Anybody Actually Know What Is The Problem With Int'l Access?

[Felt 35]

I use Max net in Phuket. I’m not a heavy user so I signed up for the 256/128 kbps almost two years ago. Everything has been excellent; include customer service until 2 months ago when I without question from Max net got free (or should get more speed) 1024/512 kbps and with the same monthly fee.

Well after I got the 1024/512 kbps speed I can hardly open hotmail. Last night it was Impossible to open TV. What is a bit confusing is that I can open some International sites and some not.

I have sometime thought it is the computer, which not are able to handle the speed, but then again some days its no problems at all.

Yesterday I called the customer relation phone for Max net and they told me to shut of the PC and the router for one hour and then start again! Anyone who can tell me what that’s for! However it was the same problems when started up again!

BTW, it looks like it easier to get access in the mornings like now. What is happening? Is it a kind of dial up connection and when to many online its get crammed!

Grateful to hear if anyone else have similar problems with Max net.

Thanks.

[ThanhBKK]

Hi

Just a remark on the "shut down the computer for an hour". This excuse always comes from a callcenter, no matter what type of problem you have. I have talked to TRUE on more than one ocassion, and always heard the "please reboot your computer". I know what it's for:

While you reboot your computer (which takes a little while during which you can NOT bug them with some problem!) they will either look up your acvtual problem in their manual OR will try to find some excuse for you. Which is why the sometimes tell you (no joke!) "so you just rebooted? Fine, please reboot once more to be sure, but wait a couple of minutes!".

And in the end you usually hear "we will forward your problem to a technician and we will call you back", meaning "we have no clue what's wrong with our system and we're out of excuses but we need to get you off the phone NOW".

Best regards.....

Thanh

[gharknes]

boy are things getting worse, I just sent maxnet icare support a long nasty email, this service for now going on a month has been shiiiiit, <deleted> are they doing or trying to do, will it ever be the same - will it ever be fixed, if they need outside help they should go get it, I think it's about time customers stopped paying until they fix it.

[Felt 35]

I went in person to Max net today. It started out nice. Pretty girls promised me help from both here and there. I was told to give them my Mobil number and go home and wait for them to call me. Well I did so and the lady who called started out to tell me I had to “up” my subscription package. I told here that’s what Max net already have done and I have not lifted a finger. On the screen my speed (speed test) is up but in practical use its slower or not at all. I then for hundred and ………time got the message to call 1103…

Bye bye Max

BTW, nobody could tell me what the problem really is!!

[gharknes]

i spoke with someone today who told me they where in the process of upgrading or installing a new international link that will increase their bandwidth, due to be finished in 2 weeks

[Felt 35]

Another answer is as I discovered just now that the basic package now not cost 631, - Baht a month but are lowered to 299, - Baht.

Which naturally mean more subscribers and more mess when the bandwidth is as before.

I call it misleading of customers due to the simple reason that when I as customer sign for 128/256kbps package with maxnet I do so because that’s the package I want and I see it as they brake a contract between two parts when they suddenly offer the customer a 1024/512kbps speed with promises of paying the same fee but shortly after require the same customer to buy a package with higher speed and higher cost.

When stretch it a bit its also absolutely possible to think that okay if one are happy with surfing and open Thai websites then you get that now for 299, - Baht which probably mean that they (maxnet) get more Thai customers.

However if you are a demanding farang, well please pay up if you want to use Internet banking through your overseas Bank and read the newspaper from your local hometown.

[Felt 35]

Either has it helped that a lot of people have complained or one of the prominent guys have got tired of the slow speed because today has at least my speed been as it should be and I also have got access to International websites again.

Knock on wood and let’s hope it will last

[Sam125]

Amazing, I was able to do FTP downloads from the USA early today.

Not that fast but no timeouts.

Using TTT

[oimatchi]

Actually for the past 3-4 days, TOT is actually getting faster, hope it lasts!

