rohitsuk

"Unpredictable" is the term as far as TOT speeds are concerned. It was down to less than a crawl just the other day, for most parts of the day too. Today (that's Sunday afternoon in Jomtien, my guess is that more people are online now doing downloads etc. than during the week), I get the following with a 2MB ADSL subscription:

I much regret to say that it is all too predictable in Chiang Mai.  Between 4-8am you might get 1.5 or so but this is it for the rest fo the 24 hour cycle and has been for nearly three weeks now.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/569939230.png

Did a test just before that one and completely forgot that there were a few active torrent downloads going on in the background oooops, that made my apparent speed look REAL bad. So: don't forget to elminate all relevant Internet activity while doing speed tests!

There has been modest improvement in last 24 hours - hope for continued stability and to get back to 'normal' ASAP.

No improvement at all here in Thasala AM at 12.30pm it was a miserable 0.05 download. Tragic !

Hi, I run a Nissan Navara D40 Diesel, awsome truck, does everything i ask of it, good MPG as well.

FF

Thanks FF we are definitely warming to the Navara after reading the UK road test:

http://www.pickuptrucksdirect.co.uk/nissan-navara.asp

Here are a couple of more links that pertain to pick ups accessories new prices and specs that might be useful to the O/P that i foud in the motoring section all supplied by other posters i might add.

http://www.redbookasiapacific.com/th/vehic...ng=en&new=1

http://www.sonirodban.com/

Regards TB

Many thanks for these links TB and we are definitely warming to the Navara since reading this review from the UK but the Vigo and D-Max look good too.  A difficult choice to make:

http://www.pickuptrucksdirect.co.uk/nissan-navara.asp

Thanks ignis - really helpful rundown and just what I needed to know.

I LOVE my Toyota-Vigo 4-WheelDrive; 4 Door; 3-Liter Diesel & Automatic truck.

It is now almost 4 years old ad has about 80,000 km's on the clock. It drives as good as it did when we picked it up from the dealer, on day 1 !

This truck does not drive like a truck, but rather like a Cadillac ! ! It has a very smooth drive; ery good road-holding; superb accelleation, thanks to it's Intercooled Turbo and can rech a top-speed of 195 Km/Hr ! !

The reason I chose this vehicle:

1. Toyota reliability and SERVICE all around this country.

2. Since it is a 4x4, you sit that much higher and that's a serious SAFETY FEATURE; you can see over most traffic antanticipate much better.

3. COMFORT; lie I said:it drives smooth, like a cadillac ! (I used to drive Benz in NZ, Lincoln in Canada & Volvo in Europe;thisone beats them all !)

4. ACCELERATION; another safety feature; you may not be a 'speedy-Gonzales, but whenever you needthat little extra to pass that slow sand-truck; you certainy will have what it takes.

5. You get a 2-IN-1 deal; in front you'll have a spacy 5 seat luxury sedan; in the back that p/u bed.

6. Standard kit: A/C; Superb Stereo; Clever Cup Holders, located in front of the A/C outlets; a arm bottle of water is ic-cold after 10 minutes.

7. The Toyota Vigo is about 2 inches wider than all other p/u brands; 2" longer and 2" higher; not mny people realize this !

Just go and have a test-drive and you will be sold !

I've just ordered my next Vigo.

TOYOTA VIGO: MORE RELIABLE THAN MOST WIVES

Well by the sound of it a lot more reliable than my wives - either of them !

Thanks a lot for the really helpful information about the Vigo which we certainly have under consideration.

Well you sound like an expert to me and thanks so much for taking the trouble Don, that is really helpful and just what I needed to know from an experienced driver.

Well definitely DON'T come to live in Chiang Mai if internet speed is your priority.  We have gone slow, slower, slowest and into full scale reverse - speeds so low they won't register with the speed check sites.  And from the wonderful TOT - not a bloody word.

