3BB Internet Speeds - Confused can someone explain

[Thomas J]

6 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Right now AMD crushes Intel in many regards.

Eisfeld,

 

You seem very knowledgeable.  One final stupid question.  If I upgrade to a new computer.  I assume that I would want a wireless card inside that was 802.11 ac or 802.11 ax with the preference being 802.11 ax.  Will I notice a significant increase in speed in surfing the internet or at 225 mbps the difference upwards not all that noticeable.  I could easily upgrade the hard drive in my current computer to something larger.  I am not sure about updating the wireless card.  Apparently some are removable and some are integrated into the motherboard.  My current I-5 processor is still very adequate. 

[eisfeld]

Honestly I don't think you will notice much improvement upgrading to a new Wifi standard that gives you more throughput. Your internet speed even at 200Mbps is more than enough for web browsing. You also already have an SSD and 8GB of RAM which I think are the most important specs for a "snappy" experience. Yes a new laptop will be a bit faster but it wont be a night and day like going from HHD to SSD.

 

As for internet bandwidth: 100Mbps is probably more than good enough for the vast majority of people. You can stream several 4K videos at the same time with that. The biggest usability impact to web browsing is usually latency which you can't really improve. The only other thing then would be packet loss on your Wifi but if the signal strength is good enough and you don't have a lot of interference then all should be ok.

 

I actually think you could have gone with the 590THB 1Gbps/100Mbps package from 3BB and would see no difference in your daily usage. Unless you regularily upload lots of big files or streaming (uploading) a bunch of HD video feeds.

[Thomas J]

2 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

I actually think you could have gone with the 590THB 1Gbps/100Mbps package

Eisfeld,  I thought about that.  We were on the 200/200 package and I did not want to downgrade.  I upload some video clips and pictures mostly to Facebook but even those don't take too long.  Then again it was only 110 THB to upgrade to the 1gbps /500 package. 

[30la]

It is really a problem of 3BB, I had 100/100, I often received only 8.00, now I connect the computer with the mobile hotspot of my phone and it is much faster ...

[eisfeld]

2 minutes ago, 30la said:

It is really a problem of 3BB, I had 100/100, I often received only 8.00, now I connect the computer with the mobile hotspot of my phone and it is much faster ...

You can't extrapolate from your problem to everyone else. Clearly Thomas J's issue is not same as yours. Did you let 3BB figure out the issue and how did you test?

[Bangkok Barry]

5 hours ago, recom273 said:

Why don't you get the 3BB tech round your house to sort all this out?

 

Make a report and they will send the tech round. I had an issue on Monday, I had them back and forth for three days until it was sorted out and I was happy.

 

I was only getting slow speeds, the guy changed the hardware, spoke to his local office that gave me the wrong router, then returned the next day because my test results didn't match his, we changed a couple of settings and I was satisfied.

Exactly what I was going to write. My fist move would be to involve the 3BB engineer. That's what I did when I was upgraded automatically to 200/200 a while back but still got no more than 100. Turns out my ancient laptop could only handle 100. Not the same setup as the OP, but the engineer would be a good starting point.

[Dustdevil]

17 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

This is probably not the best time to be testing internet speeds as everyone is at home and using.  In USA almost impossible to even upload these days as so overworked (even with sites such as YouTube using lowest quality for video).  That said using 200/200 from True and currently have 221/228 (true speed) and 223/219 (speedtest net) here in Bangkok.  As said will be much lower if going outside of Thailand.

That's a broad and misleading statement. First, I assume you're using your phone as a computer? Second, I live in an apartment complex that has 1gb fiber optic included in the rent, which in practical terms, the end-user (my) download speed is 250-270 mb/s on my laptop, and something over 100 mb/s on my amazon tablets. Some people with older hardware need to buy a dual-band adopter. When I had my old laptop it supported only the lower band and 100 mb/s but with the dual-band adaptor 250 mb/s. Now with a newer, SSD laptop, high band is the default mode and as I said, 250-270 mb/s using apartment complex's fiber optic. That's wifi speed, by the way. I don't bother with ethernet connection because if I do, it knocks out my smart TV's streaming capability.

[Dustdevil]

17 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Just used their test site:

https://speedtest.3bb.co.th/

(you used the same?)
All other results won't be interesting to 3BB!

 

Numbers are about OK (898/495).

All wired.

I don't have a mobile/WiFi that could come anywhere close to these numbers.

 

What you can do: check the properties of the LAN/ethernet connection.

Does it say that it is indeed a Gigabit connection?

How to? Depends on your OS.

 

I know that is not of much practical use.

But well it was just a 100 Baht more.

Best I get is youtube Video downloads at about 400 Mbit/s (depends on age and type of video, some are much slower).

Nice to have and I prefer watching with VLC much over the web player.

I never watch anything on a phone or a computer except when traveling. I download video files onto external hard drives, also flash drives, and plug them directly into the 60" TV, which also has a sound bar with woofer. Prefer a more cinematic experience. If I'm traveling, I use the excellent MX player on phone and 10" tablet. It works far better than VLC on those devices. The latter muffles the sound, for one thing.

