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By Khaled A., on April 30th, 2009
Feedburner, one of the leading RSS feed providers is experiencing some problems with Saudi Arabia users. Almost all of the podcasts on the Internet are using feedburner’s services. But now when you try to load a feed you will get the following error “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable”. This error usually happens when a server is down.
I have verified that the feeds are working on a Mobily connection so this problem is specific to STC Afaq DSL shamel. STC’s telephone support have no idea what I am talking about as well.
It should be noted that although Saudi Arabia have multiple DSL providers all of them go through STC’s landline and you still need to pay STC a subscription fee in addition to what you pay to the ISP.
Update: I have just verified from a friend living in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia who is also an STC subscriber that he is getting the same error “Http/1.1 Service Unavailable”!
Update 2: although this problem happens with STC customers (DSL and Jawalnet) reconnecting (changing your IP address) fixes it. Apparently one of the STC servers is messed up, not all of them.
By Khaled A., on March 30th, 2009
This is not a total block but depending on your search query then google video search is blocked. A regular google video string is usually:
video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&q=searchterm
Which is blocked! But moving the “hl=en” argument:
video.google.com/videosearch?q=searchterm&hl=en
Opens the result. This is most likely a blocking mistake and needs to be corrected (by unblocking of course).
Help unblock it by filling the form at internet.gov.sa, writing an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or sending a fax to +966(1)2639290.
By Khaled A., on March 23rd, 2009
A malfunction in one of the servers in the main STC Olaya switch box in Riyadh caused a large amount of disconnections (35-45% of the subscribers in Riyadh). The malfunction happened Saturday 21st of March 2009.
Alriyadh newspaper reported that STC was working on fixing it since Saturday. They also contacted the spokesperson for CITC (Communications and Information Technology Commission), Sultan Almalik and he said that he have no information about the malfunction!
From Alriyadh newspaper (Arabic link).
By Khaled A., on March 15th, 2009
Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. A section of digg: digg.com/celebrity and news under that is entirely blocked for no reason. (Digg link by bianconeri4ever).
Help unblock it by filling the form at internet.gov.sa, writing an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or sending a fax to +966(1)2639290.
By Khaled A., on March 15th, 2009
hydroponics: the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil. Then why are the following websites blocked?
Help unblock it by filling the form at internet.gov.sa, writing an email to unblock@internet.gov.sa or sending a fax to +966(1)2639290.
By Khaled A., on March 6th, 2009
In another telecommunication innovation, STC announced they offer the lowest rates … on dial-up! From 3SR per hour to 2.5SR per hour. In small print “this offer is valid for a limited period only” which is only 2 months!
Continue reading STC offering the lowest Internet rates
By Khaled A., on November 7th, 2008
I have been having trouble with Awalnet DSL connection since yesterday. The “DSL connection” status in my Linksys model is connected but the “Gateway” status is down! It only connects for a few minutes every few hours then disconnects for no reason! I tried to contact Awalnet support but their 800 toll-free number is unavailable for mobile phones! I blame the STC for that because they are offering a crippled 800 service.
Claiming that support is available for 24 hours/7 days/365 days is just a big lie. I have been trying to call their support line 8001241400 since 1a.m. this Friday and all I get is a busy tone. They either have no support or are greatly understaffed, in other words, UNPREPARED as a company to handle the load on customer service!
I have been to two coffee shops with wireless Internet access and both were down as well, can you guess the ISP? It’s Awalnet as well! Awalnet should offer a service status indicator on their site the same way Sahara is doing. Do you have similar problems? feel free to share!
Update: I had to call their business support number and they answered immediately, they claimed the problem is from the Saudi Telecom Company (STC)! Looks like a lack of communications and the victim, as usual, is the consumer! Shame on you both, Awalnet and STC!
Update 2: I was reminded that STC owns Awalnet since early 2007! How can each of them put the blame on the other?
By Khaled A., on September 18th, 2008
I’ve heard from many people about problems with their Internet connection. Apparently many of the Saudi ISP’s did not patch a major DNS flaw revealed 2 months ago. Guess STC is too busy advertising and not patching  .
The best solution is to use OpenDNS. Just follow this guide and just change the DNS settings for your DSL modem. Restart and you are done (the additional steps are optional).
By Khaled A., on September 2nd, 2008
One of the most frustrating things is having a full ISP blocked just because of a single questionable item.
An example is the blocking of http://members.iinet.net.au/ which is a hosting service provided to the users of an internet service provider in Australia called iinet. Now I cannot view the images hosted at this blog because their images hosted here are blocked!
As usual, fill this form!
By Khaled A., on May 4th, 2008
The online video site, Vimeo, was blocked by for over a month now by Internet.gov.sa. This is an excerpt from Vimeo’s Wikipedia page:
Vimeo allows only user-created videos, of a “friends and family” nature. No pornography, TV shows, music videos, movies or anything not created by the user can be uploaded.
As usual, you can help by filling the unblock request form here. And use that quote above regarding Vimeo’s policy regarding pornography.
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