My Opinion

Every customer from a company likes to get something in return for his hard earned money. The chances that you get nothing in return and even get teased if you are a customer from Converge ICT Solutions Inc. is very high. One guy from Converge or one who is only licking on their shoes even asked me why I have a rant against Converge. I have no rant against Converge, I have only a rant against technical and business incompetence, especially if someone tries to tease me. I had a good experience with the Converge field technicians as they try to understand the problems of their customers, but the support staff has no idea about what they are doing. Here can everybody find how service request are getting handled from this deadbeats. They do everything for avoiding to move their own ass and fix their own internal network problems. It looks like that Converge is even not able or does not have the knowledge to fix their network problems.

Before you take a look at the traces I have made, you should understand how they need to get interpreted. Here is the description of the IP addresses shown in the traces:

1. 192.168.1.1 is the private IP address of my home router
2. 10.105.0.1 is the router from Converge, to which the cable modem is sending all the traffic.
3. 202.69.189.77 is a router from Converge where all the outgoing traffic for US and Europe gets routed
4. 10.70.10.33 a private IP address of a router inside the Converge network, which is not answering to pings. For this reason the IP cannot get monitored with standard tools.
5. 202.69.189.177 one more router inside the Converge network on the way for reaching the oversea lines
6. 202.69.188.109 one more router managed by Converge on the way to the oversea lines.
7. 202.69.189.218 the last router inside the Converge network located at the Philippines. This router sends the traffic to Los Angeles/US using the services from Level 3 Communications Inc.

For knowing the way packages are taking you can even take the tool tracert from the Windows command line. The result is looking like shown in the following screenshot:

As we like to monitor only the IP addresses at the Philippines in the responsibility from Converge ICT, we take as last IP their last router with the IP address 202.69.189.218. I have used as monitoring tool the open source software Ping Tracer. Ping Tracer is sending out each second a ping to the routers on the way and shows the time needed until the answer got received and the lost packages (red colored) in a graphic. If you are debugging a network, then you have to start at the nearest router where the lost packages are starting. All other failures can be a follow up from the first router. By respecting this rule you have to search in our case, as the following screenshot is showing, for the problems in the connection from the router with the IP 10.105.0.1 (0.76% packet loss) and 202.69.189.77 (13.9% packet loss). The 0.76% packet loss at the IP 10.105.0.1 can be a result of a tailback of IP packages in a retry queue when the queue is full.

Here the results of such a monitoring, which I have sent to the support from Converge ICT solutions on January 14, 2018:

One day after the above support request got sent, the situation die not get changed. I have sent on January 15, 2018 the next support request to Converge ICT Solution with the values of a new trace:

On January 16, 2018 I got the email response from Converge ICT Solutions, that the "problem got solved". Here a screenshot from the email:

A sign of quality of the Converge support is already the empty link (http://), which shall get clicked to reopen the ticket. As expected is the result from their "work" the same like before. With other words - they have nothing done to solve the problems as the following screenshot is showing. The email got received on January 16, 2018 03:07pm and the screenshot got taken on the same day at 07:50pm:

A nice detail how Converge ICT Solution is how they are scamming their customers. It gets shown, by the following screenshot taken on January 16, 2018 at 04:33am, that Converge ICT Solutions is selling more bandwidth than they are able to handle inside their own network. As at this time normally all people are still sleeping and the network is during this time not really under heavy traffic. So the packet loss at this time is low, but still available. It is the problem from Converge that they have been too lazy for fixing their own internal network and the problems are now falling to their head by making problems for their customers.

A trace back from a server in Austria/Europe shows that not one package at the oversea lines gets lost. The problem is getting found in the internal network structure and the network design. The outgoing routes are taking a different way as the incoming routes. While outgoing routes are passing Los Angeles by using the Level 3 network are taking incoming routes to the users IP addresses from Europe a route from ntt.net and if you like to trace the last IP address 202.69.189.218, where the router sends all traffic to Los Angeles, then the inbound route is taking the routes from hgc.com.hk passing Hong Kong. A OSPF (Open Shortest Part First) seems to be a foreign word for the Converge ICT network technicians.

Summary: If you have the possibility to avoid this Internet provider you should avoid them. Even Internet amateurs are able to bring up better results and a better connectivity.

The largest lie from the service center today has been that an undersea cable got cut in front of Hong Kong multiple times. The problem is only that the routing problems are getting found at the Philippines inside the network from Converge ICT Solutions and not somewhere else.

This fact get shown very simple by reading a tracert (Windows systems) or traceroute (Linux systems). Undersea lines having a longer ping times. And it would make no sense for any Internet provider to register IP-addresses in a foreign country.

The route from Converge ICT Solution to Hong Kong has in common some routers to Los Angeles. So the service staff and managers from Converge hat the stupid idea, that they can sell force majeure to their customers instead of telling the truth to them.

