#Dubai Internet Alerts - All the old stuff from the Alerts Page and other archived material. Dubai, U.A.E.

OLD ALERTS
Press the RELOAD button on your Browser to see the latest Updates. Last updated 19 April 2001

Topic: (Moved to the OLD ALERTS page from the #Dubai index page on 19/April/01)

#Dubai Undernet has been basically occupied by Hackers, Crackers, DOS perpetrators, call them what you may.
The story in detail here. 27/Jan/01

Has Bahrain's BATELCO's Internet Services been ~~hacked~~ cracked? Or are they just having problems like our beloved Etisalat had. Apparently all passwords are down and users can log in for free, - instructions of BATELCO - by using user= user , password = user . (23/Aug/00)

Could it be true? Are Net2Phone, GotoCall, InternetPhone, Delta3, DialPad and perhaps others - UNBLOCKED - now by Etisalat? Try em out. We heard Net2Phone is working. Unfortunately HotPhone- used mostly to call India - is not. Too much $$$'s at stake allowing India calls. Hope they have been ORDERED to allow this and that it's permanent, and not just a firewall problem :) (21/Aug/00)

“The issue that is still to be resolved is whether the IT infrastructure will be bolted onto the telecoms platform provided by Etisalat or whether it will connect directly into global networks.” He adds that unless the direct global option is adopted, attractions of the DIC to a number of international technology companies would be limited. (21/Aug/00)

We wandered into DUBAI.COM to see what they were up to. Real pity that all they do is link directly to archived articles from Gulf News and other news services. They are directly related to Dubainews.com (sharing the same IP address) though registered to Universal Artists Inc. in Sharjah. (21/Aug/00)

UAE Domains. Back in early March we gathered over 1,500 domains registered relating to the UAE. A little rummaging around has now expanded that list to over 6,000. The List is here in txt form. (19/Aug/00) For interest we add in the service which tracks the number of domain names registered worldwide - 72 million or so of which about 20% or 14+ million are active. It also shows about 20,000 domain names ending with .ae. One would expect these to be resolving IP's though. Any one has any idea how many actual .ae domains are registered? On a lighter note:- If only company profits followed the trend in this graph! (21/Aug/00)

Just for fun we took a look at what Server www.emirates.net.ae was running by using the facility at netcraft.com and this is what came back: www.emirates.net.ae is running Netscape-Enterprise/4.0 on Solaris. Could be wrong though for any of these reasons. (19/Aug/00)

ADSL is now about to complete its 6th month of the 3 month Commercial trial period. It is still available only for home use. Offices are not given connections. Perhaps the "testing period" is based on profit projections? (13/Aug/00)

Want to see how absurd the proxy blocking parameters have become? Go to CNN.com and search for a 4 letter abusive word starting with F. Now go to Altavista.com and do the same search. The criteria appears to be that during a search, if the unwanted term is the LAST word in the URL, the proxy blocks it. If not, it allows it. Grow up guys - Please! (13/Aug/00)

For all those that have come to find this page devoid of human interest, we hope to bring a smile to all. The #Dubai chat channel sees its second romance coming to fruition when hayati marries n|xx on September 3rd. The first wedding was back on June 10th between Softman and gurly. Both pairs met in #Dubai where the relationships blossomed on IRC chat. (8/Aug/00)

After waiting patiently for a week, the large newspaper adverts announcing a saving of Dhs 200 - meaning a free internet connection - from Aug 1st to 31st - still has not appeared on EIM's home page or on Etisalat's What's New page. Perhaps the Webmaster is on Summer vacation or just busy enjoying the Summer Surprises! (7/Aug/00)

Wonder who copied who's layout! Cybergear's Feb 2000 registered DubaiCityGuide.com vs. Globalvision Online's June 1997 registered LondonTown.com :) (09/Jul/00)

Sheikh Mohammed's Website Website has gone through a much needed redesign - the opening page size is finally manageable and makes navigation much easier and more user friendly. Good work guys. Well done. (08/Jul/00)

Tejari.com - The business-to-business e-exchange venture Tejari.com - sanctioned by Sheikh Mohammed mid April 2000, initiated by the Dubai government, implemented by the Dubai Port Authority - and headed by Ms. Lubna Al Qasimi (Director) - should come to full life by years end. An interesting development envisioned by Sultan bin Sulayem (Chairman and M.D. of DPA and JAFZ) and brought to fruition by Ms. Qasimi - a UAE National graduate of California State University with an IT degree (1981) and head of DPA's IT department. Definitely the way things are supposed to be going. (08/Jul/00) BTW - the site is hosted with Oracle Corporation in California - and not with EIM (09/Jul/00)

Qatar's QTel - Although the quite hilariously scandalous circulation of Account names and passwords of Qatar's QTel's customers on CD in February was well known in the region, what wasn't well known was the way Qtel didn't respond to those that warned them about what was happening, then threatened legal action against those same frustrated people who exposed the scandal publicly - for "causing Qtel acute embarrassment." Although of course we see no parallel in what Etisalat is doing now, it makes for an interesting story on how huge giant corporations bully people to keep face. (08/Jul/00)

So, is the report shown below, from this afternoon, testing the time taken for the emirates proxy server to respond - a result of hacking still continuing?
The remote server which you have contacted is slow to respond compared to previous benchmarks. The server took 8.80 second(s) to respond to your request. (29/Jun/00)

Etisalat Hack Themselves.

This resulted from at first blatant outright lies of "it isn't our problem, it's your hardware or set up," changing soon to "there was a technical problem with our servers which will be fixed any time."

Then it progressed to the explosive press release of 21st June, followed by the pathetic email of 22nd June, etc. etc., then the system stuttering again over the weekend, one could not be faulted for seeing this as a disgraceful attempt by Etisalat to camouflage their gross inefficiencies by targeting what is fast appearing to be a scapegoat.

