Previously, the only method is to load funds via your direct debit setup which has a processing time of 5-7 working days (although on many occasions ends up taking 9-12 days).

This new method of adding funds, via online baking, lowers this time to 1-3 days. What an improvement!

Unfortunately the feature was disabled a week later due to technical issues. The funds were taken from peoples bank account and reached Paypal, but Paypal were unable to trace the payments correctly and assign them to the correct accounts. They officially said that they’d return the payments within 10 days if they couldn’t work out whose account the funds should be accredited to. However, as in our case, 15 days passed and they hadn’t returned the funds to our bank account. I imagine they’ve earnt quite a bit of interest on all those payments sitting in limbo.

What would have been nice is if Paypal had contacted us to let us know there was a problem, rather than leaving us waiting and wondering when the funds would show up in the Paypal account. It was only because we called them that we found out about the problem.

Although they provide this service for free, they make money by redirecting incorrectly typed domains to their search page which includes Google ads.

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What is DNS?

Basically, DNS translates domain names like Google.com to IP addresses like 64.233.189.103

Every time you visit a site via it’s domain, a request is sent to your ISPs DNS server asking for the IP address. Your computer then caches that information for future reference.

Benefits of OpenDNS

In most countries, using your ISPs DNS server will be quicker than using those run by OpenDNS since your ISPs server will usually be much closer than those ran by openDNS. However, in some countries, such as the Philippines, the ISPs have a hard time keeping their DNS servers up. You can sacrifice a little bit of speed for long term stability and uptime. Some ISPs in the Philippines (e.g MyDestiny) have already given up trying to run their own DNS servers and push openDNS DNS server IPs out to all customers.

It amazes me how many businesses I’ve spoken to in metro Manila who’ve experienced long periods of downtime with their connection and don’t know what to do. In most of these cases, the connection isn’t really down, only their ISPs DNS server is. Even if you’re not willing to rely solely on openDNS, you should add one of their servers as a secondary point so that if your ISPs DNS server goes down, it will fail over to openDNS.

Other benefits of openDNS are their blocking features. You can block certain categories such as proxies, pornography, social networking sites(facebook) and such like. This is ideal for businesses that want to block some content from their employees without having complicated network hardware.

Another option for speeding up internet browsing or to access blocked websites is to use a philippine web proxy which includes smart compression techniques and such like.

OpenDNS irony

I was reading a post on the openDNS blog about Google and Dell installing spyware on peoples systems, written by CEO David Ulevitch. What is ironic here? Mr Ulevitch has placed a link in the post to Zwinky.com which installs the MyWeb toolbar which of course is known to be one of the hardest to remove spyware applications out there! It’s one thing to sell a link on a businesses blog but to link to the very thing you’re meant to be arguing against… how ironic!

Most of the products sold by CDR-King are generics which they’ve re-branded. The good news is that most generics are sold so wildly that they generally get support for most operating systems. Although it’s worth noting that the product may not work exactly the same as it would on a Windows OS. For example a webcam may well work in Mac but it might not give access to the same full set of features of high quality picture.

Since the product is unbranded, the first thing to do is look through the manual and see if it includes a model number which hints towards the true maker of the hardware. If you have no luck with this then plug the device into a Windows computer and look in the device manager for the manufacturer and model number. Once you find out what the product is, search on Google for a Mac driver.

To date I’ve tested the following products from CDR-King which have worked fine on my Macbook (Mac OS X):

We have around 40 monitors from LG. They’re all the same model, LG L1753S. After just one year, 5 of them developed large faults. Four of them would no longer turn on and another had a horizontal line of dead pixels. All of the monitors are hooked up to their own dedicated UPS (battery backup with built in surge protection) so I don’t think the issue is with power spikes.

Since all these units were just outside of the 1 year warranty period given by the shop, I wasn’t too hopeful for these units. However, since such a large percentage of the units had failed, I thought I’d try go direct to LG, so I sent an email through to LG.

They replied the next day and said we actually have a 3 year warranty direct with them!

Good Morning!

Hope your doing well today!  We are very to heared  it from you, but dont worry we do home service and your unit has a 3 year warranry upon the date of purchase, kindly inform us at 9025544 and give the following informations:

Name
Tel#
Address
Model#
Problem

After calling and supplying them with the above information, they arrived at our offices a few days later, armed with soldering guns and other tools. They immediately fixed 3 of the 4 units which wouldn’t turn on, which (in their words) had ‘bulging capacitors that needed replacing’. They say the forth unit needs a new power supply and the unit with the line of dead pixels will need further equipment.

