After being tired of overcharging by my PNPL LCO, I wanted to switch to something else as PNPL was not only expensive (2500 a month for 200Mbps), it also performed terribly in international speeds.
I decided to try out Powernet which is provided by a LCO called Supernet in my area. I will list all their quoted plans below:
1 month unlimited package
500 installation
30mbps 650
50mbps 820
75mbps 1000
100mbps 1200
3 months unlimited package
Installation 300
30mbps 1650
50mbps 1950
75mbps 2460
100mbps 3000
100 mbps unlimited plan
1000/1month
2700/3month
4920/6months
9840/12months(installation free, only device security 500 refundable)
(12 months promo offerGet 200mbps instead of 100mbps)
300 mbps
1000 installation
1800 1m
4500 3m
8000 6m
14000 12m(free installation)
Plans sound pretty cheap. As I wanted a replacement for PNPL I decided to go with their 300Mbps plan costing 1800/month.
Installation went easy, a single strand outdoor rated fiber comes to my home where it is terminated at a gray box). A more thin and flexible yellow wire comes out (fiber is fused with fusion splicer) of the gray box which is plugged into the ONT. I used my own ONT which I had lying around (Syrotech GEPON 1000R) so I only had to pay 1000 for the installation. While I currently don’t have a screenshot of the power it was acceptable at -24dBm last time I checked.
DNS Hijacking is present on Powernet atleast on Carrier Grade NAT. This can be shown using DNSTraceroute farrokhi/dnsdiag
As you can see the DNS Server is only one hop away which obviously isn’t possible. Compare this to my TriplePlay connection:
So, if you don’t want Powernet to intercept your queries, use Encrypted DNS!
Like most smaller ISPs or newer ISPs, Powernet uses Carrier Grade NAT. I’m given a static IP in 172.28.100.0/24 range (private IP). This is bad if you want to seed torrents, host something that must be publicly available; some games also don’t like Carrier Grade NAT.
There is also MAC Address authentication to prevent anyone else from using your IP.
What makes this worse is that my LCO has told me that he will only provide public static IP on “company proof” and even then, its Rs.300/month! That’s an insane price for a static IP.
Like with most local ISPs, customer support is done through LCO rather than directly. So this will vary vastly from LCO to LCO. So, I’m not talking about it here. As for reliability, I haven’t had any downtime for the few days I have had the connection though if any significant downtime occurs I will update below.
Every speedtest and traceroute is done on wired connection (Gigabit LAN).
Here are some traceroutes:
CF Routing is messed up on TATA and Powernet has no peering with CloudFlare.
IBF:
My EU Server:
Google DNS:
Powernet is very reliant on that TATA uplink. There isn’t any significant hourly packet loss I could detect from Smokeping.
Ignore the downtime, its because power went out too long.
While Powernet is indeed better than my pile of shit PNPL connection in terms of international speeds. Its closer to 200Mbps on my 300Mbps plan. This makes 300Mbps Powernet plans hard to recommend. However, you will likely reach full speed on 100Mbps plans or below on international servers.
Steam reaches 23-24MB/s which is around 200Mbps.
Pros:
1. Decent international speeds (provided you are below or at 100Mbps plan)
2. Cheap plans
3. Cheap installation
Cons:
1. DNS Hijacking
2. Refusal to provide public IP without "company proof" and costing 300 Rs/month
3. Not able to get 300Mbps on peered servers (close to 280-290Mbps).
I decided to try out Powernet which is provided by a LCO called Supernet in my area. I will list all their quoted plans below:
1 month unlimited package
500 installation
30mbps 650
50mbps 820
75mbps 1000
100mbps 1200
3 months unlimited package
Installation 300
30mbps 1650
50mbps 1950
75mbps 2460
100mbps 3000
100 mbps unlimited plan
1000/1month
2700/3month
4920/6months
9840/12months(installation free, only device security 500 refundable)
(12 months promo offerGet 200mbps instead of 100mbps)
300 mbps
1000 installation
1800 1m
4500 3m
8000 6m
14000 12m(free installation)
Plans sound pretty cheap. As I wanted a replacement for PNPL I decided to go with their 300Mbps plan costing 1800/month.
