Internet

Indian Paypal users mostly small merchants, freelancers, independent software developers and hobbyists are dismayed by Paypal’s unprofessional way of halting transactions to India. It did not give a formal notice or any direct information to its users. This can least be expected from a company as large as Paypal.

What PayPal users wish was that Paypal could have atleast informed them before a transaction was being done or an alert to every Paypal user. However, Paypal only informed when the user was unable to send or receive the payment and later tries to contact the customer support.

Contacting customer support, one gets a canned reply as follows:

Personal Payment – Send Money for India Accounts
• India customers are no longer able to see the option to send a Personal payment on the Send Money page • They can continue to use other payment options, such as eBay checkout.
If this was a payment for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then you may contact the buyer and have him or her resend the payment as follows: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.
If this payment was a personal payment, such as a gift to a friend or family member, then we request that you find another payment method until we restore personal payments to and from India.
Although India customers are unable to send Personal payments, they are still receiving Personal payments from Non India customers.
• In order to stop ALL Personal payments TO and FROM India accounts, we have started reversing Personal payments sent by Non India customers starting today. (the only exception will be in cases where the buyer has included a shipping address – we don’t want to delay any shipment of goods)
• Emails will be sent to both sender and recipient to let them know why the money was returned and what options they have to proceed forward. (see attached for examples)
• We are also in the process of implementing a change on the website to automatically stop the payment from processing, rather than waiting to reverse the payment. We will send you additional updates as soon as we have more details.
The Personal payment option on the International Send Money page has been updated and India has been removed from the ‘select a country’ drop down list.
• If the payment was for a purchase of goods or services, and not a personal payment, then the buyer may resend the payment to the seller by following these steps on the PayPal website: (a) click the Send Money tab, (b) select ‘Goods’, and (c) provide a shipping address.

Looks like PayPal was unable to resolve questions or submit documents requested by Indian Regulatory Authorities
PayPal has always been an issue for Indian users. Many Indian credit cards are just blocked by Paypal stating it is not valid when an user tries to add his credit card to the account.

A new service called AlertPay has been started which is much similar to PayPal with all its features. I guess its time to move on to another provider rather than hoping for the least concerned Paypal to resolve its issues.

Based on data from comScore World Metrix audience measurement, it was found that out of 18.3 million Spanish internet users, 8.4 million visited online newspaper sites. This would mean 46 percent of the total Spanish online audience. Read the full story

Airtel allows free Internet for prepaid customers when you activate Airtel Live. Using this free connection, you can also browse on your computer or laptop following the procedures below:

Things you Need

1. Airtel Live Activated [Its free - Call up the Airtel Customer Care for Instructions or send MASALA ACTIVE to 121.
2. A Mobile which has data connectivity to your computer
3. Data Cable
4. Mozilla or Opera browser

Once you activate Airtel Live, Airtel would send you the settings which you should save. If not, check in your Data Account or Access Point on your phone if the following is set:

Sony Erricson:
gateway : 100.1.200.99
apn : airtelfun.com
username : blank
password : blank
pass req : off
allow calls : automatic
ipaddress :
dnsaddress :
data comp : off
header comp : off

Internet Profiles
internet mode : http
use proxy : yes
ip address : 100.1.200.99
port : 8080
username :
password :

Nokia

Connection name : airtel free
data bearer: gprs or packet data
access point name: airtelmms.com
authentication: secure

Advanced Settings
proxy server address: 100.1.200.99
proxy port number: 8080

Test: Try browsing on your phone to check if Internet is working.
You are almost done!

Now connect your mobile to your computer and set up a dial-up connection using the following settings:

1. Control Panel > Network Connections > New Connection Wizard > Click Next
2. "Connect to the Internet" > Click Next
3. "Setup my connection manually" > Click Next
4. "Connect using a dial-up modem" > Click Next
5. Enter ISP Name [ AirTel] > Click Next
6. Enter Phone Number as *99***2# > Click Next
7. Username, Password should be empty > Click Next
8. Add shortcut to desktop > Click Finish

Now, try connecting to Internet using your mobile. You should be able to browse on your computer!!

Journalists who landed for Olympics were surprised to know that most of the popular websites were not working inside China. That even included Wikipedia. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) came under severe criticism for allowing Chinese officials to hold on to their crazy censorship.

International human rights activists have raised their voices on this issue. They have mentioned that censorship of internet during Olympics is a violation of basic human rights and have requested for an uncensored internet access.

Though the restriction to Chinese citizens has been imposed for years, it has recently become an international point of discussion due to the Olympics and the journalists. Initially BOCOG, Chinese Olympic Organizers and the International Olympic Committee IOC stated that they would lift restrictions. However, it turned out to be no good as it was just partial.

The Chinese government has removed few sites from its ban and has blocked sites categorized as “against national interest” or “seditious”. Journalists still have difficulty accessing their company sites or their high secure servers. China has broken its promise of providing an unconditional internet access to sports journalists.

It would sometimes be a pain to call up Tata Indicom customer care to come home and sort out whats gone wrong with your Internet connection. You can expect them at your doorsteps every morning till you make the payment but do not dream after that.

Remember that since this is a wireless connection, there are very low chances of the signal getting interrupted from the Tata Indicom WiMax station. Nine out of ten the issue would be due to the computer or wireless receiver at your end. How do we check if the signal is being received and the signal has good strength? Please follow the steps below to check it yourself.

Read the full story

Things to know before installing Tata Indicom WiMax Internet Connection.

WiMax from Tata Indicom [VSNL] is gaining popularity as its wireless and has good reception. However, there are also issues from Tata Indicom Wi-Max users that signal fluctuates often and that the signal is dead many times a month. If you have an issue connecting to the internet 80 percent reason could be that there is low signal or the signal is null. To check this out you would have to call the customer support and this can be a pain.
Read the full story

Miles and miles of cables lie in the sea connecting continents and passing through various seas and oceans. It is a great task having these cables laid in the bottom of the sea. These same cables are used to also transfer telecommunications.

Early sea cables during the 19th century were made of iron and later replaced with steel wire. These cables were wrapped in India rubber and had multi-stranded copper wire at the core.

However, all the modern cables laid in the sea are made of fibre optic technology and are usually 69mm in diameter and are pretty heavy. Around 10Kg per metter. These carry digital payloads.

Read the full story

Though Internet has become faster during recent years when compared to half a decade ago, it’s still not fast enough to watch a movie online or play a game online.

Boffins from Bangor University in Wales, has devised a method to increase the broadband speed by over hundred times the present rate. This technology if proved successful can download around fifteen full-length movies within a minute.

Dr Jianming Tang, from the Bangor University believes that this technology would revolutionize the internet industry completely making high-definition movies, computer games and video-conferencing much faster and reliable.

This device would look like a external modem which would have its input from the broadband and the output to a computer. The technology would be compatible with any existing fiber optic technology.

Internet has been disrupted in India, Egypt and Gulf Arab countries. This is due to a ship accidently cutting down on the international undersea cable network on Wednesday near Alexandria, in Egypt’s north coast.

It is estimated that it could take several days to restore the network and as much as 60% of the Internet users in India could be affected.

Though the extent of impact cannot be determined on the IT industry, Egypt’s telecom ministry said 70% of the country’s Internet network is down.

Rajesh Chharia, president of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of India, informed Reuters that “There has been a 50 to 60% cut in bandwidth.” Read the full story