The full story as reported by us and the local and foreign press. In depth #Dubai Article 28/Jun (28/Jun/00 - Last Updated - 4/Oct/00)

We sincerely apologize that the Alert below was not posted last night when it was ready for posting. The reason being that the FTP service through Emirates Internet was so slow that we had to finally abandon trying for the night. And this was after the so called hackers were arrested. Anyway, it is all in the local newspapers this morning. (21/Jun/00)

It appears the KUNA (Kuwait) news service has carried forth a press release from Etisalat that a European Hacker, which the report says is employed by an International IT company, has been arrested in the UAE for Hacking into the Etisalat System for at least the past 2 weeks, and causing Denial of Service attacks which caused problems for many users. This is our best effort at translating from Arabic a first release, so please understand there may be inaccuracies. If the report is true, be assured it will be linked to the terrible service connecting, and the absolutely horrendous delays at the proxy server for the past week or more. (20/Jun/00)

Etisalat puts out a News Letter for its customers called Al Tawasul. These have been running since sometime in 1998 or so, and some later editions are up on their web site now. At the bottom of the last page of each edition, they have stated this:

Dear Customer,
Your opinion matters to us. Kindly mail your comments to: The Editor, Al Tawasul, ( Marketing Dept. - HO ) P.O.Box: 3838 Abu Dhabi. or fax them to 02-324499. Alternatively you can e-mail us at custserv@emirates.net.ae (Attn. Customer Relations).
Hope they give you a reply if you contact them. (1/Jun/00)

Dial and Surf rates were never reduced. Did anyone notice they are still Dhs 9/hour? (31/May/00)

Just a reminder for those of you who haven't seen it yet, the Higher Colleges of Technology's live web cam overlooking the Abu Dhabi Corniche. (31/May/00)

Click Here for a web page within Emirates Internet that you will be seeing a lot more of ! Also since we found it so difficult to locate a link to the Terms & Conditions and Acceptable Usage policies, we post direct links to them. (28/May/00)

Can you believe it says this: The Proxy Server solves the problems of network congestion's, slow response times,
and control over network resources without burdening end users. (28/May/00)

The advertisers on Emirates Internet's home pages appear to be 0/00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 - themselves :)
and others: 1 2 3 4/5 6 7 8 9/10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
(28/May/00) updated (6/Sep/00)

Although Emirates Internet have not made their WHOIS server accessible to its customers yet, they have put up some detailed pages on domain name registration with the AE ending. Although their page on Registering a name allows for 2 letter names like www.ab.co.ae , their web page to check the availability of this does not allow less than a 3 letter name. By the way the Yearly Fee is UAE Dhs. 200, or about 50% more expensive than registering a dot.com or such. (28/May/00)

Emirates Internet & Multimedia's Arabic Pages - ArabVista - in Arabic - so you need Arabic Fonts to see what's going on. Announced early May 2000. (28/May/00)

Al Shamil High Speed Internet Service offers download speeds up to 384 KBPS and upload speeds of up to 128 KBPS.
* No dial up, "Always On" Connectivity
* Unlimited Internet Usage
* Fixed Monthly Subscription

A one-time installation charge of Dhs.200/- is applicable.
Al Shamil Service is priced at Dhs 380/- per month for unlimited Internet usage.
This price includes the DSL line and the modem rental. No additional equipment is necessary.
A six month subscription package is also available at Dhs. 1900/- ( a Dhs. 380/- saving).
You can still access the Internet from the Emirates Internet Dial Up Service from any other location at the Standard Emirates Internet usage charges

Service U.A.E. Dirhams:
Installation charge (one time) 200.00
Monthly subscription 380.00
Six months subscription 1900.00

Etisalat launched its Emirates Internet and Multimedia (EIM) unit - a customer-process unit with a separate logo. They have taken over the Emirates Internet home page and the Customer Care home page. Apart from their new logo, there is no information about the new company on their site yet.

EIM have said they will offer subscribers a connection to their Al Shamil facility over a 24 hour link to an ADSL platform.

EIM said they will pre-select clients for the -one to three- month trial period, and will charge a one-time fee of Dh100 and Dh380 monthly for an access modem of 384 kilobytes per second.

They said: In the UAE our customer base experienced exponential growth in the past three years. Our current 130,000 Internet subscribers represent around 500,000 users - the highest in the region," Naim said. Al Owais expected e-commerce to overtake the traditional economy by 2003, and said Etisalat is prepared to meet the challenge and help make the UAE a regional e-commerce hub. (6/Mar/00)

Article: (Moved to the OLD ALERTS page from the #Etisalat Charges too much page on 18/Nov/00)

Emirates Internet are reducing their Internet Rates effective May 2000
(still no reasonable Unlimited Access Plan)
Emirates Internet announced on their website today (17-Apr-00) the following new rates:
Dhs. 1.80/- per hour peak
Dhs. 1/- off-peak
Things are looking up :)
Sheikh Mohammed puts a noose around Etisalat's neck. With the strong public statement by Sheikh Mohammed:
"Etisalat should reduce its Internet subscription rates, which should be the lowest worldwide."
Will Etisalat still be prepared to defy what is inevitible?
Quoted from Gulf News (8/April/00)
The Alerts pages threw up a tasty titbit of a possible HUGE rate drop starting the first week of April 2000, which turned out to be an early April Fools scam. Juvenile, but effective. (1/April/00)
Update on ADSL (11/Mar/00)

Etisalat has by far, the best Internet infrastructure in the region. By overcharging their customers, they have made the UAE miss out on the chance to be an Internet superpower, just the way it has become a trading post for the world. If the community had cheaper access, Internet would have flourished not just as a source of profit for Etisalat, but, as commercial source of income for the country.

We now have over 100,000 subscribers. Does that mean Internet is flourishing? A 16 year old in the US can create better sites than we do. Just look at Etisalat's own website as an example! The reductions in rates recently were really too little too late.

Finally, and only late last year, we have online shopping in UAE (pathetic though it still is). The sites are hosted on servers abroad. Why? Is Etisalat either too expensive or too unreliable for them?

We are not just talking about access plans, but how Etisalat views Internet in general. It should not be a cash cow. It is a way of life. Let us in on it, and we will be good at it.

The response so far to Etisalat's own survey (survey is no longer active) showed a majority of subscribers (75% as on 23/Jan/00) favour a flat charge. (Update - vote altered by Etisalat to show less replies - 29/1/00)

In spite of this, Ahmed Faisal Al Dosery, Etisalat's public relations Manager, appears to try and squirm out of accepting the result by saying "the poll is not scientific and reflects the opinion of only those Internet subscribers who have chosen to participate."

Etisalat has a facility to email all its subscribers to ask them to participate on such a vote. Providing feedback on a Subscriber Plan preference could easily be considered less of Spam than outdated virus information or the Dubai Center for Special Needs broadcast to Emirates Internet's master email list.

"Etisalat is now monopolising, but this cannot stay for long. Etisalat also has to be clear and very quick in putting together a new schedule of costs so that a wider range of people can have easy access to the Internet" (Abdul Rahman G. Al Mutaiwee, Director General, DCCI, K.T. 23/Jan/00)

We have been told that these pages are a bit too dry.
When you have been regularly shelving out Dhs.6/hour (US$1.64) for years, then find out that rates are reduced to Dhs.3/hour but still no reasonable Unlimited Rate Plan has been implemented, how much humor can be expected?
For a more lighthearted and in-depth look at Internet in the UAE, try the extensive #Dubai pages.

