Mauritius Telecom / Orange slow internet connection issues

On Sunday evening, I noticed my internet connection was so slow that it took like forever to open a webpage. The problem seemed more apparent on Google and I wasn’t able to do any searches. At first I thought my computer was infected but that was not the case. Since it was late at night, I decided to check in the morning and was hopeful the hiccup would be gone.

However the problem persisted the following day and some friends on Facebook were complaining they could not access Google and YouTube. I went onto the OrangeMauritius fan page and saw the following notice:

Some people who’ve contacted Orange have been told there are DDOS attacks on Google; this is where several computers (hundred of thousands) send loads of requests to a server in an attempt to bring it down, hence the response would be slow. When I called them, they said they were aware of the problem and their technicians/engineers were working on a solution but they could not tell when it would be fixed. That was in the morning yesterday and things did not improve in the evening.

I tried to check whether there was really a problem with Google but I could not find any story relating to this. I checked Twitter for real time updates but there was no mention of this problem either. So I think it was just an excuse which Orange used so they don’t lose credibility towards their customers. It’s immoral, unfair and shows how monopoly is a really bad thing.

From the comments on the status updated on Orange fan page, someone suggested to change DNS used by the internet to OpenDNS and that instantly. I was surprised that it was such an easy fix and it baffles me to acknowledge how incompetent the people working for Orange are; maybe they just employ school leavers with no experience or they don’t invest much in their hardware but the bottom line is the service they provide is appalling.

PS: Despite the really bad service, I’m surprised to see that more than 395 people liked their post. It goes to show you that many Mauritians don’t really know what a “like” really is…