As you can see on the red marked lines in the following screenshots the problem starts between the IP-addresses 202.69.188.109 -> 202.69.189.218 on the Route to Los Angeles, USA, Level3 Network and 202.69.188.109 -> 202.69.178.141 to Hong Kong, Telia.Net.

Here the route to Los Angeles:

The router 202.69.198.218 is really the last router at the Philippines before the undersea cable. But in the following screenshot, the route to Hong Kong, we see the same router with the same IP-address which is before 202.79.198.18. This router has the 202.69.188.109. As 202.69.189.218 makes already problems the failure has to get searched between the routers 202.69.189.218 and 202.69.188.109 in this case.

A little bit more clear is the situation with the route to Hong Kong. There are after the router 202.69.188.109 two more routers cascaded before the data are entering the undersea line. The first one is the router with the IP-address 202.69.178.141 which is forwarding the traffic to the router with the IP-address 202.69.178.54. Both routers are at the Philippines and not one of them gets found underseas:

If an undersea cable got cut on multiple places, then the packet loss is 100% and not like shown in the screenshots 25%. Here we see which deadbeats are working at Converge ICT Solutions.

The first try from the technical support of converge has been to make someone other guilty for their problems - with other words a big lie:

Tsr3 (Converge ICT) Aug 28, 14:42 CST Dear Mr. Faix, Please be advised that we're having a technical issue on our third party which is the main provider of our internet connection. As we verified the main problem causing this is the cables connected under the sea that links to Hongkong is currently on checking. We also receiving many reports same as this issue, rest assured that we prioritize this problem to resolved immediately. Thank you for you patience, Sincerely, Jaypee Technical Support Representative - Regional ( Pampanga ) Converge ICT Solutions, Inc.

The problem from the message above is not only that the content is a lie. The problem is that Converge ICT Solution is the one, with whom I have a contract and who is responsible for the contract. It is their problem if they have hired any subcontractors.

The next lie, which has arrived at my inbox has been:

Tsr3 (Converge ICT) Aug 28, 15:14 CST Dear Mr. Faix, As of 28 August 11:00 am, last update Our International backbone providers are still working on the resolution of the Submarine Cable Cut issue. Multiple fault points have been detected, to wit. AAG: Approximately 85 kilometers from South Lantau Cable Landing Station based in Hongkong. ASE: Approximately 63.5 kilometers from their Hongkong Landing Station. TGN-IA: Approximately 54 Kilometers from their Hongkong Landing Station All of our providers have initiated their repair process. Estimated time of repair will depend on the availability of submarine cable ships, international permits and weather conditions. Thank you for your understanding.  Sincerely, Jaypee Technical Support Representative - Regional ( Pampanga ) Converge ICT Solutions, Inc.

I did not know that from the Philippines is it only 65km to Lantau. The airplane takes a little bit longer than 2 hours. In any case Jaypee has forgotten, that Los Angeles and Hong Kong are not reached over the same undersea cable. I have been thinking that the people at the Philippines are more intelligent, but here we can see, that they are even not able to lie in a way that it sounds believable. If a undersea cable gets cut, then the packet loss is 100% and not only 25%.

Converge ICT Solution promotes at their homepage: "Experience better at home and in the office WITH END-TO-END PURE FIBER TECHNOLOGY". The reality is very different to the promotion. Everybody can see which technical deadbeats they are if they need to use such lies in the case of problems because they are not able to solve the problems. Routing problems and high drop rates are normally at their network.

It looks like that Converge ICT Solutions has big problems by organizing the land transport for a submarine at the Philippines, because they are not able to fix their internal routing problems the whole day. It looks like the only person, who is able to configure routers is on vacations.

A trace done from the other site shows that the international lines from Converge ICT Solutions are not showing any problem and there is no packet loss:

Here is a screenshot from Austria/Europe to the Los Angeles gateway of Converge ICT Solutions located at the Philippines:

It is a bad situation for such deadbeats if they lie to the wrong person!!!

Each provider is using different routes for the case if one drops for the reason of a failure, that the others are overtaking the routing of the traffic. Converge ICT Solutions sees it different. If one route fails, then the others have to stop too.With this system they are only increasing the risk with each additional route that they have a full black out for the case one route fails.

Additional they have increased the bandwidth for the users with the beginning of this month, that the users have now less bandwidth than before, but have to pay more for less. That can get called to be a scam.