Emirates Internet Have reduced their Internet Rates effective June 1999 but still no reasonable Unlimited Access Plan

So were we all excited about that reduction in June 1999?
Of course we were.
We were tired of being bled dry.

Etisalat's proxies are not getting any faster. If you find your browser getting stuck at the automatic proxy, the usual get around for this is to use the manual proxy of either proxy1.emirates.net.ae or proxy4.emirates.net.ae on port 8080. As an inside tip for those of you who take the time to read down to this fine print, the fastest undocumented proxy today is 194.170.163.3 on port 8080 (3/July/99)

Anyone been noticing the banner of CareerEmirates.com popping up on various web pages especially in hotmail. They do it by knowing the usual proxy server IP's used by Emirates users, and targeting their hits to those people. A great Strategy to use, and much better than some of the other companies in the UAE that have begun spamming our mailboxes. Best of luck guys :) (18/Jun/00) .... Actually further testing revealed the banners actually target the country you have used as your location in hotmail's options. (29/Jun/00)

We congratulate maktoob.com run by the Amman based Business Optimization Consultants for topping the Arabic Websites' list in a survey published by alexa.com - for the month ending May 2000 (from a Gulf News Article 11-June-00). Our research shows ayna.com (Boston,MA,USA) was higher in the rankings (759th worldwide), and emirates.net.ae at 936th on the list at the end of April 2000. Other high rankers are arabiaonline.com (Amman,JO) planetarabia.com (Ithaca,NY,USA) and naseej.com (Riyadh,SA). (11/Jun/00)

If you don't count the past weeks terrible service connecting and appalling bottlenecks at the proxy, together with the route to the US often being down, since there were no major new alerts for some days here's a little titbit of what we see as a list of proxies from the busiest to the least busiest:

194.170.168.8 , 194.170.163.9 , 194.170.163.8 , proxyd.emirates.net.ae, proxya.emirates.net.ae , proxy4.emirates.net.ae , proxyf.emirates.net.ae , proxy3.emirates.net.ae , proxyi.emirates.net.ae , proxyh.emirates.net.ae , proxye.emirates.net.ae , proxyj.emirates.net.ae (28/May/00)

Have you been noticing how browsing has been relatively fast, but any direct IP to IP connections, such as retrieving POP emails directly (say using Outlook), FTP uploading/downloading, and similar, has been excruciatingly slow? The reasons could be simple. Emirates Internet is short of Bandwidth. Interactions through the Proxy servers use the Optic fiber cable, which so far is still quite fast, whereas direct links (IP to IP) go through the much slower MCI Satellite link. With ADSL now using up more bandwidth than ever before, expect delays every afternoon during the heaviest load period (12noon to 6pm). Do not expect a solution soon though. With the launch of lower internet rates from May 1st, things could get ugly!

On the same note, the proxy.pac you use to connect to the proxy server for browsing is really getting to be a pain. Switch to a manual proxy. Nine times out of ten it is much much much faster. (27/Apr/00)

About 10:30am Monday morning, an admin of Emirates Internet kindly visited this alerts page and saw the open proxy in the alert below, and immediately blocked all sites through the proxyj.emirates.net.ae . It is nice to know you visit our page so often Etisalat :) (24/Apr/00)

Quite strangely proxyj.emirates.net.ae on port 8080 for the past few days will let you go anywhere :) Expect it to close up soon though, since Etisalat Admins check here all the time :) (18/Apr/00)

A Democratic Discussion Group on U.A.E. - Haven't seen anything that candid and open before. Worth a look. (12/Apr/00)

The Al Shamil ADSL service is now operational. This was the email they sent to some of their customers. They have assigned the following about 4000+ IP addresses for present.

*** Resolved 195.229.192.1 to aaa001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.193.1 to aab001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.194.1 to aac001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.195.1 to aad001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.196.1 to aae001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.197.1 to aaf001.alshamil.net.ae-
*** Resolved 195.229.198.1 to aag001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.199.1 to aah001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.200.1 to aai001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.201.1 to daa001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.202.1 to dab001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.203.1 to dac001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.204.1 to dad001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.205.1 to waa001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.206.1 to wab001.alshamil.net.ae
*** Resolved 195.229.207.1 to wac001.alshamil.net.ae

It appears those who were selected were sent an email asking if they would like to subscribe. (8/Apr/00)

Perhaps since it is 1st April 2000, we may safely assume that one of the webteam pulled it over us. Appears there will be no reduction in Internet rates. Not Yet Anyway :) (1/Apr/00)

So, can it be true? Etisalat, under tremendous pressure, appear all set to drop their Internet Rate from sometime during the first week of April to a flat Dhs. 1.80 per hour. (30/Mar/00)

ADSL's official testing period is actually NOT YET over, although their advertised 3 months period is over. However you can apply for your connection now for your RESIDENCE ONLY and join in at the unlimited rate and unlimited wait. Listen up - you'll have to get the form (only a photocopy for now which does not contain the terms & conditions you are expected to have read) and only from the Main office in Deira as other offices will give you a totally blank look when you talk about DSL or Al Shamil. Don't bother calling customer services, they will get mad at you for asking about something they do not know. Here is a likely scenario :)

Call 8005244 - they will tell you emphatically and confidently to call 2221555 (Commercial section)
2221555 will tell you indignantly that it is not their section and to call Internet Sales at 2022365
2022365 (Ahmed Haji - Supervisor Internet Sales) phone will not be answered even after ringing for 30 minutes.
Then try 2022842 - Internet Sales - no answer.
Call 8005244 again and tell them you will not call their again suggested 2221555 and the next suggested 2022365. They will draw a blank so;
You call 2249999 - Customer care - to be told they cannot help you, the customer, since they are only customer care and are only to help for other things (whatever those other things are who knows!)
So you try the main switchboard 2228111 - a young lady will try her level best to help, and after suggesting you to call 8005244 then 2022823 (dead tone) then 2221555 then 2022365 (Ahmed Haji the supervisor- no answer) - she will get frustrated at the people around her for not being able to give the right information. She will hand over to someone else who will also try and ultimately transfer you to someone who will get mad and slam down the phone.
So back to 2228111 - which is really switchboard operations, and surprisingly they will begin to enjoy the game and stay good natured as they realize they can't really help because the phones were not being answered by the relevant departments, or the people in departments like the help desk (8005244) and more importantly Customer Services(2249999) just are not in the know yet.