I get a pretty steady 250-800 kbps international...

Cheers!

[nickbkk]

19.21 on Wednesday, 7 November:

Download Speed: 111 kbps (13.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 281 kbps (35.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 157 kbps (19.6 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 150 kbps (18.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

WOOT!

That's, like, a 200-300% improvement!

this ROCKS

soon Skype might even work again

[ramirez]

I'm adding a bit to the picture here: I have CSLOX 2 Mb/512 kbps package for 1605 Baht. Within 24 hours, dowload speeds vary from 100-200 kbps depending on the time of day (or night...), upload speed may actually reach 250 kbps.

I am currently receiving support because I am not satisfied with the download speed in particular. The support guy that called me told me that he can not see this problem with the speed as in his office he is getting a 100 Mb (!) connection. They then basically tell you to monitor the speed a couple of times per day. Then you are getting a call from a nice lady at night, asking you about your current speed situation when speed is at its peak at 200 and if speed is ok "yes" or "no", relieved from a daytime speed of ~100 you are tempted to tell her that "hmm speed is ok/better now", which will close the case. If you are saying "but speed is less at daytime, she will tell you that it is natural as more people are using the connection". If you are saying "no", then you are requested to monitor again and I assume the support circle starts from scratch.

If this speed situation persists, I could also go to TOT 2Mb/512 package for 1000 Baht, I would get the same speed and save 600 Baht monthly.

It would be great if you guys could share your provider, package and www.speedtest.net results to US servers here.

[nickbkk]

I'm adding a bit to the picture here: I have CSLOX 2 Mb/512 kbps package for 1605 Baht. Within 24 hours, dowload speeds vary from 100-200 kbps depending on the time of day (or night...), upload speed may actually reach 250 kbps.

I am currently receiving support because I am not satisfied with the download speed in particular. The support guy that called me told me that he can not see this problem with the speed as in his office he is getting a 100 Mb (!) connection. They then basically tell you to monitor the speed a couple of times per day. Then you are getting a call from a nice lady at night, asking you about your current speed situation when speed is at its peak at 200 and if speed is ok "yes" or "no", relieved from a daytime speed of ~100 you are tempted to tell her that "hmm speed is ok/better now", which will close the case. If you are saying "but speed is less at daytime, she will tell you that it is natural as more people are using the connection". If you are saying "no", then you are requested to monitor again and I assume the support circle starts from scratch.

If this speed situation persists, I could also go to TOT 2Mb/512 package for 1000 Baht, I would get the same speed and save 600 Baht monthly.

It would be great if you guys could share your provider, package and www.speedtest.net results to US servers here.

My CS Lox package at work is running fine, as far as I can tell, but that's 7000 baht per month.

My TOT at home continues to struggle.

A friend has CS Lox consumer ADSL at home and he has had NO service for 3 days. Over those 3 days, the pre-recorded message at CS Lox ("We're sorry but there are problems with....") when he calls support has changed 3 times. He's too untech for me to ascertain exactly where the problem is but at the very least it sounds like his ADSL modem cannot even log on.

Another friend, unable to work with TOT consumer ADSL is spending 2700 baht/m for 2.5 mb line. That's working very well for him.

As far as I can tell based on experience and the fact that TOT's more expensive ADSL product has no problem with bandwidht, we consumer level customers are getting totally screwed now.

[ramirez]

Another friend, unable to work with TOT consumer ADSL is spending 2700 baht/m for 2.5 mb line. That's working very well for him.

Is this a business product from TOT? I wouldnt mind spending up to this amount for a quality connection. A couple of years ago I had a KSC Consumer package which are still very high-priced but the quality was good compared to the TRUE highspeed I changed to later in the hope of saving money. Now I'm living in a new condo where TRUE is not an option, only CSLOX and TOT, or I am going back again to KSC where the next relevant package of 1 Mb/512kbps comes at 3600 Baht

Just checked CSLOX consumer download speed, Nov 16. 0:22 AM: 106 kbps.

