People all over Pakistan might be having trouble with their DSL connections. The fact that majority of the DSL users belong to PTCL, they might be cursing PTCL due to this problem. It is actually due to maintenance currently undergoing by PTCL.
Actually it is not a problem on PTCL side, PTCL’s link from SMW-4 is currently under planned maintenance activity. It started on 24th July and will end on 29th July providing there is no interference in the maintenance.
The issues that are being experienced by everyone currently exist mainly in torrents, browsing and video streaming. People are unable to download torrent files, in some cases even torrents are not working even though they are downloaded fine. There is no fix for this issue. If you try to download a torrent file, the browser will keep loading forever, sometimes it takes 3 to 5 minutes to download torrent files and even then they don’t work and you get an error “invalid .torrent file”.
Currently, we can do nothing about it. The only way to bypass this issue is to use a proxy. Alternatively, you can try using IDM or Flashgot or any other download manager to try to download the torrent files. It can work or won’t in some cases. If the torrent site has a Magnet link, then you can just start the torrent using the Magnet link of the torrent file.
The other issue is currently with video streaming. Videos won’t stream properly. In our case, we are using 4 MB DSL but still videos are loading very slow and some videos are not even opening at all.
The only advice we can give you is to be patient. This issue is being faced by most DSL service providers in Pakistan. Nayatel emailed their customers about this issue. They have given an ETA of 29th July. You can read the email below.
Dear Valued Customer:
Kindly note that Nayatel(NTL) customers might experience
degradation in Internet services provided by NTL as one
of our backbone service provider ITI, PTCL’s link from
SMW-4 will undergo a planned maintenance activity
This maintenance activity will commence on 24th July, 2011
(Sunday) and is expected to be completed by July 29th, 2011
(Friday), subject to favorable conditions at sea.NTL will be in constant contact with ITI, PTCL for any
expected outage during this activity and will update
our customers accordingly.Video (Cable TV) and Voice(Telephone) services provided
by NTL will not be affected due to this activity of
ITI.NTL apologizes for any inconvenience that you may
suffer due to this activity. Your patience will be
deeply appreciated.Best Regards
Manager
Technical Assistance Center
Nayatel Pvt. Ltd.
Islamabad
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