So ultimately you trudge by foot enjoying the hot summer breeze back to the Main office which sent you initially on a wild goose chase and you speak to Mr. Majid at the GSM/Internet counter. Not by phone but in person. Get the photocopy of the form, fill it in, and viola. Best of Luck :) (17/Jun/00 - revised 18/Jun/00)

Though it was announced a while back, there is so little coverage being given, that we would like to mention Sheikh Mohammed's Awards for the Best Website Design. (7/Mar/00)

Etisalat's censors get some sense and unblock members.aol.com which by the way now redirects to hometown.aol.com :) (7/Mar/00)

The rumour mill seems to have let us down. Here is what Etisalat leaves us with for the Dubai Shopping Festival. (1/Mar/00)

Changing your password for Emirates Internet is quite an experience. The restrictions are quite unnecessary:
1.The new access password should be EXACTLY EIGHT alphanumeric characters long.
2.DIFFERENT from old access password and email password as well as user Id.
3.Consists of letters and numbers ONLY.
4.Contains at least TWO numbers
(1/Mar/00)

The rumour mill has spewed forth a tasty titbit. Etisalat may be giving the Dial Up rate of Dhs1/hour during DSF. Any objections? (26/Feb/00)

Emirates Internet block this complete site: http://members.aol.com/ which is probably one of the biggest sites on internet! (14/Feb/00)

It's quite funny when Emirates Internet restricts access to one of its own sites :) (31/Jan/00)

Etisalat tweak the vote for a flat rate charge to alter the results. In their statement to the press on Sunday 23 Jan, they indicated over 1,500 responses to this vote. This was verified by us a few days back. This morning we find the number of responses has been lowered to 1393. Almost 200 votes have been removed. (29/Jan/00)

With the Internet City in the pipeline, and competitor ISP's sure to be allowed, it is rumored that Etisalat is planning a spin off company to take over it's ISP hosting services in order to remain competitive, something they cannot do at present because of the size of their appetite. So, hopefully good news for us. Would be nice to have some more news on this when it becomes available. (22/Jan/00)

Etisalat have finally obtained their new Net Block: 213.42.0.0 - 213.42.255.255

At present they are using basically nda???.emirates.net.ae as the resolving address. (18/Jan/00)

Strong rumors are out that all the connections, PORTS, going out of the UAE Internet will be blocked. You would only be able to see the Internet through the proxy. Than means you can't use any Internet Phone, Chat, ICQ, etc., anything connecting to anything else without going through the proxy. Some group chatting and message software can work with proxies but that means that Big Brother will selectively allow and disallow the ones they want. It appears at first glance that they are targeting people who are using AOL, CompuServe and other providers which you can subscribe to and browse from here without any blockage. This change will effect all Leased Line (ISDN) connections as well; that means EVERYBODY in the UAE will go through the proxy. So if you feel its a bit slow, it won't be just a feeling it would be a fact.

This rumor is real strong. As far as we know, they are testing it already, and are going to implement it very soon. Big Brother in fact right now does not have a firewall, and for sure, they are going to implement one soon from the main router. (10/August/99)

Learn more about how Dubai will be the Internet hub of the region at EMIX's web pages. (10/August/99)

You may or may not be aware that Etisalat are looking to introduce Cable TV by the end of this year. The disappointing news is the answer to their question #5: Is there any plan to offer Internet as a part of Cable TV services?
As we progress, the Cable TV services will be enhanced to offer best value to our customers. however, there are no such immediate plans to offer Internet on the Cable TV network. (5/July/99)

Etisalat introduce a reasonable size limit on messages allowed to reside in your mailbox of 5MB. They further introduce an extremely useless and unreasonable time limit of retrieving unread mail of 30 days. Why restrict the time you are allowed to keep unread mail in your mailbox? Once they've limited the amount of space given to you as 5MB, they should allow it to be used as we see fit. (26/June/99)

Oh Brother! Of Course we all got this (Keep Emirates Internet Clean). What can we say. At least they try? (26/May/99)

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep Emirates Internet a clean and safe place to surf, we are kindly request you to bring to our notice any content and web sites that are:
- Illegal, defamatory, of malicious intent or copyrights violatory
- Against basic human, religious, moral and ethical values
- Inaccurate, unsuitable or offensive
- Pornographic nature, sexually explicit or otherwise offensive and in violation of indecency and obscenity laws.
Please help us to keep the Internet a safe place for Emirates Internet Subscribers. Please, report such sites to: watch@emirates.net.ae . Emirates Telecommunications Corporation - Etisalat

So, we suppose now we are now forced to email them to block this site:
http://www.emirates.net.ae/em_newtariff.html
as unsuitable, of malicious intent, against basic ethical values and otherwise offensive.

Blocking sites From Mr. A.F. Al-Dosery, Manager, Public Relations, Etisalat, Abu Dhabi.
We refer to the letter "Inform Etisalat" from Mr. H. Kumar (Gulf News, May 8)".
We thank Mr. Kumar and all Gulf News readers for their sincere understanding of Etisalat's efforts in attempting to provide a safe and decent environment for the Emirates Internet. Our national obligation dictates that we protect our society from any contradictions to the religious, social and cultural values of our society. (We totally agree with this)

On the other hand, we do have an e-mail address where our general public can report any suspected sites in need of blocking. Good (genuine) sites, which may have been blocked by mistake, will also be unblocked following verification by our Internet department. REALLY ??? READ THIS.

Finally, Etisalat frequently sends broadcast messages inviting the public to take part in informing Etisalat of any undesired site (A Blatant untruth. We have NEVER EVER in the past 3 years EVER received such a broadcast message from Etisalat) and reporting the same to the designated e-mail address (the Email address watch@emirates.net.ae is being mentioned by them, in our records, publicly for the first time) or call the Internet help desk. As more and more undesired sites appear every day, we agree with Mr. Kumar that perhaps we should increase our broadcast messages to inform the public as well as intensifying our efforts in identifying, verifying and blocking of these sites. (Interesting Mr. Kumar receives a reply in 2 days when supporting Etisalat, yet weeks pass and no reply to people asking them for answers to genuine grievances).

The rumor started today that Etisalat have been compelled to reduce their internet charges from forces beyond. What we are hearing is a reduction by half to Dhs 3 per hour. Can it be true ? (26/Apr/99)

Did you know that dedicated ISDN lines do not go through the proxy server? (17/Apr/99)

Using an ISDN external modem. Read this. You could be getting less than you expect. (23/Mar/99)

Etisalat have advertised a tender in the UAE papers for ADSL modems. Do you know what that means! We do, and will put up some more info shortly. (15/Dec/99)

Receiving mail the last few days has not been too bad compared with sending it. Really, Sending mail has become a pain. The mail server mail.emirates.net.ae takes it's own sweet time acknowledging a connection attempt. Often the fastest way to send mail is to cancel a send and resend it again. Busy network? Overloaded? Upgrade? Whatever. We pay and frown. (16/Oct/99)

A few days ago, one may have noticed that some search engines were showing millions of sites found for "BAD WORDS" such as "sex" but the actual listing showed none. Apparently this was a test in progress. A test similar to the sort we mentioned about on 25th August that banned any home page URL starting with a ~. So, what is this all about? Apparently as follows: It appears Etisalat are looking to allow access to the WWW by turning the concept of free access on its head. Well, upside down is the best analogy we can think to use. It appears they are actively toying with the idea of banning ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, and then having a database that only allows access to sites they deem unobjectionable. Problem solved for them. They will then attempt to cover their cost of developing this firewall and maintaining the allowable database by selling this whole package to ISPs that have to follow similar sets of guidelines they do.

