So Far Tot Ipstar Internet Working Ok

[mojaco]

This is for general information to those interested in high speed internet far from town.

This is a follow up to my questions a few days about about what high speed internet choices 15 miles east of Chiang Rai. The recommendations were (best) CAT wireless. (next best) TT&T IDSL (last choice) TOT satellite (IPSTAR). I found that CAT and TT&T were not possible in my situation so had TOT install their satellite system three days ago. I bought the 512/256 personal package for 2200 Baht per month.

The TOT installers told me that this was a "packet sharing" service so the speed would depend on how many users were on at the same time. They said the 3300 Baht per month "business" service for 512/256 was a "single user" service and the speed would remain constant close to the maximum specified no matter how many users were on the system. However they recommended that I try the "packet sharing" cheaper service first as it may be satisfactory. My actual experience these first three days is the following (approximately)

95% of the time the download speed is between 300 kbps to 400 kbps

4% of the time the download speed is between 400 kbps to 440 kbps

1% of the time the download speed is between 150 kbps to 300 kbps

So, if this continues to be the normal situation, I am satisfied. It is nice to have been able to download an 88 megabyte file in 34 minutes last night. Would have taken all night on my dial up internet line.

However regarding latency, that seems to be quite slow. I haven't started quantifying this yet, but it certainly takes a few seconds before anything starts to happen when I send a command to the internet. This is no different that when I was using the dial up internet.

[villagefarang]

Sounds like your getting better speed than I am but I am much further out of town and it was hard to find a place to set up the dish where it would get a good signal. The dish may work better after moving it to the new house. Don't know that I want those cables messing up my new home theater and computer room so may delay moving the dish for a while. Managed to get everything else put into the walls.

[mojaco]

Sounds like your getting better speed than I am but I am much further out of town and it was hard to find a place to set up the dish where it would get a good signal. The dish may work better after moving it to the new house. Don't know that I want those cables messing up my new home theater and computer room so may delay moving the dish for a while. Managed to get everything else put into the walls.

In my case they mounted the dish (which is a pretty large one which looks like about 4 feet in diameter) on the ground outside the house. The ground rises somewhat from that point to some low hills about 1 mile distant, but everything is lower than where the IPSTAR satellite is located at, so I have a clear shot to the satellite. They didn't want to try to bring the two large diameter cables from their equipment into the house (concrete walls) so they mounted their modem outside of the house in a (supposedly) rain proof housing, and only ran a single small diameter ethernet cable from their modem into the house (up through a corner of the eave soffet and down into the house.) I suppose if you did something like this also it might alleviate some of your cable issues?

[Gimbo]

How long did it take from you ordered, until it was up and running in your house?

Just ordered the same package from them myself

[mojaco]

How long did it take from you ordered, until it was up and running in your house?

Just ordered the same package from them myself

I ordered it last Thursday morning at their office in Chiang Rai. They came Monday at 1:00 PM and had it installed and working OK by 5:30 PM. Amazingly quick service, and the two TOT installers were quite efficient. They must install a lot of these.

[jckei]

Is the business option avalible in higher speeds than 512/256? If so, how much does it cost?

[localguy]

im in ban lao, chiang rung its 37 km from chiang rai

in 3 years i have had csloxinfo cost me 1600 bath a month if you pay for the hole year you get 15 & red

now i have maxnet first the normal one at 590 bath a month

after the one for 1000 bath the speed for foreign netsides is faster i have a speed of 700mb

this is really good

i hope this helps

[mojaco]

Is the business option avalible in higher speeds than 512/256? If so, how much does it cost?

Here is the complete price list they gave me last week in cost per month.

There would be 7% VAT tax on top of that.

"Home Use" = shared bandwidth ("shared packets" in their vernacular)

"Business" = guaranteed bandwidth

Home Use

------------

256/128 --- 1,500 Baht/month

512/256 --- 2,200

1024/512 --- 2,600

Business Use

---------------

256/128 --- 2,500 Baht/month

512/256 --- 3,300

1024/512 --- 4,500

2048/1024 --- 7,700

The installation fee is 2,000 plus VAT tax plus possibility of cost for travel if the site is very remote (it didn't cost for my location 15 miles east of Chiang Rai).

[jubby]

Its a shame you couldn't get a TT&T phone line.

I've just had the engineers around as I was only getting 200 Kbps from Maxnet. Got the usual 'its because your so far away' . Yes indeed , 50Kms.

I managed to get them to call the 'centre' and give me more bandwidth and now I'm getting 420 KBps. only 630 baht per month inc. Tax.

[klikster]

Its a shame you couldn't get a TT&T phone line.

I've just had the engineers around as I was only getting 200 Kbps from Maxnet. Got the usual 'its because your so far away' . Yes indeed , 50Kms.

I managed to get them to call the 'centre' and give me more bandwidth and now I'm getting 420 KBps. only 630 baht per month inc. Tax.