Edited April 3, 2020 by Dustdevil

[Dustdevil]

16 hours ago, recom273 said:

Yes, agreed .. I usually avoid them at all costs .. but the guy that came on Monday was cool, he knew straight away why I wasn't getting the speeds - the fibre terminal was out of date and would never reach 1000/1000, but as far as the helpline was concerned, I upgraded my package then I should have got the speeds.

 

He sent me to the shop to pick up a new router ( I wasn't allowed in the shop without a mask ) and the sent the wife away with a brown box and "we can confirm it is in bridge mode" which it wasn't .. and then I called them to come and set up the router in bridge mode.

 

Another tech turned up, and then called the shop to find out why I had been given another bit of kit that wasn't capable of reaching 1000/1000 - the answer was "well we didn't have the right kit, so we fobbed him off with something to keep him happy" - He explained to them that they couldn't treat customers like this .. I was really impressed.

 

He then called around, drove to another shop that was closed, and returned and plummed it in, while I was working in my office.

 

When I checked the speeds through my mesh network via ethernet, I wasn't getting the same speeds as he was getting direct from the 3BB router, so I opened a ticket late at night.

 

The network team were on the phone the next day, an hour later, both the techs were sorting out their router so that my router could output the same as theirs - they didn't have to do this, they could have just walked away .. but I was really impressed, so much so I bought them lunch.

 

My advice with 3BB is don't be fobbed off, make the helpline operators life hell, ask fo the ticket number, chase up every query until you get the result you are looking for, the people you want to speak to are the people hidden behind the frontline staff, but reaching the trick.

And technology is supposed to make our lives easier.

[Curt1591]

Did they upgrade your router? 

[jimmjam]

I couldnt tell you because my 3bb fibre has been off since yesterday evening.

????????

[lopburi3]

35 minutes ago, Dustdevil said:

That's a broad and misleading statement. First, I assume you're using your phone as a computer?

It is a statement of facts as I understand them, my current conditions using a True 200/200 circuit from computer attached to modem and I am not using my phone as a computer.

[snowgard]

20 hours ago, Thomas J said:

KhunBENQ  Yes I used their test site for both the wireless and ethernet tests.  Strange that the wireless was faster than the ethernet connection and the iphone was faster wireless than the laptop. 

Do you used a Cat5 or 5e or 6 network cable? 

https://www.pcwdld.com/cat-5-vs-cat-5e

[Max69xl]

21 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Ethernet cable CAT at least 5 should be faster than WiFi ?, dont

know why yours is not, 

1 GB - 500 GB package you are never going to get that,especially

connecting overseas,so you are wasting your money,does your

router have a Gigabyte port ? if not you will never get the speeds

promised.

regards worgeordie

You need at least Cat5e. e stands for enhanced. 

[Thomas J]

On 4/2/2020 at 5:41 PM, eisfeld said:

Honestly I don't think you will notice much improvement upgrading to a new Wifi standard that gives you more throughput

Eisfeld, 

Any thoughts,  I had 3BB technical come out and they plugged in their ACER laptop to my internet connection.  They got speeds of almost 1 GB and speeds over 500 mbps on upload.  Plugging mine in, I got half of that.  I understand my computer is older but the LAN is suppose to be capable of 1 GB and my processor is an I5.  

[eisfeld]

1 hour ago, Thomas J said:

Eisfeld, 

Any thoughts,  I had 3BB technical come out and they plugged in their ACER laptop to my internet connection.  They got speeds of almost 1 GB and speeds over 500 mbps on upload.  Plugging mine in, I got half of that.  I understand my computer is older but the LAN is suppose to be capable of 1 GB and my processor is an I5.  

I'm not sure what the bottleneck on your laptop is. It could be the lan chipset or outdated drivers, some setting somewhere etc. But since it's an Intel network card specified at 1Gbps (not GB, that's like kph vs km) those are usually capable of reaching nearly their specified speeds, surely better than 50%.

 

Have you checked your CPU usage during the test? Maybe it's maxing that out. My Macbook Air is going to nearly 20% CPU usage with just 50Mbps.

[Thomas J]

2 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Have you checked your CPU usage during the test? Maybe it's maxing that out. My Macbook Air is going to nearly 20% CPU usage with just 50Mbps.

elsfeld

 

Here is the CPU,  Looks low to me.  

 

[eisfeld]

This is not during the speed test if that 0.1 Mbps next to it is right. Also are you running a VPN at the same time?

[Thomas J]

Just now, eisfeld said:

This is not during the speed test if that 0.1 Mbps next to it is right. Also are you running a VPN at the same time?

No that is not during the speed test.  I turned the VPN off

[eisfeld]

1 minute ago, Thomas J said:

No that is not during the speed test.  I turned the VPN off

Well of course you have to check during the speed test if your CPU usage is high.

[Thomas J]

9 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

Well of course you have to check during the speed test if your CPU usage is high.

Eisfeld

 

You are correct,  I am maxing out the CPU.  Now why would that be with an I5 processor? 

