Any Difference Between Dsl Home And Business Packages?

[kaphi]

Many ISPs in Thailand offer Home and Business packages for DSL.

Is there really a difference in terms of reliability? I noticed that my home account sometimes is on their "Fixed IP for business accounts" network, so this makes me doubtful. Aside from a fixed IP the only argument for a business package is that it's more reliable. This, I only believe when I get to test it. However, all ISPs have a minimum contract duration of 1 year for the business packages.

I don't feel like signing up for something that costs 50,000 - 100,000 THB a year with the risk of it being no better than the current 1,000 THB a month I am paying.

My problem with the home account:

- Protocols stop working. Sometimes only HTTP works and everything else (secure servers, chat programs, etc.) is down

- DNS problems. It appears they have some significant problems with their DNS.

Bandwith in general is okay, but those two problems are truely annoying. Anyone else have them? Can anyone vouch for a difference with the business packages (I'm currently on TOT / True home)

[Firefoxx]

The only right answer would be "it depends". All ISPs have differing definitions on what their "business" package is. Sometimes it's a 1:1 (not shared) full speed line with high quality and dedicated staff. Other times it's pretty much the same as the home package, it's just that you can pay for it with a business account. Normally a good indicator of what it actually is would be the price. If it's similar to the home package, then it's probably no different. If it's much more (like 10x-100x) then it's probably a real business package. The thing with the real packages is that even if you have problems, the ISP will usually be very quick to fix it, unlike the home packages.

[think_too_mut]

Business package users will get higher QoS (Quality of service) tag on everything that comes to or goes to them. Practically, higher priority than other traffic.

The difference could be noted by, for example, code developers who work from home and frequently send/receive very large compiled files to the central repository.]

Email, chat, regular surfing - hardly any difference can be felt.

[kaphi]

Thanks for the replies

For the most part I am concerned about international bandwidth. Is it really more stable? (I don't need a high bandwidth, just a stable one that allows me to surf at high speed at any given time).

How about problems with DNS servers - those seem to be VERY common. I am not sure if a switch would fix it.

Do you both have personal experience with switching from home to business?

[think_too_mut]

Do you both have personal experience with switching from home to business?

Sort of.

At work in Japan (a world class computer MNC), the network is "business".

When I come home, I can feel the difference. At home, it's 3 times faster! ISP that I am with now has a minimum of 55Mbps. Work simply does not follow that, neither it has to.

A little bit of a perspective: with fastest throughput possible, it is still faster to ship 1 petabyte (1000 terabytes) of data from San Francisco to Sydney - via a regular freighter ship (physically loading the disks onto it) than via the Internet. It takes 3+ weeks,

[Guest Reimar]

Had using SME 2048/512, 1 fixed IP from TRUE the last 3 month!

Difference? not any to the good site!

Start using my "old" home account 2560/512 again and get better speed in the moment! What will be the next time?! Who knows!

Main Difference is the payment: SME 2048/512 1 IP = Baht 5,000 a month, Home 2560/512 dyn. Baht 1,150 a month!

[kaphi]

Had using SME 2048/512, 1 fixed IP from TRUE the last 3 month!

Difference? not any to the good site!

Start using my "old" home account 2560/512 again and get better speed in the moment! What will be the next time?! Who knows!

Main Difference is the payment: SME 2048/512 1 IP = Baht 5,000 a month, Home 2560/512 dyn. Baht 1,150 a month!

That confirms what I suspected - I have true home as well. I checked the networks from which I was logged on:

ADSL HuaweiBB Truehisp Infrastructure True interne... (sounds okay)

True Internet Co., Ltd. (sounds okay)

Fix ip for coporate customer (sounds... wait, what? How can I be on that network with a home account?)

[Guest Reimar]

Had using SME 2048/512, 1 fixed IP from TRUE the last 3 month!

Difference? not any to the good site!

Start using my "old" home account 2560/512 again and get better speed in the moment! What will be the next time?! Who knows!

Main Difference is the payment: SME 2048/512 1 IP = Baht 5,000 a month, Home 2560/512 dyn. Baht 1,150 a month!

That confirms what I suspected - I have true home as well. I checked the networks from which I was logged on:

ADSL HuaweiBB Truehisp Infrastructure True interne... (sounds okay)

True Internet Co., Ltd. (sounds okay)

Fix ip for coporate customer (sounds... wait, what? How can I be on that network with a home account?)

What's your login?

True has: ****@truehisp; ****@trueadsl; ****@truefxip while the 1. for Home Account only, the 2. for Home and SME Account and the 3. for SME Account with fix IP!

[Firefoxx]

True's SME (which is SME, not business or corporate) is supposedly only slightly better than the home package, in that you get slightly better share ratios and you get a fixed IP. However, this depends on who you ask. I've had replies from True's CS (a bunch of monkeys, really) that it's a better share ratio than the home package, and from a different call that it's the same, only with fixed IP. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same.

[nikster]

It's like with any other goods - I am not going to pay more unless I know why I am paying more. The information on business packages is as good as non-existent at least for TOT. Therefore, I am not going to switch.

This is further muddied by the different parameters of quality - e.g. sharing international bandwidth over how many connections etc. It's unclear and there is no way to verify it.

In the current system I can use a downloader program and get my full international bandwidth any time of the day (1024Kbps). This makes me think TOT simply does not have the technical capability for offering business packages.

Last not least the QoS is only partially under control of the providers - they all have to go through the iternational gateway, and they all have to share the limited bandwidth out of Thailand, they are all prone to Taiwan earthquakes, etc - there are many factors contributing to availability and speed, and the provider even at the best of times can only control a few of them. The international gateway was out for 280 hours total in 2006 - nothing a provider can do about that, business package or not.

PS: For maximum availability, I would recommend two home packages from two different providers - will be better and cheaper than a business package from one provider. I currently have GPRS as backup - far from ideal, but much better than nothing.

Edited April 29, 2007 by nikster