What does this mean for us? It means every time you hit a banned site, which will be most of the millions of sites not in their new Database, you will have to email watch@emirates.net.ae and request them to add it to their acceptable database. At present this takes about 3 to 7 days to accomplish. With the new method, and literally thousands of requests a day, one cannot even think of guessing how it will be done. So much for http://www.eff.org/ :) (8/September/99)

The Customer Care site of Emirates Internet, http://cc.emirates.net.ae/ gets a nifty new look. Well Done Customer Care! (19/August/99)

netname: AE-GULF-940407 inetnum: 194.54.0.0 - 194.54.31.255
descr: Provider Local Registry, UUnet gulf, AE
Khalid Lootah, Unisun Technology, PO Box 55755, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
phone: +9714 662764 fax-no: +9714 681926 e-mail: lootah@uugulf.ae
http://www.ripe.net/lir/registries/allocs.html

A hack attempt through ICQ into a private network may have resulted in the rumor of specific ports being blocked, but sense may prevail.

It appears the rumor of 10th August that all the connections, (PORTS), going out of Emirates Internet would be blocked surfaced after what seemed like a hack attempt that was stopped by chance before any intrusion was made. These things are always going to happen and hopefully this episode will be resolved sensibly and maturely; like maybe an investment into a personal firewall instead of a multi million dollar Emirates Internet firewall system! (29/August/99)

So here's the deal with hotmail. It only doesn't connect properly when logging in using a manual proxy for the http setting and not using a proxy for the Security setting. All OK now once one understands the reasons. Either use the Auto Proxy setting in your browser, or specify the same manual proxy for the Security setting. (30/August/99)

Feel like cursing? Hotmail is not connecting again. It looks like the problem may be in the route from here through to Hotmail, with a break occurring at 216.33.153.68 , incidentally an EXODUS.NET IP which is part of hotmail. The only cure might be a flood of complaints to Hotmail's help section. Basically the URL http://lc1.law5.hotmail.passport.com/ is the problem. (28/August/99)

A new type of proxy block appeared recently, blocking what is said to be an: "unlisted personal web page" which appears to target web pages of the format http://www.website.ext/~personal-name/. Could this mean that each and every personal web site visited now has to be checked for content before it is unblocked? A scary thought. (25/August/99)

ISDN slows to a crawl again. Funny, FTP works fine. So guess what's to blame. The Proxy servers? Yup! :( (17/August/99)

Looks like the route to bbnplanet.com via Emirates Internet's emix.net.ae router through NY City is up again. The bottle neck may be over for now :) (8/August/99)

Everything down to a crawl? The best IRC server to use right now is SaltLake.UT.US.UnderNet.Org (207.173.16.33) on ports 7777. Also phoenix.az.us.undernet.org seems to be working OK. It appears Emirates Internet have had to change their route to the USA to now go through Hongkong as opposed to their New York server and BBN Saturn. This appears to be temporary, and hopefully not permanent, but only time will tell. Anyway, this is the reason for everything being so slow. (31/July/99 - a.m.)

195.229.0.65 (dxb-r2-atm64-5-0-0.emix.net.ae ok)
202.84.224.21 (s5-2a.yck05.hkt.net ok)
205.252.128.232 (f0-1.tmh08.hkt.net ok)
205.252.130.82 (a5-0-1.yck05.hkt.net ok)
205.252.130.207 (f5-0.hk-T3.hkt.net ok)
202.84.128.254 4(hssi8-0-0.paix-T3.hkt.net
157.130.193.133 (Belongs to UU.netNo rDNS)
146.188.147.226 (119.ATM3-0.XR1.PAO1.ALTER.NET verifying...)

inetnum: 202.84.224.0 - 202.84.251.255
netname: HKT-HK
descr: Hongkong Telecom
country: HK
31/July/99 - a.m.)

This may or may not make sense to you. There are people in the UAE who are running scanners that scroll through all addresses one by one, looking for the open port 31789 on your computer. Obviously there is some sort of backdoor program being spread that allows access from there. Emirates Internet Administrators basically have shown they don't care about it happening. The following emirates internet users have been seen trying to use it:
alkazrji@emirates.net.ae Cyber Cafe Abu Dhabi (11/July/99) adel79@emirates.net.ae abudhabi.ne.mediaone.net(24.128.60.87)-probably a UNIX shell account being used by a UAE user. (22/July/99) hatemm@emirates.net.ae alobad10@emirates.net.ae (26/July/99)

We came across this interesting advert from Emirates Airlines offering " Dubai ... Hongkong shopping ..... Caribbean Sun ..... The perfect Holiday blend ..... From only US$ 22 " Imagine that ! Wonder what it's all about ! (10/July/99)

Today saw a terrible day for connections to Internet. Although the Internet dialup connections didn't get cut, every 10 minutes or so, all movement would cease for a minute or so. All active connections would stall or be cut. Extremely irritating, and no advance notice or revelations from the help desk. (6/July/99)

Of course everyone knows there are some Emirates Internet run Arab Newsgroups. Does anyone post to them? (5/July/99)

Customer care's 8th option now allows you to see your Internet bill online. Up to today it is showing till the end of June's bill. Not bad ! (3/July/99)

Summer Surprises promotion from Etisalat again gives free installation for your Internet connection. Savings of Dhs 200 between July 3rd and 14th. (3/July/99)

Came across this old article: "The backbone of Etisalat's Internet services will comprise a combination of Sun's high performance Enterprise 450 workgroup severs and its Enterprise 4000 high availability servers. All system are powered by Sun's Solaris, the industry leading UNIX operating system. Training, integration and consultancy will be fulfilled via Sun's authorised distributor, Gulf Computer." (30/June/99)

Comtrust, the new E-commerce business venture from Etisalat, plans to introduce E-commerce services in the UAE in October 1999. Comtrust is leading the E-Commerce initiative in the UAE and the region and plans to provide its infrastructural services for UAE to become the IT hub in the region by the fourth quarter of 1999. Their mission statement which is a bit hard to understand, is "To provide an end to end secure and trusted E-commerce solution as one window operator." (30/June/99)