Just take a look at this fi you think you have problem in the capital:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Tot-Internet...ed-t297080.html

I suspect serious technical, political, financial problems and total collapse is not our of the question.  Land of Smiles at that ! 

Hi Rohitsuk,

Already posted this answer but your post was moved to this the motor forum.

The Isuzu D-Max was made from a design borrowed off Chevrolet under the agreement that when Chevrolet launched their Colorado they could use the Isuzu Engine design.

So basically they are the same vehicle but the Colorado has a few face-lift type differences.

For the current range of pick-ups i believe that only the diesel version is available in Thailand.

I live on the outskirts of Bangkok so i prefer the Auto, which is much easier on the legs when stuck in traffic, which is probably why it is preferred by the Thais.

The D-Max is the oldest of the current range of pick-ups and a lot of improvements have been made since it was launched, so I would personally go for the Nissan.

Regards,

Tiger.

Thank you Tiger, I have just looked at the Chevy site and visited Isuzu this morning. A new rang is being launched on Sunday but it looks like it will be the I-290 already available in the US.

Regards - Rohitsuk

I am hoping for advice from experts on pick up trucks as I have never bought and only rarely driven one.

We want to buy a new truck with the extended cab and bench seat with the half rear doors and put a Carryboy thing on the back of it. We will be running around CM and region collecting and delivering light packaged goods with occasional trips doing the same to Bangkok. We also want to sling the kids in the back from time to time and the camping gear, when we are heading for the hills. We already have a saloon car which we are keeping so it won't be our only transport.

It seems like there are lots of choices to be made but I am finding it difficult to make comparisons or find Road Tests as the names don't match up in the UK /US. Is an Isuzu whatsit really the same as a Chevy Colarado ?

I don't really think we need 4X4 or hiked up off the ground as we don't plan to go dirt tracking and would there be any other reason to have it ?

Diesel v Petrol, manual v auto (the Thais want auto) but I don't mind either, Nissan v Isuzu. It's all a bit bewildering to an engineering know nout like me so I would be really grateful for the low down from the truck fraternity.

Many thanks.

I am hoping for advice from experts on pick up trucks as I have never bought and only rarely driven one.

We want to buy a new truck with the extended cab and bench seat with the half rear doors and put a Carryboy thing on the back of it. We will be running around CM and region collecting and delivering light packaged goods with occasional trips doing the same to Bangkok.  We also want to sling the kids in the back from time to time and the camping gear, when we are heading for the hills. We already have a saloon car which we are keeping so it won't be our only transport.

It seems like there are lots of choices to be made but I am finding it difficult to make comparisons or find Road Tests as the names don't match up in the UK /US.  Is an Isuzu whatsit really the same as a Chevy Colarado ? 

I don't really think we need 4X4 or hiked up off the ground as we don't plan to go dirt tracking and would there be any other reason to have it ?

Diesel v Petrol, manual v auto (the Thais want auto) but I don't mind either, Nissan v Isuzu.  It's all a bit bewildering to an engineering know nout like me so I would be really grateful for the low down from the truck fraternity.

Many thanks.

thank you all for providing your TOT experiences. i've gone with 3T (TT&T) and so far all is well.

signed up at pantip plaza with no difficulty. sales reps were friendly and efficient, signed up for service, got modem programmed, and

scheduled installation within about 30 minutes. technician arrived and installed my line three days ahead of schedule.

i got the 3M indy package for 832 baht: 632 monthly fee, 100 registration fee, 100 equipment deposit. free install.

(the TOT guys at pantip told me there was a 1600 baht installation fee)

the rep warned me that international sites will load slower, to try indy for a month. if too slow can upgrade to premier.

so far all is well, speeds are as advertised.

speed test results: Download Speed: 2543 kbps (317.9 KB/sec transfer rate) / Upload Speed: 254 kbps (31.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Well I really hope it works for you but I switched a month ago from TT&T to TOT because having started with Indy which was slow and disconnected every few minutes ,I upgraded to Premier (ha ha) at their suggestion and it was actually only a little faster and no better with the cut offs.

