Dtac Gprs/edge Service

[jonniebkk]

I have been using a Sierra Wireless Aircard for the past couple months on Dtac's GPRS/EDGE network. It was all going great...good speeds and solid connections till a few days ago when it all seemed to crash!!! Speeds of a few (5-10 kbps) making it basically useless. Most sites timed-out etc. I didn't know what happened. Thought maybe it was problem with Sierra's or network provider's communications software so re-installed and updated all those all to no avail?.

I figure it's a network issue...anyone else have a problem with Dtac's network the past few days? I live in Pattaya, if that makes a difference.

[monty]

Haven't tried recently, normally only use Dtac as a back-up...

You can try popping in a one2call simcard (available for 50 Baht), put 100 Baht credit on and surf away (1 Baht/minute).

[jonniebkk]

You can try popping in a one2call simcard (available for 50 Baht), put 100 Baht credit on and surf away (1 Baht/minute).

Thanks Monty. DTAC was fine then all of a sudden basically nothing! Communication software shows high signal strength but seems to be no data thruput.

DTAC is B 3.5 PER HOUR. Are you sure about AIS price (B 30 per hour)?

[nikster]

With AIS prepaid you can also get a 100 BHT/month 20 hour package. Which should work when you are just trying it out. Has worked OK for me just recently in BKK.

Is that 3.5 BHT/h DTAC rate just that, pay per hour, or is it part of some package? Is it available on pre-paid cards? That would be excellent for my usage, really. Most of the time I don't make use of my 20h/month, not even close...

[jonniebkk]

Is that 3.5 BHT/h DTAC rate just that, pay per hour, or is it part of some package? Is it available on pre-paid cards? That would be excellent for my usage, really.

I use pre-paid cards...you load the time in the SIM/phone...then call DTAC and request to purchase EDGE time. Several packages of hours...20-100. I buy the 100 hours for B 350 (B 3.5 per hour) and they deduct the time from your account.

[Gary A]

I use pre paid AIS and get 250 hours per month for 500 baht. The speed is up and down but quite acceptable. Compared to the Crapstar I had, it's GREAT.

[monty]

With AIS, if you do nothing (i.e. not subscribe to a package) then GPRS will cost you 1 Baht/minute. I just mentioned it because it might be useful if you just want to test for a few minutes.

If you like the performance, then you do the same as you did with Dtac. Call customer service (1175) and ask for the available packages, and choose one. Prices are comparable...

Actually, I use AIS as my main simcard (with a 100 hour/month package), but have a Dtac simcard standby. If AIS for some reason becomes too slow to use, I just swap simcards!

I do not have a package on the Dtac sim, as I maybe only use it anywhere between 10 minutes and 60 minutes per month (which would cost me between 10 and 60 Baht)...

[JonnieB]

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[Plus]

I have been using a Sierra Wireless Aircard for the past couple months on Dtac's GPRS/EDGE network. It was all going great...good speeds and solid connections till a few days ago when it all seemed to crash!!! Speeds of a few (5-10 kbps) making it basically useless. Most sites timed-out etc. I didn't know what happened. Thought maybe it was problem with Sierra's or network provider's communications software so re-installed and updated all those all to no avail?.

I figure it's a network issue...anyone else have a problem with Dtac's network the past few days? I live in Pattaya, if that makes a difference.

That happened to me a couple of years ago when I was using SonyEriccson card. EDGE has stopped working and I was reduced to regular slow GPRS speeds.

My guess is that they tweaked their EDGE protocols and forgot to test them with already existing hardware. Like when they intorduced Sierra card, SE stopped working. Maybe they have some other, new card coming and they adjusted their network to work with it. Screw the already existing users, as far as Dtac goes, you don't exist for them anymore.

I went to their HQ service center twice. They called up a tech guy upstairs and all he could say is "Edge is working fine, go away". Service staff downstairs had nothing to add except promise to call back when they find a solution.

[lomatopo]

As monty suggests, try a One-2-Call SIM just to see if it performs better thus narrowing the problem to DTAC. You could also try a different location (assumes you have a notebook), to see if the issues are specific to your serving base-station. Also try a different modem/handset. You could also look for some diagnostic software to determine what your dynamic timeslot allocation looks like.

I think with these mobile data providers you are riding on an internal private network so subject to vagaries of said network. And, in theory a service provider is going to give preference to voice service so expect data channel re-/de-allocation to occur frequently as voice traffic increases and decreases.