Etisalat start a new Internet Customer Care page. It's password protected where you need your Emirates Internet password and user name. The background layout looks like this. (19/June/99)

Recently for some reason the new proxy server email.emirates.net.ae :194.170.2.28 Port 8080 , works. Interestingly 194.170.163.3 on Port 8080 is a proxy used by the Emirates Internet Admins! (5/June/99)

An Administrator of Emirates Internet from Etisalat graced our web page and #Dubai with a visit. Read the logs here.(31/May/99)

Probably a record for a supposed Institute of Learning, The American University of Sharjah's web page has now been under construction and unchanged for over One year! My Word! (31/May/99)

Etisalat have a new offer up. Did you know? Buy one, Get one free! Valid till June 3rd.(15/May/99)

Anybody been hearing of Etisalat having purchased expensive new hardware in view of setting up a firewall to block access to specific ports in their battle against Net2Phone and Iphone and other such similar software? They appeared to be testing on Friday 16/April/99. This would mean they could then block Ports instead of just IP addresses. Anyone understand what is going on? (17/Apr/99)

Dubai's IP addresses Blocks 194.170 and 195.229. are about used up. Whoever tells us 1st what the new IP Block is gonna be, gets a Snicker Bar from us. (25/Mar/99)

Topic: (Moved from the dubaichat front page to the OLD ALERTS page on 31/May/00)

INTERNET RATES EFFECTIVE June 1999:
Register: Dhs. 200/- Install: Dhs. 100/- (optional) Monthly: Dhs. 20/-
Peak Dhs. 3/hour (6am-1am)
Off-PeakDhs. 1.80/hour (1am-6am)
Dial 'N' Surf Dhs 0.15/minute or Dhs. 9/hour.

Auto proxy of emirates is http://proxy.emirates.net.ae/proxy.pac
proxy.emirates.net.ae 194.170.1.8
proxy1.emirates.net.ae 194.170.1.103
proxy2.emirates.net.ae 194.170.1.13
proxy3.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.5
proxy4.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.30
proxya.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.3
proxyd.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.94
proxye.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.15
proxyf.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.7
proxyg.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.17
proxyh.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.68
proxyi.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.29
proxyj.emirates.net.ae 194.170.1.13
proxym.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.3
proxyn.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.5
proxyo.emirates.net.ae 194.170.168.28
email.emirates.net.ae 194.170.2.28
194.170.163.3
194.170.1.103

The IP 194.170.127.3 had ports open on 7/Jul/99 and was being used by admins of Emirates Internet to browse the web. 7,9,13,19,23,25,37,53,80,79,110,111,512,513,514,515,540,877,878,894,896,1103,1112,3128,4045,6000,7100,

Resolved proxy.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.187.5 | Ports open: 7 9 13 19 23 25 37 53 80 111 119 512 513 514 13217
Resolved proxy1.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.94 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved proxy2.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.3 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved proxy3.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.2.5 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved proxy4.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.2.30 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved proxya.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.3 | down most of the time
Resolved proxyd.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.94 | 7100 but doesn't work
Resolved proxye.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.15 | Ports open: 7100 8080
Resolved proxyf.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.2.7 | Ports open: 7100 8080
Resolved proxyg.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.17 | Ports open: 7100 8080
Resolved proxyh.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.25 | Ports open: 7100 8080 8081 8082 8083 8085 8086 8088
Resolved proxyi.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.26 | Ports open: 7100
Resolved proxyj.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.27 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved proxyk.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.28 | Ports open: 9 13 19 23 37 53 79 111 512 513 514 515 540 1103 6112 7100 8080 8888
Resolved proxym.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.18
Resolved proxyn.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.94
Resolved proxyo.emirates.net.ae to 194.170.168.28 | Ports open: 8080
Resolved 194.170.2.28 to email.emirates.net.ae which is also now usable as a proxy on 8080 (Jun 5 1999)
194.170.163.3 is a new proxy that is being used a lot on port 8080.
194.170.1.103 is a new proxy on port 8080

ALERT: (Moved from the Etisalat charges too much page to the OLD ALERTS page on 1/April/00)

The Alerts pages throws up a tasty titbit of a possible HUGE rate drop starting the first week of April 2000. (30/Mar/00)

Probably a record for a supposed Institute of Learning, The American University of Sharjah's web page has now been under construction and unchanged for over One year! My Word! (31/May/99)

Topic: (Moved from the Etisalat charges too much page to the OLD ALERTS page on 10/Feb/00)

The response so far to Etisalat's own survey (survey is still active) showed a majority of subscribers (75% as on 23/Jan/00) favour a flat charge. (Update - vote altered by Etisalat to show less replies - 29/1/00)

The Java enabled Counter was kewl, but was giving too much grief. Off with its head.
May it rest in peace 11/June/98 - 15/April/99

Quote of the month (May 1999)
*** hardon (~rahuljain@PPP-189-243.bng.vsnl.net.in) has joined #dubai
*** Free sets mode: +b *!*rahuljain@*.bng.vsnl.net.in
*** hardon was kicked by Free (Come back when you're flaccid)

Interesting how up to date Emirates Internet's Download page is. It was Last updated : August 18, 1997. It links to versions of software now so out of date one almost feels like crying. But then, we knew we were in for that when we subscribed for our Internet connection didn't we? (13/Mar/99)

Users' modems 'to blame' for Net woes ,so the Gulf News p.3 article said on on Monday March 1, 1999. "Etisalat claims that most problems customers have in connecting with the Internet are caused by their own modems and not by the Corporation. Other complaints, including slow response times, could be because of Internet congestion at those sites accessed by customers." Interesting.Then further on it says, "We have investigated complaints that have appeared in Gulf News regarding access problems (line disconnections) and found them to be related with the modem being used at the customer end. Some of the modems available in the market are not able to handle an automatic downgrade of the link speed while on-line, thus causing the disconnection." Going further into the articles reveals, "As per our statistics, 75% of our users are getting a response in less than one second and 20% in less than 5 seconds. Regarding file downloading, the slowness depends on various factors, including web host and traffic on the associated network and, not necessarily, on the proxy, or local network." Wonder if this discussion board thread sheds any light. So, like us do you feel they are pulling the wool over our eyes? Put your comments here. 4/Mar/'99

The rumor is now gaining momentum that not only have Etisalat considered the Unlimited Plan, but they have been working hard on setting up the infrastructure and decided on a rate in the region of Dhs. 400 per month. We are also expecting this launch during the Dubai Shopping Festival. That means REAL SOON! Read how the rumor started here. ! 7/Jan/99 (updated 9/Mar/99)

ISDN lines getting stuck at the proxy, downloading slower that a sleeping snail? Got an answer ? We Do.

