.us 6. commonfolkcommonsense.blogspo t.com 7. bamapachyderm.com 8. princesskimberley.blogspot.com 9. merrimusings.typepad.com 10. mackers-world.com 11. www.dalistan.org 12. www .hinduhumanrights.org/hindufocus.html 13. www .nndh.com 14. bloodroyaltriped.com 15. imagesearchyahoo.com 16. www .imamali8.com 17. www .rahulyadav.com

well, the Government says its not their fault, but the ISP's inefficiency ! Govt blames ISPs, bloggers protest Hindustan Times New Delhi, July 18 2006 The latest attempt by the department of telecom to block access to 17 websites on grounds of national security has gone spectacularly wrong. First, it has ended up blocking not 17 but thousands of sites or weblogs (or blogs) hosted by popular hosting services like Google's Blogspot and Yahoo's Geocities. Second, the ban has been effected in a manner that can be skirted with ease. So anyone who wants to access them can still do so. Also, some bloggers in Delhi and Mumbai are now planning to invoke the Right to Information Act to clear some of the haze that the matter is behind right now. For their part, the government officials responsible for implementing the order are washing their hands off the brouhaha the action has caused. Dr Gulshan Rai, director of the Computer Emergency Response Team, the apex organisation under the IT Ministry responsible for the nation's cyber-security, told HT: "There's no attempt to block www.blogspot.com from our side. The order issued by the DoT has four blogs hosted on Blogspot.com. The order didn't ask the whole site to be banned." Then why isn't any Blogspot site opening on most computers? The answer lies in the way our internet service providers -- like Tata, Airtel, Sify and Reliance -- have implemented the order. "Indian ISPs don't have the technology to block individual name servers -- say a particular blog hosted on Blogspot. So they had no choice but to block the root servers of major blogging networks -- blogspot, geocities and typepad," said a senior official in the IT Ministry. A senior official from an ISP confirmed this. Sarbajit Roy, a cyber-law expert, said: "This block is a mindless exercise and shows that our bureaucrats don't understand technology at all."

Reliance Communications Slashes Ild Rates By Up To 66% US & Canada, SE Asia @ Rs 4.50 per minute Europe, Australia and New Zealand @ Rs 6.00 per minute Gulf @ Rs 8.00 per minute DAKC (Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City), Navi Mumbai, July 19, 2006 Reliance Communications, India's largest integrated telecom service provider, today announced slashing international call rates on by up to 66 per cent. The new rates would enable Reliance customers to call all numbers in USA, Canada and SE Asia at Rs 4.50 per minute, calls to UK on landline and mobile will cost Rs 6.00 and Rs 8.00 per minute respectively, and all calls to Gulf countries will cost only Rs 8.00 per minute. Calls to Australia and New Zealand are lowered to Rs 6.00 from Rs 18.00. The new tariffs are amongst the lowest in the country and would be available on Reliance Global Call card across all denominations. Announcing the latest ILD tariff structure, S P Shukla, President - Wireless, Reliance Communications said, "We are committed to offer convenient and affordable connectivity solutions to our many million customers. Be it the industry's first 'One Nation' plan or the revolutionary on-net plans, Innovative domestic and overseas tariffs have been Reliance Communications' key growth driver." The Reliance Global Call Card offers unmatched value and affordable options for International long distance callers with a wide range of denominations to choose from. Subscribers have flexible options of using the Reliance Global Call Card on Reliance Mobile or Reliance Hello phones, prepaid as well as postpaid. Reliance Global Call Card offers the convenience of PIN-less dialing and customers do not need to pay any security deposit for availing ILD facilities.

hmmm, interesting that R-Connect and AirTel GPRS have not blocked it yet ! And when it rains, it pours... Ban `illegal' voice calls: ISPAI Messenger-based telephony services offered by Skype, Yahoo, MSN under the scanner The Hindu Business Lince New Delhi , July 18 2006 After hauling up ISPs for enabling allegedly illegal long-distance calls, the Department of Telecom (DoT) now plans to bring messenger-based telephony services such as those offered by Skype, Yahoo, MSN, and Net2Phone, under the scanner. The Indian ISPs have themselves urged the Government to ban these services or ask them to obtain appropriate licence. The move is a fallout of the Government's decision to make Internet telephony services part of the long-distance licence with entry and licence fees. Prior to January 2006, ISPs were offering Internet telephony at no cost but now the Government has asked them to pay a fee to offer the service even as messenger-based telephony services such as Skype offer voice calls without any licence from India. In a letter to the DoT, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) said: "Internet telephony services can be offered in India either by an ISP specifically permitted to do so or by a unified access service licensee. However, several service providers such as Skype, Net2Phone, Yahoo, and MSN, are providing Internet telephony services to people in India. Most of these foreign service providers do offer termination in Indian fixed-line telephones as well." The letter, sent on July 13, also said that these service providers do not possess the requisite licence as mandated by the Government of India, thus vitiating the level playing field for bona fide licensees, such as Indian ISPs. "Moreover, such service offering is resulting in loss of revenue to the Government by way of licence fee as well as by way of service tax," said the letter. Senior DoT officials said that they were looking into the issue and would take a view soon. "We are aware of the issues involved. The Government will take appropriate steps, taking into consideration the security concerns as well as the interest of the consumers," said a DoT official. A larger number of Internet users take advantage of the messenger-based telephony services, which offer international long-distance calls at local call charges. The Indian ISPs have pointed to a recent ban imposed on Skype by the South Korean Government for offering voice service without a licence. The ISPs also said that the service could prove to be a threat to national security with no monitoring being done. The DoT had earlier put on hold applications of at least 18 Indian ISPs seeking licence for Internet telephony for allegedly being unable to crack down on grey market operators who were using their network. The Government has been plugging security loopholes in the telecom sector, including the mobile segment and the Internet.