How far away is their node? I was told once that dsl service is only available within 5-6 km from a node.

[chang35baht]

Its a shame you couldn't get a TT&T phone line.

I've just had the engineers around as I was only getting 200 Kbps from Maxnet. Got the usual 'its because your so far away' . Yes indeed , 50Kms.

I managed to get them to call the 'centre' and give me more bandwidth and now I'm getting 420 KBps. only 630 baht per month inc. Tax.

You are indeed a very lucky man if you are getting 420KBps for 630B per month.

[designersing]

This is for general information to those interested in high speed internet far from town.

This is a follow up to my questions a few days about about what high speed internet choices 15 miles east of Chiang Rai. The recommendations were (best) CAT wireless. (next best) TT&T IDSL (last choice) TOT satellite (IPSTAR). I found that CAT and TT&T were not possible in my situation so had TOT install their satellite system three days ago. I bought the 512/256 personal package for 2200 Baht per month.

The TOT installers told me that this was a "packet sharing" service so the speed would depend on how many users were on at the same time. They said the 3300 Baht per month "business" service for 512/256 was a "single user" service and the speed would remain constant close to the maximum specified no matter how many users were on the system. However they recommended that I try the "packet sharing" cheaper service first as it may be satisfactory. My actual experience these first three days is the following (approximately)

95% of the time the download speed is between 300 kbps to 400 kbps

4% of the time the download speed is between 400 kbps to 440 kbps

1% of the time the download speed is between 150 kbps to 300 kbps

So, if this continues to be the normal situation, I am satisfied. It is nice to have been able to download an 88 megabyte file in 34 minutes last night. Would have taken all night on my dial up internet line.

However regarding latency, that seems to be quite slow. I haven't started quantifying this yet, but it certainly takes a few seconds before anything starts to happen when I send a command to the internet. This is no different that when I was using the dial up internet.

Mojaco, we have decided to go for the 512/256 package, as we are next to a huge mountain with overhanging trees etc do you think this would cause any problems with the installation? The property management staff are overlooking the installation as I will be in Bangkok for New year, and I have just thought to myself dam_n, maybe our mountainside location is going to be a problem for the ipstar reception? Any thoughts warmly welcomed!

Best

DSG

[Gimbo]

I have had my ToT Ipstar for a month now, and so far I am pleased. Sometimes have to restart the sat modem, but it always comes up again. Download speeds are ok enough. Never bothered with actually checking, but itæs fast enough for me.

Only problem I have is acessing youtube...

[designersing]

I have had my ToT Ipstar for a month now, and so far I am pleased. Sometimes have to restart the sat modem, but it always comes up again. Download speeds are ok enough. Never bothered with actually checking, but itæs fast enough for me.

Only problem I have is acessing youtube...

Hi Gimbo,

I am really looking forward to having the speed increase of ipstar, the only nagging worry I have is the installation as I will be here in Bangkok. My place is halfway up a mountain side looking outwards, I am worried now that the mountain may well be in the way of the beam? Will the dish have to be perfectly aligned or will I be able to receive a decent enough coverage wihout a 100% alignment? I think its time to have a word with the install company!

best

DSG

[DonaldBattles]

Basically, with the exception of Bangkok the people who sell broad band services are pretty much the same. What they sell they can never deliver. They know that they can never meet the specifications on an on going basis but they sell anyway. We buy because slow is better than dial up.

These systems are normally known as party lines which means that the more parties there are on the system the slower it gets. Woody Leonard in Phuket plotted the performance of most of the big suppliers and found them all the same. The speed drops off big time during the party line rush hours. If you check your speed at 01:00-04:00 most likely you will find a big difference than 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 18:00.

TOT Board of Directors denied them money they need to improve the performance of IPSTAR which could have solved the slow party line problem. I have TOT IPSTAR 1 meg speed and during the rush hour it is slow like the others. I should have followed their advice and stayed with the 512/256 K speeds as my situtation did not improve during the rush hour just spending more money for nothing. I have had there technicians check the system several times. Don't know what they do but as long as they are they seem to be able to choke a little more out of the system. Later on it goes back to normal.

IPSTAR is the largest comminication satellite ever launched and is special for broad band. In 1959-62 I worked at Cape Canaveral launching early communication satellites in low earth orbits. I never dreamed that one day an IPSTAR would be built and in geo sync orbit. AMAZING!

There seems to be no money available for expansion of the TOT ADSL system and they have no idea when it might happen in Chiang Rai.

Now that the "Rice Provinces" have spoken and won in the last 3 elections there might be a chance that TOT and CAT can do something about this. Bangkok may have to go begging.

[Gimbo]

I have had my ToT Ipstar for a month now, and so far I am pleased. Sometimes have to restart the sat modem, but it always comes up again. Download speeds are ok enough. Never bothered with actually checking, but itæs fast enough for me.