Etisalat are upgrading their proxies and you will find your browser often getting stuck at the automatic proxy. Get around this by using the manual proxy of proxy4.emirates.net.ae on port 8080 since at the moment this is faster that proxy1. Still, don't expect miracles from Etisalat. (10/Dec/98 - updated 13/Mar/99)

Emirates Internet Outage Condition
Etisalat would like to advise Emirates Internet customers of a possible outage of obtaining access to e-mail and web browsing due to applying latest Y2K technology in thier server.
Date: 09-06-99 and 10-06-1999 Time: 4:00 am - 6:00 am
Affected Service: e-mail and web browsing for dial-up users

Topic: (Moved from the dubaiwho page to the OLD ALERTS page on 28/June/99)
Reason: (Description changed drastically)

Da big boss is Backslash. He's fun and knows a hell of a lot more than he lets on. The way he was made to slog at his old place of work, I'm sure he'd have rather been a carpenter making cupboards. Now that he's settled into a much more fun new job, we see so much less of him. Lives in Sharjah and hopefully now won't be exiled to Abu Dhabi too often. Needs to work out on his body a bit as all those hours hammering on the keyboard has left him with super looking fingers but, well, I wont be nasty. I think channel regulars should take up a collection and get him a Treadmill for his next birthday.

Topic: (Moved from the dubaistuff page to the OLD ALERTS page on 10/June/99)

Registration: The Emirates Internet registration charge is Dhs. 200 per user.

And you thought a leased line was an option ? Foget it ! Unless you can fathom out what an Internet ISDN LAN Connect means ..... heh - which if we read it right asks you for a Rental per month UAE Dhs 4000 after the Installation fee of Dhs 1000.

Etisalat's dial in Internet number is 4004444.
If you don't have an account with them,
or if you don't want Daddy to know you've been using the internet : 5005333
charges 30 fils/minute ( Dhs 18/hour ) or 3 times normal.(popularly known as Dial N Surf)
Roaming service: for International Internet users roaming in the UAE, dial 5003535 and any calls made to this number will incur a collection charge of 30 fils per minute (Dhs 18 per hour) usage to the telephone number from which the call is made. (13 Mar 99)
Thank you to Kitby for pointing out that using your GSM (mobile phone) to dial in to internet costs you Dhs.0.90/minute plus Dhs.6/hour totaling to a whopping Dhs.60/hour!

Some New stuff on Internet in Saudi Arabia is finally available! Started on 15.12.1998, there are already 39 Licensed Internet Service Providers. Based on comparisons with neighboring countries, the number of Internet users in KSA is estimated to reach: 115,000 in 1999. Amazingly they have set up their own chat server irc.isu.net.sa on port 6667 connected to IrcNET.

I have no idea what I am talking about but I have been told that if your modem chipset follows the 56k K-FLEX standard you get the best connection to Etisalat. Anything else (especially the X2 standard) and expect to get disconnected often ! Wonder when they will upgrade their modems to either the K56flex™ or the v90 standard. Also Emirates Internet does NOT support Multilink, or as they say it is not enabled. Now why would they not enable it? (updated 13/Mar/99)

Survey Added (17/May/99)
Fast Site Search Added (26/May/99)
Site Map Added (10/May/99)
The rumor started today of Internet rates being cut by half (26/Apr/99)

Topic: (Moved from the Etisalat charges too much page to the OLD ALERTS page on 31/May/99)

So we've been told that these pages are a bit too dry.
Well, when you regularly shelve out Dhs.6/hour (US$1.64), how much humor can you expect.
For a more lighthearted look at Internet in the UAE, try the extensive #Dubai pages.

The whole of Dubai was blacked out from around 10am this morning for over 3 hours. Some Areas for up to 6 hours. Rumor has it that there was a Gas Leak at the main station and everything was shut down. Fortunately all is OK now and we are back on-line :) (18/May/99)

Finally, Etisalat frequently sends broadcast messages inviting the public to take part in informing Etisalat of any undesired site (A Blatant lie. We have NEVER EVER in the past 3 years EVER received such a broadcast message from Etisalat) and reporting the same to the designated e-mail address (the Email address watch@emirates.net.ae is being mentioned by them, in our records, publicly for the first time) or call the Internet help desk. As more and more undesired sites appear every day, we agree with Mr. Kumar that perhaps we should increase our broadcast messages to inform the public as well as intensifying our efforts in identifying, verifying and blocking of these sites. (Interesting Mr. Kumar receives a reply in 2 days when supporting Etisalat, yet weeks pass and no reply to people asking them for answers to genuine grievances).

Topic: (Moved from the Who is in #Dubai page to the OLD ALERTS page on 17/May/99)

Orouba is Europe in Arabic ( as ^KiLLeR^ so aptly pointed out ), but also means Arab clan. Here is one of those stubborn Pirch98 users. He has the most colourful popups you've ever seen, but we can't say much about his scripts, cause I think he'll never finish writing them. This Bahraini guy, who reckons he's old enough to be on IRC, and I believe him, has been popping in and out of Dubai for many a year. Lives now in Jumeira, and makes his living off the big companies in the region by flogging them the license to use a high tech product he owns the commercial rights to. He claims he's more into scripting than chatting, but we intend to change that! He loves to dive, so, imagine him with a great tan. Now Orouba is our resident Pirch expert ( big deal ) and:
·° <º))))>< · : . ° · : . ° Anything mIRC® Can Do...
° · . ° ·:.° ° . . · : ° · : . °pIRCH® Can't Do Better !
° · . ° ·:° °· : . ° ° · . ° <º))))><
And mIRC® Can't Swim (thank God) ..... ° · . °°°° · . °° ° · . ° ° ·° . ° ° ·
Of course everyone knows that I feel so sorry for poor Orouba cause he's hung up on Pirch. Well, to each their own. Orouba enjoys making a mockery of the stock exchange while he's patiently waiting for a patent confirmation so he can go and retire. Which of course means he will retire at a nice young age! He Ops on channel #newbies, and soon might be in the disgraceful position of Opping on #Pirch. To each his own i suppose. LOL. His motto is supposed to make you think he has you fooled, hmmmmm, here it is : The name of the rose is merely a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downwards dejectory!

