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Tete-A-Tech

A walk down the Yellow Brick Road of Malaysia's Corridor of the future

by Bernice Low, Malaysia

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The curse of the proxy server, and the continuing tale of TM ineptitude

Dec 4, 2007 15:39

TM Net has done it again. The company somehow manages to piss people off without even trying, and its latest exercise is an example of why TM Net is never going to be a successful broadband and Internet service provider if it keeps going the way it does.

As of yesterday, some Internet users like myself found our outgoing mails blocked from being sent out. The first port of call in such an instance becomes your Web hosting and email provider--since all intelligent Internet users in Malaysia know better than to attempt to ring our Idiot Service Provider...

As of 10am this morning, when I was forced to ring TM Net because my Web hosting and email provider indicated the problem was on TM Net's side, TM Net's Customer Service (provided by VADS, a subsidiary of TM Net) was not able to give me an explanation as to WHY I was having problems. And more importantly, why TM Net was forcing me to send out emails, even on a temporary basis, using a proxy server.

The answer has become apparent, following a service announcement by TM Net on its Web site. (And as my fellow blogger Jeff Ooi notes on his blog, announcing on the day you're implementing is just "plain stupid". I prefer moronic myself, along with a string of other unprintable expletives.)

It's even dumber when your own customer service people are unable to explain the problem to customers or even explain the issue.

Naturally, my prevailing issue with using TM Net's proxy server is that business confidentiality (also cited as a concern in this post at Lowyat.net), indeed, my emails have to go through an organization that I want to have absolutely as little as possible to do with. Hence, when Wi-Fi provider Airzed informed me some time back that I had to use its server to send out emails or the TM Net server, I balked at the thought and simply refused to send out mails when using Wi-Fi on Airzed (one of the reasons I now use Timezone more).

Do I honestly imagine TM Net is going to read my emails? No. But the fact that there is a possibility is what I don't like. And that's all that is necessary to make this idea deeply unpopular with many people.

So what's TM's excuse? According to the service announcement, the blacklisting of a large number of IP addresses from TM's network by anti-spam organisations is causing problems to legit customers, who are unable to send e mails to companies using anti-spam blacklist databases. Hence, the wholesale blocking of Port 25.

Well, I don't buy in. An organization that is actualite about the truth on choking bandwidth could be making up any number of porky pies about anything else. Besides, there are plenty of ways around this problem surely?(whitelisting, anyone?).

So I am not persuaded that the ISP is doing what is best for the collective good, and my suspicious mind aside, I hope this is not an ill-disguised attempt to get us all to give up our own Web-hosting/email providers and migrate to TM Net's services.

Watch this space as developments on this issue unfold.

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About Bernice Low

Bernice Low is a screenwriter and pen-for-hire. At age 11 (in the era of BB--Before Blog) Bernice started her own newspaper, the Daily Jelly. It lasted two days before she was stopped from using school newsprint supplies for frivolous activities. She loves Cartoon Network's Bill and Mandy, has a thing for TV doctors House and MacDreamy, and is the proud owner of a 32-inch flat-screen TV. She believes diamonds and iPods are a girl's best friend. Her blog is her latest guilty pleasure.