Installation:
Installation went easy, a single strand outdoor rated fiber comes to my home where it is terminated at a gray box). A more thin and flexible yellow wire comes out (fiber is fused with fusion splicer) of the gray box which is plugged into the ONT. I used my own ONT which I had lying around (Syrotech GEPON 1000R) so I only had to pay 1000 for the installation. While I currently don’t have a screenshot of the power it was acceptable at -24dBm last time I checked.
DNS Hijacking:
DNS Hijacking is present on Powernet atleast on Carrier Grade NAT. This can be shown using DNSTraceroute farrokhi/dnsdiag
As you can see the DNS Server is only one hop away which obviously isn’t possible. Compare this to my TriplePlay connection:
So, if you don’t want Powernet to intercept your queries, use Encrypted DNS!
Carrier Grade NAT:
Like most smaller ISPs or newer ISPs, Powernet uses Carrier Grade NAT. I’m given a static IP in 172.28.100.0/24 range (private IP). This is bad if you want to seed torrents, host something that must be publicly available; some games also don’t like Carrier Grade NAT.
There is also MAC Address authentication to prevent anyone else from using your IP.
What makes this worse is that my LCO has told me that he will only provide public static IP on “company proof” and even then, its Rs.300/month! That’s an insane price for a static IP.
Customer Service/uptime:
Like with most local ISPs, customer support is done through LCO rather than directly. So this will vary vastly from LCO to LCO. So, I’m not talking about it here. As for reliability, I haven’t had any downtime for the few days I have had the connection though if any significant downtime occurs I will update below.
Every speedtest and traceroute is done on wired connection (Gigabit LAN).
Traceroutes:
Here are some traceroutes:
Code:
Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. DESKTOP-MR5T1CK.mshome.net 0.0% 54 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.5 0.1
2. 172.28.100.1 0.0% 54 1.6 1.2 0.4 3.7 0.6
3. 103.139.60.1 0.0% 54 4.0 2.9 1.6 10.4 1.4
4. 10.100.8.49 0.0% 54 2.8 2.4 1.5 5.4 0.7
5. 219.65.112.233.static-delhi.vsnl.net.in 0.0% 53 3.7 2.7 1.6 15.9 1.9
6. 172.31.180.57 0.0% 53 41.1 42.1 39.2 65.6 4.6
7. ix-ae-4-2.tcore1.cxr-chennai.as6453.net 7.7% 53 37.8 37.1 35.9 55.4 2.7
8. if-ae-13-2.tcore1.svw-singapore.as6453.net 0.0% 53 151.4 152.0 149.8 169.7 4.3
9. if-ae-36-2.tcore1.tv2-tokyo.as6453.net 7.5% 53 154.9 154.0 153.0 163.4 1.5
10. if-ae-2-2.tcore2.tv2-tokyo.as6453.net 0.0% 53 151.3 150.5 149.6 156.5 1.0
11. 180.87.181.187 0.0% 53 157.7 159.7 155.4 205.3 9.2
12. one.one.one.one 0.0% 53 153.2 152.6 151.8 154.6 0.6
IBF:
Code:
Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. DESKTOP-MR5T1CK.mshome.net 0.0% 9 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.0
2. 172.28.100.1 0.0% 9 1.1 1.3 1.0 2.0 0.4
3. 103.139.60.1 0.0% 9 2.4 2.6 1.7 3.2 0.5
4. 10.100.8.41 0.0% 8 1.6 2.1 1.6 3.5 0.6
5. 219.65.112.233.static-delhi.vsnl.net.in 0.0% 8 2.6 2.8 2.2 4.8 0.8
6. 172.31.180.57 0.0% 8 40.5 41.2 40.5 43.0 0.9