So you thought Johnny Carson retired?
Read sLumming with sLag. We thought we could be funny till we read him. An "up to date" on the happenings in #Dubai Check out his excellent Technical rebuff to Etisalat's claim that its users' modems are to blame. (click on the This Month link on his page) (Mar '99)

Button Bar Design Competition - Winner Takes All Click the link above to see all the entries so far Since there were so many entries, it didn't make sense to have them all flashing away on this front page. However below is a sample of some of them.
The channel #Dubai home pages needs a button for other sites to link to us. The nickname of the person whose button is chosen will have their name mentioned here. Please submit your button to the homepage by email. Don't forget to mention your nickname. The size of the button should be 88 x 32 pixels at 72 pixels per inch. (1.22 x 0.44 inches and in gif format). File size must be than 2.5 KB (2,560 bytes) or less. Here is my amateurish attempt to give you an idea. (Dec 10 1998). All entries submitted become the property of #Dubai.
Submitted by Free (2,394 bytes) 10 Dec '98	Submitted by Anon (2,234 bytes) 10 Dec '98	Submitted by sLag (1,284 bytes) 21 Jan '99	Submitted by Softman (2,651 bytes) 29 Jan '99
Submitted by Softman (1,120 bytes) 29 Jan '99	Submitted by Safire (2,560 bytes) 3 Feb '99	Submitted by Nasser (2,524 bytes) 13 Apr '99	Submitted by SMUG (2,524 bytes) 11 Feb '99

So we all got the email sent after 7pm Dubai time stating:
Dear Emirates Internet Customer,
As you may be already aware of the Virus Warning regarding the Chernobyl Virus, Emirates Internet, in the interest of its valued customers, requests you to take note of this warning and the necessary precautions. For detailed information on the Chernobyl Virus and its prevention, please go to the URL http://www.cert.org/incident_notes/IN-99-03.html
Emirates Telecommunications Corporation | Email: help@emirates.net.ae for assistance.

What was the point of sending an email the evening of the day the Cernobyl virus was to strike, when it was known it was striking in the morning ?! By then whoever had the virus would have had their hard disks wiped out before seeing the email. Pretty useless sending out the information after the fact. Almost laughable. Better luck next time :) (27/Apr/99)

Quote of the week (17-23 April 1999)
Topic #Dubai is: 'When the last thing we notice is the colour of the skin, and the first thing we notice is the beauty within..we shall be free..

So, Etisalat in their wisdom blocked the hotmail.com IP address of http://209.185.130.251/. Emails to watch@emirates.net.ae finally produced this result. Basically what they said was to prove to them that the site didn't contain offensive material. How about that! We have to prove a site we cannot access is not offensive. Talk about Catch 22. (Updated 13/April/99 - 31/Mar/99)

Everyone is talking about the Melissa Virus. It appears it only makes you email people inadvertently if you use MS Outlook to send Email programs. However it still infects all MS Word Documents. Here's the NEWS NEWS NEWS. Here's the FIX. (30/Mar/99)

<BackSlash> ppl who I thought were "shes" for more than a year, came out to have more hair on their chest than me even.

<Blendie> Free... WHAT is a Jumairah Jane?
<Free> Jumairah is the "up market" residential area of Dubai, and Jumairah Janes are the snotty English girls who think they have reached the top of the pile in Dubai, forgetting when they go back home to England .... their husbands would no longer be Managing Director of a Transport company , but simply the truck driver they used to be, and the Jumairah Janes would be back to cooking their own dinners and washing their own dirty underwear all over again.

Just land up at your launch pad - the Etisalat IT Planet in Al Murragabat Street. Surf the Internet FREE at any of the 305 computers here. And also get a FREE subscription to the Emirates Internet and ISDN service (make sure that you collect your specially stamped application form for the free connection). This offer is valid from 18th March to 14th April 99. Applications will be processed at Etisalat branches only till 21st April 99. (23/Mar/99)

Etisalat may well have a promotion during the Dubai Shopping Festival, giving Free internet connections, meaning no set up charges. Also they may well set up their "Tent" like they did last year on Bur Dubai's "Silicon Street" and this time will perhaps have up to 250 networked computers connected up to the Internet there for free usage. (9/Mar/99)

Emirates Internet has joined the GRIC Alliance. The GRIC (Global Roaming Internet Center) Alliance is a worldwide alliance of ISPs, who make their points of presence (POP) available to all other GRIC members. Members of the GRIC alliance. All that the travelling Internet Dial up customer has to do, is to download a free user-friendly software called the GRIC Dialer into their notebook or desktop computer. Etisalat's Internet Roaming service provides major benefits to businessmen and executives who are frequently on the move. Some benefits are : No expensive International Direct Dialing rates, Direct log-in from the laptop/notebook/desktop, No need for multiple accounts. Internet Roaming access is available from over 500 Internet Service ISPs in the world. Direct Internet access billing to home account. This eliminates the need to pay in foreign currency. Emirates Internet customers roaming in other countries will be charged 30 fils per minute (Dhs. 18 per hour) usage and a one-time service charge of Dhs. 10 only during the month in which the Roaming service is used. For International Internet users roaming in the UAE, they have to dial 500 3535 and any calls made to this number will incur a collection charge of 30 fils per minute (Dhs 18 per hour) usage to the telephone number from which the call is made. (13 Mar 99)

NOTE: this is for your information only and does not imply we are promoting this service. In case you didn't notice, the service is more expensive than most other GRIC members. Did you expect less?

<sLag> BaldiLox: yes, I would disagree too. Honour means a lot. If it didn't we'd be Americans. (MARCH 3rd Week '99)

There is a rumor in the air that Etisalat are looking to have an unlimited access rate in the region of Dhs. 400 per month. Read more about it here. ! 7/Jan/99

Fed Up of the ISDN phone line Etisalat has given you locking up every few days due to a technical fault at their exchange? And you wondered why they gave you a discount on the ISDN modems. Always a catch isn't there! Here is the trail. Internet help line: 8005244 - say it's not their lookout. Etisalat: 228111 - forget it. Engineering at: 224000 - say ask your Technical section. Bur Dubai technical section: 2022190/191 say they only look at line faults, not exchange faults. Customer dis-services: 249999/713131 - forever busy as expected. The ISDN sales Department: 2022352/2022511 asks you to fax Mr. Ahmed Taqi on fax: 233744 (they don't have email! though their department's email address is kaodxb). The only number that doesn't pass the buck (can you believe someone NOT passing the buck in Etisalat!) is at: 285539. But finally the place that has polite service ( I can't believe I said that ) is Customer care at: 249249. Best of luck. Remember they close all customer services at 3pm. BTW: Etisalat suggest don't switch the modem off. 3/Feb/'99

Found this when we looked through channel #kuwait's home pages. There's a Java applet now that can take you directly into Undernet. Incredible! Fill in the nickname you want to call yourself, press Connect, and then in the Java box that opens up, type /join #dubai and maximize the new Java window that opens. Viola, you're in #Dubai ! In case the nickname you choose is already in use, you will have to type in a new nickname like this /nick AnotherNick (Dec 7 '98)
#Oman's home page
#gulfchat home page
Falcon Chat