On switching to TOT at 40% less than I was paying TT&T until two weeks ago, I got a better speed ex Thai 2-3megs so OK but without the constant cut offs I had suffered with TT&T.  

Also a month ago there were rumours that the parent company, Jasmine were pulling out and of imminent collapse.  It seems to have reinvented itself as 3BB without any public statement of exactly what is going on so god knows where it all is now.

Do keep us posted.

  Is it not quite extraordinary that TOT being a communications organization, totally fails to communicate with by far the most important element in its business - we its customers ?  Has there been any information, much less and apology, posted on their website about what is clearly a serious technical / political / business problem at TOT.  Not a word. Just take a look at the News & Activities page of their website, if you can log onto it that is.

Well it might be extraordinary elsewhere but we live in an anti-information non-communicative culture and society and it is not a “farang thing” either as you will know if you have ever monitored the quality of communication between Thai people.  Great talkers and all at once over the top of the TV, stereo and passing election loudspeaker van, but listen ?  They don't even listen to themselves much less one another so why would they listen to their customers ?

I talked and talked and what did I say ?  I said nothing thought I talked all day.

And as to customer service ethic, well with few notable exceptions that can be summed up as, “Oh customers, what a nuisance!  How can I get rid of them without actually having to do anything”.

May no customer ever be so inconsiderable as to disturb the happy tranquility of your slumbers.

But what the hel_l, compared to the bigger problem facing the country, a slow Internet doesn't amount to a pimple on its Londonderriere, no matter how infuriating it might be to us.

Public executions are the answer and lots of them, starting with the CEO of TOT.

Off with their heads !

Please do not get upset but I think most of farang who live here do not pat tax, do they?

Just a 20-30 baht extra for the local to spend to maintain all the facilities at temple and national parks, is quite reasonable.

Fair point CMDR but a lot of Thai people do not pay taxes either and yes I am thinking of a certain former PM from around these 'ere parts. ! But sound advice, don't get upset because do you know how much it costs to visit St, Paul's Cathedral in London ? Well it's not Baht 50 that's for sure, several pounds and they are just as happy to rob their fellow countrymen as farangs. Now what was it Jesus said to the money changers in the temple ? Oh yes......"den of thieves".

We do not pay local taxes either because there are none and no Council Tax or National Insurance, unless you are working. I do not know who pays the chaps who empty my bins (every other day) or change the street lights when they blow or tidy the jungle when it encroaches on the roads but it is definitely not me.

I have never thought it racist, that's much too complex. It is just financial opportunism plain and simple - yes the old Ogre of Greed rearing its ugly head. So let us accept CMDR's advice and don't get upset but meditate instead upon how much cheaper a + Baht 30 charge is than a Baht 300 donation ! Whoops, the old Ogre again.

Swings and roundabouts, yes balance dear friends balance is needed for both and if it wasn't like that, it wouldn't be like this so on balance, it must surely suit us or we would be long gone, would't we ?

Strange that you should post this, as I have just had a visit from two True employees informing me that True is now available in my area, and would I be interested.

At least they are being more realistic in their claims than TT&T or TOT. They offered me the choice of two plans....8 Mbps national/2 Mbps international for 1,199 excluding VAT and 3 Mbps local/1 Mbps international for 599 baht.

I told them I have tried TOT, and am currently using TT&T, and if they want my business, I want a trial run before I sign up. They said they will get back to me

Well that is good news indeed so let us hope that True will soon have complete coverage of CM and though 2megs is just about sufficient for international, better 2megs that work than 2,3,4 or even 10 now from TT&T that don't.

I did ask, yet again, last week in the True shop at AP Plaza and got the Hauy Kew Road reply but I will go back tomorrow and pray for a better answer.

Look forward to hearing about your trial run.

Hi forum

I see a lot of threads over time about internet connections, especially threads complaining about inconsistency with speed and downtime etc.