[rafval]

this is the worst Ive known it to be in the early morning, lately it stops from about 5pm till 12, this morning thaivisa is quick apart from when it hangs on the google stuff but yahoo mail, myspace etc arent happening

[mokwit]

As it is high traffic websites that are unavailable I wonder if something like this is the real reason.

http://www.commiepod.org/?p=13

Alternatively they could quite simply have blocked the top 10 or 20 websites to save on bandwidth cost.

[ramirez]

Nope, I guess its just either they put too much stuff through a hole that its too small in order to gain maximum pro$it , or something is completely misconfigured at their end.

Again, local sites perform nicely and according to my package (cslox 2048/512), getting constantly 1600 download speed. But intl. servers, specifically US servers and all sites that are located there, perform badly. I just checked again through speedtest 6:00 pm and got 77 kbps download speed.

[Prasert]

I started measuring the latency a couple of weeks ago, when international traffic got really slow. There is improvement:

The latency measured is between Thailand and Europe, over the NTT backbone.

My experience is that traffic routed over Singtel is still slow during the day, traffic over the NTT and Cable&Wireless backbones is quite fast.

[Tony Clifton]

My Tot was upgraded from 1024/512 to 2048/1024 but it had already slowed down during daytime for a while.

Promised speeds can be achieved only between 2 am and 6 am, like clockwork every day, tested it every day for few months now.

[ade100]

Just to add a bit of good news.

In Phuket I use the TT&T Maxnet4Life package and am absolutely delighted with it (after suffering the agonies of True in BKK).

It is an SME package, 512/256 and has constantly been giving download speeds of over 400kbps. Now we have just been given a free upgrade to 1536/512 and I get consistent download speeds of over 1000kbps.

Costing 2350 bht (although I got mine on promotion at 2000 bht) it is more expensive than I would have to pay in Singapore or Europe. But the speed and reliability are just as good.

However I am going to have to switch to TOT as we are moving house. This may wipe the smug grin off my face :-)

[Deksan]

Man, there is some FUD on the net, especially in here. If ignorance is bliss, I envy so many people who post to TV forums.

1. Statements like "you can't compare North America and Europe to Asia," when meant to imply that Asia, as a block, suffers in terms of infrastructure, investment, technology and internet bandwidth are incredibly ignorant and pointless. The term Asia covers everything from perhaps Afghanistan (and, arguably, Turkey) all the way to Japan in the East, Siberia in the North and what Indonesia in the South? However, even if we assume "Asia" is mistakenly meant to refer to Southeast Asia and Pacific rim Asian nations, the statement is pointless. Nationas like Japan, HK and Singapore are most definitely 1st world, while China, Vietnam and Laos, on the other hand, are at different stages along the path from 2nd world to 1st, though Laos "enjoys" mostly 3rd world characteristics. Thailand is struggling with its endless, fitful attempts at solidifying its place in the 1st world. And what is Malaysia? There is a world of difference between internet access, domestically AND internationally, between Singapore and Burma, but they are both in Asia.

"Bandwidth in Thailand has sucked miserably for ages" Huh? Thailand actually has some pretty dam_n impressive domestic internet infrastructure.

ALL of Asia suffers from the same critical issues as far as foreigners are concerned, however: bandwidth to the "real" internet, whose center of gravity is somewhere in the mid-Atlantic, between the USA and Europe. The "real" internet isn't interested in content here, is it? ISPs here have to pay the cost of the ENTIRE link from here to the "real" internet. That's not cheap. Cut them some slack.

It's very unfair to expect anything even close to the quality of access (bandwidth and latency) here that you might take for granted in the population centres of Europe and North America. If you think your options for reliable, affordable bandwidth suck (in the wrong way) here, try moving to the middle of nowhere in the USA.

