Gprs - Anyone Notice Network Problems (ais) ?

[Crushdepth]

Anyone else having problems with using AIS's GPRS network ? I have been using it to connect my computer to the net via mobile. It was working fine until the start of the month. Now it only seems to work intermittently - up one minute, down the next.

At the moment I'm going on the theory that the bandwidth is full. I've tested a couple of different phones in different locations, so I think its a network problem - when I can't connect to GPRS neither can anyone else. The service center said it was possible that the bandwidth may be full if a lot of people are using it in your area - I'm sure they know, but they aren't handing out solid answers.

From what I've seen this isn't a local problem, its everywhere. Which sort of sucks, because they have only just released the (now not very useful) flat rate data plans.

Anyone else having problems ?

[george]

I use it maybe once a week as a backup connection. Both AIS and DTAC data conncetion via GPRS sucks!

[autonomous_unit]

AIS has been fine most of the time for me in Bangkoknoi, but just prior to seeing your post I started seeing serious dropouts that hung some of my connections. If it is happening all over the city, it is probably their gateway network rather than the local cell congestion they are talking about.

I did notice frequent problems last week when I left my phone in "automatic" network selection mode; I actually think I was getting booted off to a DTAC tower briefly and losing the GPRS association. Setting it to manual and then selecting AIS seemed to solve this.

[jayrockwell]

I've just signed up with DTAC's 1200 Baht unlimited GPRS Internet package, it has been excellent. I'm really enjoying the ability to work anywhere, anytime, in cars, on beaches, a great tool.

J

[Crushdepth]

If it is happening all over the city, it is probably their gateway network rather than the local cell congestion they are talking about.

I think so. I went up to Beung Shawahg a few days ago (say about 1.5 hours drove north) - same problem.

I'm really enjoying the ability to work anywhere, anytime, in cars, on beaches, a great tool.

So am I...when it works

[PvtDick]

What kind of speed are you getting out of GPRS connection in Thailand?

[Phil Conners]

I agree, both AIS GPRS has become really poor since about a week or so. The same goes for my standard dialup for that reason, T-net sometimes works, sometime nothing goes through. Ji-net doesn't work at all. At one point I though I might have caught some form of virus but Mcafee (fully updated) doesn't find any problems ...

Tnet helpdesk says the telephone line is bad. TT&T says my modem is bad. But the problem is the same also when using the AIS GRPS backup connection.

I think the problem is CAT's routing, but as usual they don't have one single qualified person to deal with it here. (They don't need to, there is no alternative)

[jayrockwell]

What kind of speed are you getting out of GPRS connection in Thailand?

I'm able to achieve speeds of somewhere between laidback and lethargic, in order to maintain the feeling of satisfaction that you get from going mobile DTAC recommends avoiding any actual speed tests.

And who cares, I live in Thailand, the occassional period of inactivity gives me time to observe cloud formations, wildlife or check on the family, I've been working too hard anyway.

J

[Phil Conners]

Good for you. Personally I would prefer choosing my own time to check on family and wildlife. When I have to spend hours sending a mail or posting a single message it takes away that precious time. I'm sorry but there is no way I can be as blase about that as you. You must be pleased with yourself.

c:>tracert yahoo.com

Tracing route to yahoo.com [216.109.127.29]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

 1     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 2  202.129.8.225  reports: Destination net unreachable.

Trace complete.

This is on a fresh dialup line. If it was my modem or my telephone line how can I obtain a IP lease from the server. No, I am convinced there are some problems with the router but nobody with half a clue to how to fix it.

[phazey]

I've noticed problems also. Lappy disconnects randomly, speed is no where near the advertised 40k i think that pricing change has ruined it.

But on a brighter note, the missus has moved back with me, so not so many frequent trips to bkk to endure that crap for a while.

Alough i did like IRC via gprs on the phone while sat by our lake supping coffee of a morning....bah - nothing is perfect.

[PvtDick]

What kind of speed are you getting out of GPRS connection in Thailand?

I'm able to achieve speeds of somewhere between laidback and lethargic, in order to maintain the feeling of satisfaction that you get from going mobile DTAC recommends avoiding any actual speed tests.

And who cares, I live in Thailand, the occassional period of inactivity gives me time to observe cloud formations, wildlife or check on the family, I've been working too hard anyway.

J

I'm wondering how the GPRS speed compares to using your cellphone as a dial-up modem? I've done that, dialing into Internet Thailand's regular dial-up numbers. Would GPRS be much faster? I think I got around 9kbps.

[george]

GPRS are supposed to be 35-45 kbps

[jayrockwell]

I have just checked the speed of my 3 connections using the following websites..

http://us.mcafee.com/root/speedometer.asp

http://www.bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

The results as follows...

Dialup on TOT free Internet... 33.4 Kbps

Dialup on CSLoxinfo... 39.6 Kbps

GPRS on DTAC... 16.9 Kbps

J

[autonomous_unit]

Using that McAfee link I got 19 kb/s (2.4 kB/s) right now on AIS. I have seen 5-6 kB/s from the US in the past week. Today I am seeing consistent 800ms pings to Los Angeles with low loss rates. I have tried DTAC (prepaid) from the same location and it always seemed slower. My experience is that it is always higher bandwidth than CSD dialup (which is always 9600 for me) and the latencies are comparable although yesterday the ping times doubled.

It is painful but workable to type over a remote text terminal (via ssh). For checking email I often do this because I'm mostly hitting single key commands and watching the page refresh with new email content. I can speed it up with a small terminal window, or wait for big windows to repaint if I'm feeling too lazy to hit page up/page down. This allows me to purge messages and large attachments while not waiting to download them all over GPRS... (I have friends who frequently send big PDF files, MS Word documents, digicam photos, etc. to whole lists of people, most of whom will ignore it).

On the other hand, if I want to write any significant replies I fire up a local IMAP client so I don't have to try to compose a response with so much latency. My local client will only pull down headers at first, rather than whole messages, so I can selectively go back for the few items to which I want to reply.

I use a borrowed web proxy in the US to block ads and forward that over a compressed connection. The compression really seems to make most sites load faster even though I'm pulling it through the US instead of directly. Web pages are stuffed full of fluffy junk if you ever go look at the source files...

Needless to say, I will be happy when my ADSL is eventually installed and this becomes a backup method instead of my primary method!