Such an amateur Internet provider needs to hide their own routing failures from the public. All incoming traces from the Hong Kong and Los Angeles routes are ending up at the IP address 202.69.188.110. Here an example using the Hong Kong Route:

  1     2 ms     2 ms     2 ms  192.168.1.1
  2     3 ms    15 ms     2 ms  153-108-142-078.ascus.at [78.142.108.153]
  3    11 ms    11 ms    10 ms  asr-2.ix2.vie.at.as39912.net [77.220.110.79]
  4    13 ms    10 ms    23 ms  Vl2699-c76-5.ix2.vie.at.as39912.net [95.143.81.73]
  5    22 ms    21 ms    22 ms  vl72-ae0-mx80-1.ix2.ffm.de.as39912.net [81.94.62.68]
  6    23 ms    22 ms    22 ms  100ge7-2.core1.fra1.he.net [80.81.192.172]
  7    31 ms    38 ms    42 ms  100ge5-2.core1.par2.he.net [72.52.92.13]
  8    52 ms    38 ms    38 ms  flag-as-as15412.10gigabitethernet7-13.core1.par2.he.net [216.66.89.214]
  9   222 ms   222 ms   222 ms  xe-2-2-0.0cjr02.prs001.flagtel.com [62.216.129.173]
 10   222 ms   222 ms   222 ms  xe-0-0-0.0.pjr04.ldn001.flagtel.com [85.95.25.181]
 11   221 ms   232 ms   221 ms  ge-0-1-0.0.pjr01.hkg005.flagtel.com [85.95.27.12]
 12   222 ms   246 ms   222 ms  xe-3-0-1.0.cji02.hkg003.flagtel.com [62.216.129.225]
 13   227 ms   226 ms   236 ms  80.77.1.94
 14     *      275 ms   276 ms  global.hgc.com.hk [218.189.23.198]
 15   274 ms   285 ms   274 ms  202.69.188.13
 16   274 ms   274 ms   275 ms  202.69.188.110
 17     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 18     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 19     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 20     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 21     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 22     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 23     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 24     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 25     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 26     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 27     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 28     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 29     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.
 30     *        *        *     Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung.

Ablaufverfolgung beendet.

The German phrase "Zeitüberschreitung der Anforderung" has the meaning "Request timed out".

You are in a bad situation if you are living in an area where Converge ICT Solution Inc. is the only Internet provider. If your job or project requires a permanent Internet connection then you need to buy additional some additional load from a mobile phone provider, because the Internet from Converge ICT Solution Inc. has most of the time problems. The only thing where they have no problems or which is really functioning is their money collection. For example they are even trying to collect money by using an attorney for a cable TV contract, which has not been functioning and got cancelled for this reason. Such a case has happened to the father of my spouse.

Their actual basic offer is:

For this money, you'll get cable TV, which is only functioning if you are lucky and a very seldom functioning and castrated Internet connection having a private IP address. For example is actual the following connection information show at my router:

Internet-IP-Adresse: 10.45.96.163
Subnetzmaske: 255.255.240.0
Standard-Gateway: 10.45.96.1
DNS1: 202.69.189.140
DNS2: 202.69.165.10

The offered 5 Mbit are only in the internal network available if you don't have any package loss, what has never happened during the last 3 years. Actual is the best situation a package loss of 10% until their upstream provider. Package losses of more than 60% are for Converge ICT a normal situation and not something what needs to get fixed.

An actual trace route to yahoo.com shows the problem:

The bottleneck gets already found at the IP address 10.70.10.2 in this case. Around two yeas ago I have reported this host already and repeated the report a few times. Their only solution has been to turn of answering pings at this host. That I'm not the only one, who has problems with this amateur cable provider, Converge ICT Solutions Inc., gets shown on Twitter under the hashtag #convergeict and #pldtMyDSL.

As Converge ICT Solutions Inc. has so many problems in their Internet connection, I'm monitoring their service from the time I wake up until I'm going to bed again. During the past week their service has not been working before 7:00 am. It is understandable that they need to fix their problems and I have kept myself quiet as I have seen their service trucks in our area. These deadbeats are still thinking that their problems are getting found in the last mile. I have reported them with traces and ping statistics, where they need to start searching for their problems, but they are even resistant against technical facts coming from a third party. Last year on April 18, 2016, during a quiet time on their Internet connection, I have already reported the source of the problems (click on the screenshot to enlarge it):

The screenshot above shows the output from the open source software Ping Tracer, which makes every second a ping to each router on the way until the international connection. The problem gets shown inside the Converge network at the host with the IP 202.69.189.77. 192.168.1.1 is my private router and 10.105.0.1 is the first router in the Converge network. 10.105.0.1 shows during the monitored time 10:16 - 10:41 am not one lost package. During the same time the next router after 10.105.0.1 with the IP 202.69.189.77 had a package loss of 4.1%. Such an defect router can be the reason for any network problems and can result in a blocking the whole network traffic. Also the screenshot shows that the problem does not get found in the last mile.