Only problem I have is acessing youtube...

Hi Gimbo,

I am really looking forward to having the speed increase of ipstar, the only nagging worry I have is the installation as I will be here in Bangkok. My place is halfway up a mountain side looking outwards, I am worried now that the mountain may well be in the way of the beam? Will the dish have to be perfectly aligned or will I be able to receive a decent enough coverage wihout a 100% alignment? I think its time to have a word with the install company!

best

DSG

You need a clear view to the sky in the south. And yes, it needs to be perfectly alligned.

[klikster]

I had Loxinfo IPStar for 2 years .. mainly because I didn't have a telephone line. When having my first trouble, Loxinfo played the "palm trees in the way" card. Then I moved, an entire 7 km and they came up with "the footprint is better for your old house." Getting to the bottom of the problem seemed to always resolve to changing the gateway. As far as alignment, they told me 120 degrees (as already mentioned) and 82 degrees vertical (18 degrees off straight up).

On one particular service trip, I asked them if maybe the dish shouldn't be re aligned. When it was installed at the second house, the front yard was freshly filled. I was also on the coast near Bangsaphan and had some pretty severe rain and wind. They told me the realignment was not necessary as it was not that critical.

Every time I think of complaining of my Bt 700 Maxnet issues, I just remember the Bt 2,700 satellite nightmare. Thank you, Maxnet .. if only you would stop bandwidth shaping.

[mojaco]

Mojaco, we have decided to go for the 512/256 package, as we are next to a huge mountain with overhanging trees etc do you think this would cause any problems with the installation? The property management staff are overlooking the installation as I will be in Bangkok for New year, and I have just thought to myself dam_n, maybe our mountainside location is going to be a problem for the ipstar reception? Any thoughts warmly welcomed!

Best

DSG

DSG, For the technically inclined about IPSTAR broadband antenna alignment, the IPSTAR-1 satellite is Thaicom-4 which apparently replaced Thaicom-1A at orbital position 120 degrees east (for instance see the article at

http://www.aprsaf.org/data/aprsaf14_data/d...-aprsaf%20.pdf).

There is a program that can be downloaded called "Satellite Antenna Alignment version 2.37.2" which lets one know exactly where to point his antenna if one knows the coordinates of the antenna location (borrow a friend's GPS if needed.) One place to download this program is http://www.al-soft.com/saa/satinfo.shtml

Knowing where the satellite from your location you can probably determine pretty well whether there are obstacles in the way from your location.

From where I am 15 miles east of Chiang Rai, the satellite is 57 degrees up from the horizontal and at an Azimuth (clockwise from true north) of 133 degrees, or basically "South-East".

If there is a mountain or a large concrete building in the way, I doubt reception is possible, or at best, very weak and "iffy".

[sceadugenga]

I connected up to the land line today, TOT Adtech and am paying 590B a month for 1024/512.

A speed check just now showed my download speed was 970 and my upload 251.

Definitely faster than the Ipstar I was using an hour ago and cheaper than the 1600B I was paying.

[villagefarang]

I connected up to the land line today, TOT Adtech and am paying 590B a month for 1024/512.

A speed check just now showed my download speed was 970 and my upload 251.

Definitely faster than the Ipstar I was using an hour ago and cheaper than the 1600B I was paying.

Congrats on the move to speed on ADSL. I hope to follow you sometime this year but nobody in our village wants to sign up for landline connections. That means we will probably be last on the list.

[sceadugenga]

I connected up to the land line today, TOT Adtech and am paying 590B a month for 1024/512.

A speed check just now showed my download speed was 970 and my upload 251.

Definitely faster than the Ipstar I was using an hour ago and cheaper than the 1600B I was paying.

Congrats on the move to speed on ADSL. I hope to follow you sometime this year but nobody in our village wants to sign up for landline connections. That means we will probably be last on the list.

We've had the land line for three or four months now but my wife's nephew, who's father works for TOT in a local management position, said not to get ADSL on as they were "putting a new machine in".

Anyway they turned up today and away it went.

I must admit I'm a little IT confused personally, even my 85 year old father rabbits on about broad band etc and it sounds like a foreign language to me.

[Projectpaperclip]

tot and tt&t adsl in Kathu phuket has gone to crap over the past few months... Looking at ipstar....

How much delay is there with skype? Do they block torrents or peer to peer?

What is an average upload / download speed for your currently?

Thanks for any feedback!

[villagefarang]

tot and tt&t adsl in Kathu phuket has gone to crap over the past few months... Looking at ipstar....

How much delay is there with skype? Do they block torrents or peer to peer?

What is an average upload / download speed for your currently?

Thanks for any feedback!

IpStar is invariably a step backwards from adsl. I found that skype didn't work with ipstar but works fine with adsl. Don't believe any of us are still using ipstar.

[Projectpaperclip]

Thanks for the feedback... I guess the only thing I can do is wait for them to get their act together again.