If it s that expensive why arent they doing their best to ensure that it s being used optimally ? Quota ? Restricting the high consummers ?

2. For reasons of language, culture, tradition, many Asian countries simply don't need to support YOUR access to Hotmail, YouTube, Google.com, etc. For example, there's a very good reason why Japanese countries ruled the fax machine industry and almost totally missed the PC boat.

So who we address our concern it s not True Intranet ? It's true internet. Solve point 1) and point 2) is inexistant as the expensive internationnal links are used optimally.

3. If you think customer service sucks here, try living in Malaysia for a while. They even "benefitted" from British rule, so you can't go there and blame education, culture or whatever.

I have sent an email complaining with a traceroute that their were high packet loss + a shift from 200ms -> 1000ms, the 11 september. The reply i got is we ll check it and send u an email when everything is back online ? After an email every 2 weeks for a month and a half, they told me an internationnal cable was cut and i could contact cat with some phone number. I said i wont call CAT and waiting for them to tell me when it will be fixed. They told me they ll send me an email once it s back online. After 2 months and a half no email.

Customer support = 0 because

1) i send them a traceroute showing the issue : Thks for reporting we will contact you when it s solved ....

2) I never got a reply from them

About education I ll quote an email I received from true that says it all :

"Therefore, the issue might cause imbalance speed of information between Microsoft Processor and devices or crowded traffic in Paris, which it is beyond to control the issue."

4. You really think so many people in Thailand are browsing The Nation and the Bangkok Post websites that Thailand's international bandwidth is being hit? Please....

No but a thai newspaper being host outside thailand says it all ... Compare the price and service for local hosting and aboard hosting and you ll get your answer. That s where providers fails.

5. There has never been enough bandwidth here to satisfy demand? Please direct me to this mythical land where there IS enough bandwidth to satisfy demand.

you are right there never going to be enough bandwidth, but at least there should be enough bandwidth for everyone so you dont wait 2mn for a page to load and ends with a failure to dld .... The bandwidth isnt an issue, it s the way it is spent, there is a point where there is enough bandwidth but if it s not shared correctly ( a torrent x 10000 connection -> 400k/s / voip call x 1 connection cant pass through ) it s pointless to have more. This is where tech center needs to do their job. Ppl cant complain about torrent it s not a real time thing, if you dld a movie in 1h30mn or 3h it doesnt matters, but u cant have a correct voip conversation with one word every 2s it has to be realtime.

All this debate over bandwidth in/into Thailand will soon be moot, anyway. In addition to clean water and air, we'll soon be killing each other for IP addresses. That's IF all that "endlessly available" bandwidth you all seem to think exists in the "real" world hasn't already collapsed under the weight of streaming HD video; full-page Flash-video "designer" websites; Windows Vista updates; Bluray torrents; misbehaving CISCO routers; commercial, military and political botnet attacks by Russia and China; Californian brushfires; and rolling power outages.

In the meantime, I'm more concerned about news articles combining phrases like "laptop per child," "shared by a number of children," "free and open," and "Canadian."

Y'all have a nice day, now.

You too !

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi.

Another valid point is the fact that many THAI companies have websites that use HUGE "intro" animations - just yesterday i wanted to check out show times of a movie in the IMAX theater - i don't know where that site is hosted, but i was not really surprised to see "downloading intro - 1026 KB" and NO "skip intro" button! Once the MEGABYTE page had loaded i could then click "English" - to have it load another FULL MEGABYTE of "intro" in English!

And then the usual - the whole intro was about that particular movie (Beowulf) and on the bottom it said "ticket price info click here" and upon clicking there i got prices for all movies they show - EXCEPT Beowulf!

Other Thai websites are completely overloaded with blinking, flashing, slowly loading animations so that sometimes it is a pain to wait for them - and always what you NEED to see (i.e. the text body of the page) is the LAST thing to appear, after all the animations, advertising banners etc.

Best regards....

Thanh