A similar picture gets shown as yesterday, February 3, 2017, between two longer shutdowns of the Internet connection. Here the screenshot from yesterday showing the time 9:03 pm - 9:29 pm:

With other words, it cannot be what is not allowed. The network engineers from Converge ICT seems to be so much convicted about themselves, that they send out the field technicians for changing the cable modems instead of moving their own ass. The problem still stays unsolved. It does not matter to the lazy Converge network engineers, because only their customers are suffering from their incompetence.

One more fact proves that the problem needs to get searched in the routers or in the upload channels from the cable modems. During one of the visits of the Converge ICT Solutions technicians, he has exchanged the cable modem against one from Motorola. At this cable modem the upload channel can get chosen manually for the case problems are coming up. Some times it really helps to change the upload channel, but that is not a real solution for professional Internet provider. It is only a basal solution, but that fact shows that the problems are coming from a simple overbooking of the available hardware and network.

Here is a screenshot how the problem is normally building up:

The yellow bars are showing the long pings and the red one the package loss to each host. If one router blocks, because he cannot forward a package to the next router, the first one blocks too. The total black out is building up this way. Some times you can solve the problem by simple changing the upload channel and you get an acceptable Internet connection for simple browsing.

It even does not help to chose another offer from Converge because their problems are getting found in their internal network until their upstream provider. So even if you chose their fiber to home package, you'll suffer from the same problems. Not one Internet provider has different networks for their routing for their different offers.

Update 2017-02-03 7:30pm:

The following screenshot shows again a dropped line. For both drops is the staff from Converge guilty. Their stupid staff thinks, that they need to change for all their users the upload channel. The problem is, that all connections are dropping and cannot reconnect for the reason of overloading the network.

Here is a screen shot from the modem settings taken at 06:53:57 pm it shows upload channel 3:

Here the game continues. Every time the connection stops working as the upload channels gets set to 1:

At 07:12:55 pm the upload channel got again set to 1 from remote:

I have set the upload channel at 07:17:11 again to 3 and the connection is working again. From my site, I have to reboot the cable modem after setting the channel. From the remote site the channel can get changed without rebooting the cable modem:

This game has been continuing a few times until the deadbeat at the other end has given up. That are the stupid ideas from some staff in their IT department, who does not know what he is doing. So keep yourself away from such a provider, where the staff seems to get bored and are thinking they have to destroy your Internet connection.

The contact details from Converge ICT Solutions Inc.:
Converge Information and Communications Technology Solution Inc., Yamamoto Building, National Road, Cut-Cut, Pulilan, Bulacan, Philippines, Mobile No. 0933 552 5517

Main office: Reliance Center Annex 1 #99 E.Rodriguez Jr.,Ave. Bo. Ugong Pasig City, Philippines Pasig, Manila 1604 Philippinen

Office Pampanga:
5th Floor Savers Mall Bldg Balibago, Angeles, Pampanga, 2009
Phone: +63.458940100
Email: sysad@comclark.com

https://www.convergeict.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ConvergeICTOfficial/
https://www.facebook.com/HelloAirInternet/
https://www.facebook.com/AirCableTV/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/converge-ict-solutions-inc-

https://twitter.com/Converge_CSU

Domain registration data from convergeict.com:

Domain Name: convergeict.com
Registry Domain ID: 1649832348_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
Update Date: 2016-03-24T15:25:50Z
Creation Date: 2011-04-08T06:36:18Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2025-04-08T06:36:18Z
Registrar: GoDaddy.com, LLC
Registrar IANA ID: 146
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@godaddy.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4806242505
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: Not Available From Registry
Registrant Name: Converge ICT Solution Inc
Registrant Organization: Converge ICT Solution Inc
Registrant Street: 5th Floor Savers Mall Bldg Balibago
Registrant City: Angeles
Registrant State/Province: Pampanga
Registrant Postal Code: 2009
Registrant Country: PH
Registrant Phone: +63.458940100
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax:
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email: sysad@comclark.com
Registry Admin ID: Not Available From Registry
Admin Name: Philip Vargas
Admin Organization: Converge ICT Solution Inc
Admin Street: 5/F SaversMaill Bldg, McArthur Hi-way
Admin City: Angeles City
Admin State/Province: Pampanga
Admin Postal Code: 2009
Admin Country: PH
Admin Phone: +63.458940100
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +63.458940108
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email: pmdvargas@convergeict.com
Registry Tech ID: Not Available From Registry
Tech Name: Philip Vargas
Tech Organization: Converge ICT Solution Inc
Tech Street: 5/F SaversMaill Bldg, McArthur Hi-way
Tech City: Angeles City
Tech State/Province: Pampanga
Tech Postal Code: 2009
Tech Country: PH
Tech Phone: +63.458940100
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +63.458940108
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email: pmdvargas@convergeict.com
Name Server: NS1.METROCONNECT.COM.PH
Name Server: NS2.METROCONNECT.COM.PH
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2017-02-04T00:00:00Z <<<