I've been using TRUE for the past 2.5 years, and I couldn't be happier. I also had TRUE when I lived in Bkk, and once again, there were no major problems to report ever. Perhaps I've just been lucky?

My advice with wireless networks in apartment buildings is avoid them like the plague if you need more from your internet then a bit of simple web browsing and email. Generally speaking, I've found wireless connections incredibly unstable, unsecure, unreliable, and slow to fix when there are problems, as they usually require an engineer's visit to reboot or repair issues with local servers.

The reason for my post is because I would like to move on later this year, but I really do need that TRUE internet to be available at my next home. I know they are not everywhere, and in some cases, it can be a case of just being in the wrong Soi (yes, it's that hit and miss!).

So is there anyone here living in a nice condo building somewhere around the city where TRUE internet is available? I've seen a couple of places/areas that I would like to live, but they don't have TRUE, so unfortunately, I dare not gamble with their alternative internet options.

Thanks in advance folks

Aitch

I believe that True is only available in some parts of Hauy Kaew Road and there is also a waiting list, even there.  Why that is, god knows, but it is probably some several layers of the onion down and unlikely to change in the near future I fear.

We have True at our apartment in Bkk and like you our experience for several years now has been mainly trouble free, apart from the totally incompetent administration who clearly do not know arse from elbow.

Here in CM TT&T and TOT, I have tried both, are about equally useless and of course could not give a dam about their customers.  I greatly favour public beheadings, starting with the CEOs of both outfits.

I've been informed that TT&T, TOT and CAT are using some kind of bandwidth shaping methods. This means that when traffic on their internet lines reaches a certain limit, they cutoff or clip the amount of internet traffic in their system. Symptoms are a blinking WAN light on your router (no internet connection, cannot find server, etc.) and seemingly random "cutoff" of your internet service. My TT&T service is the worst I've seen it. What I need are the names of other internet service providers in Thailand. Can anyone provide them for me? Are there any sattelite ISPs available in this country?

You are not alone - see this thread from the Chiang Mai forum: But I have tested and no shaping, just screwing up as usual.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Tot-Internet...ed-t297080.html

Was using TT&T Maxnet, but experienced port blocking & VPN connection blocking too. This was on the Maxnet 5mb Indy package.

Complaints to TT&T Maxnet resulted in the advice for me to change from their Indy package to their Premier package.

Bottom line is that I swapped from their 5mb Indy to their 2mb Premier package, at around the same price - and the result? No more port blocking & the 2mb Premier is far far faster in normal use than the 5mb Indy! Go figure! Less people on the loop I can only assume.

So why not drop TOT and try the Maxnet Premier package?

I did the reverse jump from TT&T to TOT. Similar problems to you with TT&T Indy and on their advice "upgraded" to Premier which meant I paid them more for less. The speed was tolerable at around 1.5-2megs but the connection was so unstable, I was cut off several times an hour and sometimes several times in several minutes.

Beware of following my example out of the frying pan and into the fire, they are about equally useless although from time to time one might be slightly less bad than the other, it's a close call.

after a bunch of time out errors

Why is Bkk gone as server ?

anybody know where I can buy some pigeons, need to send some mail

I think this is what you are looking for but don't bother trying to watch the video clip, not a prayer !

"Pigeon faster than broadband"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8248056.stm

just done a speed test on my 3mb platinum package anyone beat that!!!

I have the same package and if you can't beat 'em join 'em with this at 21.15

Kbps KBps Mbps MBps

Download Speed: 20.3 2.54 0.02 0

Upload Speed: 255.26 31.91 0.25 0.03

Thanks to K2K for leading the way now we all need to follow so I shall be down at TOT HQ on Monday morning with my own little tale of woe. If you use http://speedchecker.org Speed Test Plus, it automatically logs your tests for 30 days and you can print off the results.

I do not want to hear any more pathetic excuses from TOT, I want to see heads spiked on poles along BOTH sides of Nawarat Bridge !

TOT sucks - it is a disgrace.

