Going online with Wateen WiMAX

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Asim Imtiaz

Wateen has recently launched its WiMAX services for Home Users in Karachi. I had been looking forward for WiMAX operations to start in Karachi for a long time now. After the launch, I decided to check them out.

Wateen offers very attractive packages for both Internet and its telephony services. Their website has a list of all packages and payment options they offer. Check there website out at wateen.com for more details.

I studied their packages and decided to go for their 512 kbps internet connection. As I also required a phone line so their bundle package was the one I was interested in. I registered myself using their website some days back, but got no response so I decided to visit their franchise.

I got to the franchise in my locality and had a chat with the representative. He explained me the whole process, how it is going to work and also gave me a demonstration on a setup that was deployed there in their office. The browsing and everything seemed quite good, so I opted for it. I filled in the form for a new account that night.

Next day, a person arrived at the door-step. He had brought all the equipment – Ethernet cable, WiMAX modem, etc. and setup the connection. With-in 30 minutes all was up and running. I checked it out, and things seemed to be going smoothly. I paid him the amount and he handed me the rest of the items including account details. I got the telephone number too. Things have been running pretty smoothly since then.

The WiMAX Device / Customer Premise Equipment (CPE):

Wateen provides Motorola WiMAX router that hooks up to their network. The router is pretty straight-forward with 4 ethernet ports and 2 phone jacks (RJ-11). You can hook a normal telephone set with the router to use their telephony service.

The phone line is going like normal, no delays or anything of that sort. Call quality is good and you would hardly notice any difference then using a normal landline.

Signal strength plays a major role is deciding the quality of service you would be getting. Luckily, at my place the signal strength is full – hence I should expect no problem with the service. So far, so good.

The router runs a DHCP server over the subnet 192.168.15.x. It provides internet connectivity by becoming a NAT device (ofcourse). Over here, at my home, I have changed the subnet to match my network’s – 192.168.1.1 – and I have disabled the DHCP server on the WiMAX router. I have a WiFi network at home, and I am using the WiFi router’s DHCP server instead. It doesn’t much effect me anyway, as most of the terminals here have Fixed IP addresses.

The WiMAX Router (CPE) Administration – Screenshots:

Let’s take a peak at the Motorola WiMAX router provided by Wateen, for those of you who are techies and would like to see the inside — here are some screen shots:

1. Router WiMAX Main page:

2. Router Signal Strength:

3. Router – Advanced Settings:

Getting Online through Wateen WiMAX

Once everything is setup and hooked to your computer. You need to start your browser for accessing the Internet. The first time you open your browser or try to access the Internet — wateen’s network needs you to authenticate yourself. This is done by the CISCO EDGE Subscriber Gateway (assumingly running RADIUS). In simple terms, when you try to access the internet, you need to authenticate. The following screen automatically pops up asking you for your account credentials:

Once you login successfully, the screen does not bother you again till your modem gets out of sync for a longer duration. This login is a one-time activity after every long disconnection (my assumption is that the session times out after 2 hours of being offline from wateen’s network).

The internet is going pretty smooth and delivers the promised speed. So far so very good. I have been enjoying the Internet at a speed of 512kbps. YouTube videos run smoothly with almost no lag. Browsing is blazing fast. Download runs consistently on ~60-65 KBps.

More updates on Wateen’s service would come as time will pass. Check back soon.

 

 

 

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