I have moved to a new location a couple of months and I wanted to shift my Airtel broadband connection to the same as I was very happy with the same, but Airtel could not provide the connection at the new location as they did not have empty slots in the new location.

Even BSNL broadband had a long waiting time but Reliance broadband was readily available hence I took up the Reliance broadband connection this service is known as reliance broadnet and here are my views regarding the same.

Which type of Reliance broadband connection?

Reliance provides various broadband connection via Ethernet, wireless WiMax and the good old DSL connection, I opted for the DSL connection as I also wanted a phone line with the same.

How do you apply for the connection and how long will it take?

The silly thing about Reliance is that the way they work is too confusing for the end customer, I went to the nearest Reliance Webworld to get the broadband connection and was told that they do not provide DSL connection and its dealt with another department,  luckily the sales guy gave the number for the customer rep who deals with these connection, after calling the rep he was there in my house in about 50 mins, the rep explained me the plans that are available you can  also check the various post-paid packages at this reliance page, BTW the pricing of plans listed on the website are wrong it’s a lot cheaper than that,  The customer rep took a cheque of Rs 500 as an advance, and promised the connection would be provided within 3 working day, to my amazement  the connection was provided in about 2 working days later I came to know that reliance already had a box in our building, with the new connection a telephone instrument and a ADSL modem (UTSTAR) the required splitter was provided.

Broadnet Performance, Support and Connectivity

The silly thing about reliance broadnet is that you need to login to the portal before you can browse the internet, using the portal you can also view the data usage, billing etc.  The installation guy gave me the required logins and some support numbers and left BTW you can use a direct button that is on the handset and it directly connects you to support.

One thing good about the reliance broadband connection was that its very fast even faster than the aritel connection that I had, I was pretty happy with the connection for the first 2 days and then I faced the first problem, remember you need to logon to the reliance portal before browsing and you need to logout after you are finished, now don’t get me wrong sometimes would forget about logging out.

One day early morning after entering the login it was giving me authentication error I called up customer support and they just said that they need to reset my password as the connection session might have locked, I agreed and they reset my password the support staff lady told me that I can logon after 6 hrs, I was shocked as I needed to do some urgent work the support staff told me there system works in that way and nothing can be done, later I was able to logon after 2 hrs but  I had learnt my first lesson not to call up support staff as they don’t know much and they just reset your password for any problem that you might have.

Some Problems

I have started to face this authentication error message every morning and the easiest way to fix the same was to shut off the modem for 30 minutes and then logon and it will start working I had complained regarding this a couple of times but it still happens every day I guess there login portal does maintenance during that time and just logs you out, there is also one more issue if you keep your connection idle it logs you out automatically I did not time it but it’s around 1.5 – 2 hrs.

I also faced DNS issues with reliance for almost one week and I had to use a local dns server during this time as the support was helpless BTW during this time even BSNL broadband had similar DNS problem so I think so that problems was at the backbone, I also figured out that reliance does not like you to put these connections via WiFi routers sometimes the login page just wont come if you use a WiFi router, I figured a way around the same and I use my WiFi router with this connection but I just don’t get it why do they sometimes try to block you out if you use a router.

Speedy and fast connection

Apart from the portal login problems the connection is very fast I guess this is due to the reason Reliance owns FLAG, and the pings that I get on this connection is was better than Airtel or BSNL broadband, for example I get a ping of around 180 – 200ms with this reliance connection and with airtel and BNSL I get around 290 – 330ms on a game server that I frequently use also one thing to note about the is connection is that even during day time the connection is pretty fast and you get more or less the promised speeds.

Regarding billing I have received proper bills nothing of excess biling I guess I played pretty safe and opted for the 600kbps unlimited plan they also take Rs 50 extra for the phone line provided but you can make STD or local calls for that amount.

Conclusion

So will I recommend the reliance broadband connection it’s a yes and a no story if you need 100% uptime then I guess If you have Airtel broadband in your area I would say go with that, Airtel is a stable connection and there support is top class, don’t get me wrong about reliance broadnet is not a bad connection but I just don’t like there portal system that logs you out at times and sometimes if you are in need for some urgent work you might be in a difficult spot.

I can understand the use for this portal and login system for tracking usage for data bound or time based broadband plans, but they make use of the same even for unlimited data plan is just crazy in my opinion, personally the problem that I am facing with this connection is that due to their portal login system which sometimes will refuse to connect hence I am forced to go with a connection of BSNL broadband as a backup as I just can’t wait for a couple of hrs so that the login system would allow me in.

UPDATE :  June 2009

I have been now using this reliance broadband connection for well over a year and have upgraded to the 1 Mbps Unlimited plans and can defiantly say that this connection is one of the best in the terms of speed and uptime, you always get the promised speeds, even during peak business hours, the login issue has also been improved a lot and I hardly get the problem these days many be once in 15 days.

The only issue is that it still doesn’t play nice with wireless routers, it works 90% of the time but on a few occasions will not show you the login page when you are using a wireless router.

I have found a way around this and that required to mod your router with a custom firmware like DD-WRT and adding Set Vendorclass  as MSFT 5.0 under Service Management, also I found out that this connection doesn’t play well if you primary operating system is Linux.