Last week my wife signed me up for their 3Mg special, I think it was called platinumcyber. Put in all the details correctly, finished everything and waited with baited breath for my super fast download speed....and I waited and waited, it was slower than ever before, when I had supercyber which is 256k.

My wife went to TOT got the usual run around, she called me and I put in the code again etc, but still reduced it to snail speed. They said it could be the connection or modem and they would send an engineer to check it but it might cost for connection repairs and maybe a new modem....what a load of.......

Eventually she insisted just to cancel it and reverted back to supercyber.

I feel quite relieved that at least I'm back to getting 256k most of the time.

Agreed ! But so does TT&T whose every upgrade 1 to 2 to 3 megs progressively slowed my actual working speed and the connection became ever more unstable. That, with the rumours of their imminent collapse, persuaded me to switch to TOT a month ago which, at first gave me a stable connection and a reasonable speed of about 2 megs at best. This last week, however, the speed has steadily deteriorated and now is rarely above 0.1 megs including for Thai based sites.

Virtually no accountability, consumer rights or regulatory authority of course in the lovely LOS for Thai people or farangs so what to do ?

The oldchestnut again - internet speed.  Doesanybody know what has happened to TOT (they don't) in the last week ?  It has got slower and slower until we are backto: I will grow old and die before the Bangkok Post front page loads.

On the 3megpackage today it was 1.9 at 3am, 0.9 by 9am and it is now 1pm and at less than0.1 where it will no doubt stay until well after midnight.  At this speed it is almost useless for mostpractical purposes and the Thai sites seem even worse than the external ones.

I thoughtsome new Asia-US cable was coming on line last month and this was going topropel us to the speed of light !  It isnow even slower than the dial up service I used from Jasmine about four yearsago in Bangkok.

I tried thenew 10 meg service from TT&T at Big C Hangdog yesterday and it is certainlygood but not better than the Premier service, when it worked properly, from whichI recently switched to TOT because of erratic connection.  Well that has turned out to be out of thefrying pan and right into the fire since although the TOT connection is prettystable, it's so called “speed” has deteriorated to a very slow crawl.

Is thereand answer ???

Varee is quite a new school and as the head of the bilingual programme told me, we have not got everything right yet but we are trying and I believe that to be true. My two grandsons are very happy indeed studying there and would not miss a day at school for anything, which is of course extremely important if not the total objective.

We have found the staff to be very available for parental contact and most of them seem to be genuinely caring in their attitude to the children, which is fairly rare in Thailand as professional commitment is not something which is generally understood, in any profession.

I suspect that Madame Varee is a bit of a slave driver since the staff do work long hours more akin to a shift in a Chinese coal mine than an academic day. This is a pity since it is obviously the quality of the relationship and communication between teacher and taught which forges a good education, rather than the number of hours spent on site.

I do agree that in general the school seems over accommodating to some parents and for my preference, discipline is way too lax with far too much chatter in class being tolerated. However, I do belong to a very old and unfashionable tradition which believes that children actually have to listen to their teachers in order to learn.

In the end I suppose it is comes down to the old clichés of the curate’s egg and horses for courses. For my two little chaps it is the right school from the choice available in Chiang Mai, since neither of them is an academic dynamo and they are not overstretch for their natural ability, except possibly by their fearsome strict old Grandpa !

I sure hope not as Internet speeds are as bad as ever, internationally...

Yes indeed, I hope not too since speeds with TOT in Chiang Mai in the last few days have got worse and worse till we are back to, I will grow old and die before this page loads.

Why the hel_l this cannot be fixed and kept fixed, god alone knows but ti is total agony at present.

well if its any use, i had a total hip replacement at ram 6 weeks ago, and couldn't have asked for any more,well on the way to recovery, another 6 weeks and hopefully i'll be on a golf course introducing myself to some of the freaks on here, just one note of caution, bring your own food

Whoops forgot to quote the message:

What did it all cost, as a matter of interest ?