Wireless Net

[Atli]

I arrived in Thailand this year and have so far lived in 2 apartment buildings. Both use Smart Zone as the wireless internet provider for their tenants. I, in turn, need a well functioning internet service, because, as a technical writer and translator, I have to deal with my clients overseas.

In the first building my connection was so bad that I got cut off every ten minutes and had to sign in again every time. It was also so slow that half the time that I couldn’t download anything or even open a site. In the end I gave up and went to Internet Cafes, where I experienced none of these problems.

In the second building they had an average service for 400 Baht and a “High Speed” service for 700 Baht. I took the “High Speed.” Alas, it was even slower than internet on a telephone line. Although, it didn’t cut me off, one third of the time I couldn’t even get on, and the rest of the time I could read a book while I was waiting for a site to open. Consequently, I contacted SmartZone’s customer service. They told me that the building had too many subscribers and not enough capacity to serve them all, and that there wasn’t anything they could do.

After many complaints to the building management together with other tenants we were refunded Baht 700 and promised that someone would improve the service. It took another two weeks. The net then was fine for a few days, but now everything is almost back to square one again. In addition we have total “Black Outs” occasionally. Hence, I am using internet cafes again. However, since everything I need professionally is in my desktop computer and on CD's, it is a constant backward and forward every day that costs me an enormous amount of time. (I know, I know, laptop, but my hardware and software is geared up for professional use and speed, including manual speed, and a laptop won’t do.)

How can I escape my ongoing internet disaster, short of moving to another apartment building where I might have the same problem again?

I would highly appreciate any constructive advice.

Atli

[Guest Reimar]

Where you living?

I would suggest to move to outer Bangkok Areaand rent a House or a Town-House with existing Phoneline. I living in Samut Prakarn and using TRUE 2.5 Mbps which is fine. I even run Servers from that connection without problems.

You should consider something like that.