7. ix-ae-4-2.tcore1.cxr-chennai.as6453.net 0.0% 8 38.0 39.0 37.2 42.8 2.2
8. if-ae-13-2.tcore1.svw-singapore.as6453.net 25.0% 8 150.9 153.7 150.9 166.0 6.1
9. if-ae-36-2.tcore1.tv2-tokyo.as6453.net 0.0% 8 154.5 154.9 154.3 155.6 0.4
10. if-ae-2-2.tcore2.tv2-tokyo.as6453.net 0.0% 8 151.5 151.8 151.0 153.0 0.6
11. 180.87.181.187 0.0% 8 157.6 159.7 157.0 166.8 3.5
12. 104.28.2.57 0.0% 8 153.4 153.3 152.7 154.3 0.5
My EU Server:
Code:
Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. DESKTOP-MR5T1CK.mshome.net 0.0% 6 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.1
2. 172.28.100.1 0.0% 6 1.2 1.4 0.9 2.6 0.6
3. 103.139.60.1 0.0% 6 2.6 2.4 1.5 3.1 0.5
4. 10.100.8.41 0.0% 6 1.5 2.5 1.4 4.7 1.3
5. 219.65.112.233.static-delhi.vsnl.net.in 0.0% 6 2.1 2.5 1.8 3.4 0.7
6. 172.23.183.134 0.0% 6 28.9 28.7 27.9 29.7 0.7
7. ix-ae-0-100.tcore1.mlv-mumbai.as6453.net 0.0% 5 28.4 29.9 27.9 35.1 3.0
8. if-ae-2-2.tcore2.mlv-mumbai.as6453.net 0.0% 5 154.3 154.9 154.0 156.6 1.0
9. if-ae-12-2.tcore1.l78-london.as6453.net 75.0% 5 156.6 156.6 156.6 156.6 0.0
10. if-ae-2-2.tcore2.l78-london.as6453.net 50.0% 5 155.1 155.0 154.9 155.1 0.1
11. if-ae-15-2.tcore2.ldn-london.as6453.net 0.0% 5 147.3 153.3 147.3 176.1 12.7
12. ldn-b5-link.telia.net 0.0% 5 154.0 154.2 153.7 154.9 0.5
13. ldn-bb4-link.telia.net 0.0% 5 156.7 159.7 156.4 171.3 6.5
14. adm-bb4-link.telia.net 0.0% 5 156.8 156.8 156.0 157.7 0.6
15. adm-b6-link.telia.net 0.0% 5 152.9 153.3 152.9 153.8 0.4
16. leaseweb-ic-308104-adm-b3.c.telia.net 0.0% 5 156.3 156.3 155.9 156.6 0.3
17. 81.17.35.183 0.0% 5 153.0 152.9 152.3 153.3 0.4
18. po-1.ce18.ams-01.nl.leaseweb.net 0.0% 5 152.4 152.7 152.4 153.0 0.2
19. andy10gbit.is.rollin 0.0% 5 152.7 152.9 152.4 153.3 0.4
Google DNS:
Code:
Host Loss% Snt Last Avg Best Wrst StDev
1. DESKTOP-MR5T1CK.mshome.net 0.0% 3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 0.0
2. 172.28.100.1 0.0% 3 1.2 1.0 0.9 1.2 0.2
3. 103.139.60.1 0.0% 2 1.9 1.9 1.9 1.9 0.0
4. 10.100.8.37 0.0% 2 2.7 2.5 2.3 2.7 0.3
5. 72.14.205.145 0.0% 2 2.1 1.7 1.3 2.1 0.5
6. 74.125.244.193 0.0% 2 2.1 1.9 1.7 2.1 0.3
7. 172.253.67.95 0.0% 2 3.0 3.1 3.0 3.2 0.2
8. 8.8.8.8 0.0% 2 2.2 2.5 2.2 2.8 0.4
Powernet is very reliant on that TATA uplink. There isn’t any significant hourly packet loss I could detect from Smokeping.
Ignore the downtime, its because power went out too long.
Speedtests:
It cant even get 300 to its own servers!While Powernet is indeed better than my pile of shit PNPL connection in terms of international speeds. Its closer to 200Mbps on my 300Mbps plan. This makes 300Mbps Powernet plans hard to recommend. However, you will likely reach full speed on 100Mbps plans or below on international servers.
Steam reaches 23-24MB/s which is around 200Mbps.
Pros:
1. Decent international speeds (provided you are below or at 100Mbps plan)
2. Cheap plans
3. Cheap installation
Cons:
1. DNS Hijacking
2. Refusal to provide public IP without "company proof" and costing 300 Rs/month
3. Not able to get 300Mbps on peered servers (close to 280-290Mbps).