So far I’m happy with the support given by LG. Sure, there’s most likely a known fault with this model (based on the fail rate) but still, it’s nice to see they’re quick to come out and fix them.

Two inherent problems with ISPs in the Philippines seem to be poor connectivity to other parts of the world such as the United States, United Kingdom and Europe. The second problem which seems to cause a lot of downtime is poor DNS servers. The problem is, most of the time people think their connection is down when in fact the only problem is a dead DNS server!

If you’re running a business where internet uptime is crucial then you should seriously consider setting up an internal DNS server such as BIND9 and using a free DNS service such as openDNS which is spread over multiple servers worldwide to avoid downtime.

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Snippet reviews

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Eastern Telecom ISP – We have a leased line with Eastern Telecom. I personally wouldn’t recommend using them. For what you get, they’re quite expensive. They perform traffic shaping and port blocking, even on leased lines! If you need a big upload then you may have little choice but to consider them but otherwise I wouldn’t make them your first choice.

PLDT ISP- The best value for money! PLDT are one of the fastest providers and their rates are very reasonable. My main gripe with them is that their DNS server is always failing. Luckily we run our own internal DNS server.

Update Jan 2010: Apparently even the president of the philippines has shown an interest in promoting and improving PLDT!

Bayantel ISP- Although it can be a bit up and down, the connection is generally okay. My experience with them is that they oversell their capacity so it can get slow during peak hours. On the whole, Bayantel is a cheap and cheerful offering.

Sky Broadband ISP - One of the newer players to the field and what a winner. Very quick and very reasonably priced. Although they still seem to be getting to grips with professional installation, the quality and speed of the connection is very good.

My Destiny ISP – MyDestiny are in my opinion, the worst ISP in the Philippines. The speed of the connection is very poor and during peak hours you can be waiting a minute or two just for the Google homepage to load! They perform the oddest traffic shaping I’ve ever seen. Unlike other companies like Eastern Telecom who apply their traffic shaping to bulk traffic (torrents),  mydestiny traffic shape HTTP sockets! So general web browsing is penalised while torrents which open many sockets continue downloading very quickly. You can increase the speed of your HTTP downloads by using a download manager like ‘downloadthemall‘ which opens multiple sockets at once.

Lets hope that the next president of the Philippines will push for even greater internet connections!

Blue BPI Express Cash Card

The BPI Express cash card (or gift card) is essentially a prepaid credit card. You have all the benefits of a MasterCard credit card, such as country wide acceptance at all major stores and In addition to this, you have the knowledge and safety that you can only spend as much as you loaded onto the card. So it’s impossible to go on a wild shopping spree and spend more than you have, running up a huge credit card debt.

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What can I use the card for?

The card can be used anywhere you see the MasterCard logo. Practically every retail store, restraunt and large business will accept this card.

Is this a credit card? Will I run up a debt?

This is not a credit card! But it gives you the benefits of a credit card. You can use it anywhere you see the MasterCard logo but you can only spend as much as you loaded onto the card, similar to a prepaid cell phone. If you load 500 PESO onto the card then the maximum you can spend is 500 peso.

Are there any charges for using the card?

The only charge associated with the card is an application fee of 150 PHP. There are no monthly or per purchase fees.

What’s the point in having a card, why not use cash?

Cash is great for smaller purchases and quick transactions but its much safer to carry a card around. If the card is lost or stolen then you simply have to pay a small fee for a new card. If your cash is lost or stolen then there’s no getting it back. It also serves as a useful tool for monitoring or controlling yours or your loved ones spending habits.

Who would use an express cash card?

These cards are ideal for a number of users. If you’re worried about your children carrying cash around with them, give them a BPI gift card, load it up and send them off. If they loose the card then you can apply for a reimbursement of what was left on that card*. Another ideal use is for temporary employees or contractors.

What’s the difference between a BPI express cash card and a BPI gift card?

The difference between these two cards are minimal but worth noting. Both cards have the same application fee(150PHP) and carry the MasterCard logo.

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How do I load funds onto the card?

Luckily BPI have made it easy for anyone to load funds onto the card, whether you’re the card holder or you’re just trying to load funds on to someone elses card. You can load cash via any BPI ATM, any BPI or BPI Family branch, or via your Globe/Touch mobile service.

How do I apply for the card? What are the requirements?

You do not need to have an existing BPI bank account to apply for an Express Cash or Gift card. You simply need to visit any BPI branch with two forms of ID and pay the application fee. The card will be created and available for pick-up within 3-5 days.

*You must wait a minimum of 90 days before applying for reimbursement of any money which was on the lost card. A service fee will be charged by BPI.