 

Edited April 4, 2020 by Thomas J

[Thomas J]

Eistfeld 

Now this makes no sense to me.  My speed test shows a much faster upload speed than a download speed. 
I am over the speed promised by 3bb for uploads but way under for downloads.  If it is the processor at Max why wouldn't it impact the upload speed as well? 

[eisfeld]

Probably easier to send data out than receive. On receive it might need to process the data a bit but when sending it's an easier operation. Just a wild guess.

 

Or maybe that speed test server that you are hitting right now has a lot of other people performing tests.

 

"i5" by itself doesn't mean much. There are slow i5 and faster i5. This particular i5-3340M was released 7 years ago, is a mobile processor and not exactly a flagship. Considering this, getting 300-500Mbps should be OK.

 

The real question is: why would you want more? More throughput will make zero difference for web browsing. It's more than fast enough for any streaming you might want to do (both up and down). It will only make a bit of a difference for downloading big files but even then it's not slow by any means and most servers wont give you 1Gbps download speeds anyways. And if you use something like Bittorrent for the transfer then you might be able to get more speed if the client is more CPU efficient than a browser downloading over HTTP.

 

All in all seems like it's OK.

[muratremix]

29 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

Eisfeld

 

You are correct,  I am maxing out the CPU.  Now why would that be with an I5 processor? 

 

speedtest consumes too much cpu when speed is high. It's not optimized for higher speeds on browsers. That's why they made a windows app which uses less cpu resources.

[Thomas J]

4 minutes ago, eisfeld said:

"i5" by itself doesn't mean much. There are slow i5 and faster i5. This particular i5-3340M was released 7 years ago, is a mobile processor and not exactly a flagship. Considering this, getting 300-500Mbps should be OK.

eisfeld

I guess it does not mean a lot but given I am at my max at 128 gig I have to upgrade my hard drive anyway soon.  

I saw this computer and it looked pretty good to me, given its specs.  Any thoughts? Lenova computer.  13,900 thb

[Muzzique]

You mentioned you had an older computer before. Did you swap out the LAN cable when you upgraded the PC to a  new one? Given the specs and the fact that the phone is using wireless that is the first point I would start. 

 

Worth while spending the money on a good cable that is actually a real brand and not a fake as that could the reason too. Very hard to spot fakes for real these days. Move the PC onto a wireless connection and check if that helps. Alt link the PC to the phone via USB and use its wifi connection for internet access. That should help you see if the issue is processor related or connection related.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Muzzique

[Thomas J]

1 minute ago, Muzzique said:

You mentioned you had an older computer before. Did you swap out the LAN cable when you upgraded the PC to a  new one?

Muzzique

I had the 3bb technicians use their cord and then mine.  They got the same results on both

[Muzzique]

9 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

Muzzique

I had the 3bb technicians use their cord and then mine.  They got the same results on both

Ok, then could be  your PC's LAN port. I am assuming you don't have a wireless connection on the PC so try access the internet using the phones wireless Wifi connection linked to the PC via USB to see if the PC speed still runs slow.

 

That would at least establish it is not a hardware connection problem.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Muzzique

[eisfeld]

3 minutes ago, Muzzique said:

Ok, then could be the router. I am assuming you dont have a wireless connection on the PC so try access the internet using the phones wireless Wifi connection linked to the PC via USB to see if the PC speed still runs slow.

If you read all the posts then you will notice that:

 

1. He tried on his computer (which is a laptop) via Wifi already

2. It can't be the router if the tech guys get full speed going through the same router

3. We ruled the cable being the issue out already

 

  

10 minutes ago, Thomas J said:

eisfeld

I guess it does not mean a lot but given I am at my max at 128 gig I have to upgrade my hard drive anyway soon.  

I saw this computer and it looked pretty good to me, given its specs.  Any thoughts? Lenova computer.  13,900 thb

 

 

What are your main usecases for the laptop?

 

If pictures and movies are important than I would try to look for something that does not use a "TN" panel for the display for example. Then I would look for IPS or VA which have better viewing angles and colors.

 

The CPU is fine, 512GB SSD is fine as well. I'd be more happy if it was a TLC and not QLC but ok. SSDs are easy to upgrade anyways should you ever have the need.

 

8GB RAM is fine.

 

My advise would be the following:

 

Go to a shop where you can see the difference between certain display panel technologies (TN, IPS, VA etc). Maybe it's something that you find worthwhile or maybe the difference wont matter to you.

 

Then I'd wait one or two months until the first laptops with Ryzen 4000 hit the shops here. If they turn out too expensive then at least maybe the older 3000 series might get discounted.

[Thomas J]

10 minutes ago, Muzzique said:

Ok, then could be  your PC's LAN port. I am assuming you don't have a wireless connection on the PC so try access the internet using the phones wireless Wifi connection linked to the PC via USB to see if the PC speed still runs slow.

Muzzique, 

No I do have a wireless connection.  It runs just over 200 MBPS   so the Ethernet is faster,  Just not as fast as the lan card says it is capable of.