What network applications are you running? How are you testing the speed? What kinds of speeds were you getting before?

[Woofer]

I have been using a Sierra Wireless Aircard for the past couple months on Dtac's GPRS/EDGE network. It was all going great...good speeds and solid connections till a few days ago when it all seemed to crash!!! Speeds of a few (5-10 kbps) making it basically useless. Most sites timed-out etc. I didn't know what happened. Thought maybe it was problem with Sierra's or network provider's communications software so re-installed and updated all those all to no avail?.

I figure it's a network issue...anyone else have a problem with Dtac's network the past few days? I live in Pattaya, if that makes a difference.

I am in Pattaya and using AIS with an edge modem. For the past week I am having trouble accessing international and local Thai sites. About all I can access is email, thai visa and the Bangkok post. I am not sure of the problem.

[jonniebkk]

I will procure an AIS card and see if that makes a difference. I use a Sierra Wireless Aircard 775 on a notebook at my house. Maybe it is a base-station issue that's specific to my location. Maybe the cell-tower is down or something. Hopefully, if that is the case, they will fix it soon. But who knows, maybe it's a sunspot activity flare-up

I am no techie but I assume that on these cell networks, voice traffic would have priority over data. However, it was working fine (could even stream audio podcasts with no problem) but for the 4 days now, basically useless. Even local Thai sites take 5 minutes or more to even load the home page (if it doesn't timeout or reset the connection in the interim).

[lomatopo]

I am no techie but I assume that on these cell networks, voice traffic would have priority over data. However, it was working fine (could even stream audio podcasts with no problem) but for the 4 days now, basically useless. Even local Thai sites take 5 minutes or more to even load the home page (if it doesn't timeout or reset the connection in the interim).

OK, now as you provide more details, it sounds like a DNS issue within the DTAC private network. Can you open a DOS box (Start, Run, cmd), then enter ipconfig /all and post the results? Especially interested in the IP address (you can just post the first set of numbers) and the DNS servers.

[jonniebkk]

Can you open a DOS box (Start, Run, cmd), then enter ipconfig /all and post the results? Especially interested in the IP address (you can just post the first set of numbers) and the DNS servers.

Does this have to be done, I suspect, while connected to the DTAC network using the Sierra Wireless Aircard adapter?

IP Address...192.168.1.4

DNS Servers...192.168.1.1

The numbers don't match...mean anything?

[jonniebkk]

Can you open a DOS box (Start, Run, cmd), then enter ipconfig /all and post the results? Especially interested in the IP address (you can just post the first set of numbers) and the DNS servers.

Does this have to be done, I suspect, while connected to the DTAC network using the Sierra Wireless Aircard adapter?

IP Address...192.168.1.4

DNS Servers...192.168.1.1

The numbers don't match...mean anything?

Above information was when connected via wifi network...

this is what I get when "connected" via EDGE:

Physical Address...00-A0-D5-FF-FF-89

Dhcp and Autoconfig Enabled ...Yes

IP Address..10.122.36.179

various values for subnet mask, default gateway, and DHCP server...

DNS Servers...192.168.165.1

203.155.33.2

Something about leases obtained and expiring

Anything there useful?

[lomatopo]

You are on a private network (the IP address begining with 10. verifies this), and are using a public and a private DNS servers. I suspect that is where your problem lies. Maybe do some research on OpenDNS and GPRS to figure out how to add OpenDNS servers to your GPRS connection. But then sometimes these private networks get bogged down with traffic from who knows where.

Can you run a speedtest at speedtest.csloxinfo.com and share the results.

[monty]

Currently connected to AIS, using an HP 6828 ipaq as a modem through USB cable.

PPP adapter HP_EDGE:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :

Description . . . . . . . . . . . : WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface

Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-53-45-00-00-00

Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : No

IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.174.199.237

Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.255

Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 10.174.199.237

DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 203.146.237.237

202.149.24.5

NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Disabled

AIS also puts you on a private net, but both DNS servers are public.

Now looking the numbers over, although I'm pretty good on the TCP/IP protocol, I'm having a bit of a problem getting my head around the fact that the gateway IP is the same as the IP assigned to the dial up session

But it does work

[Plus]

Try AIS sim, if possible, my Sony Ericcson card was locked to Dtac only.

"IP Address..10.122.36.179

various values for subnet mask, default gateway, and DHCP server...

DNS Servers...192.168.165.1

203.155.33.2"

default gateway could be useful to know, but if it's DNS problem - what is 192.168.165.1? It looks like your local machine, and as such it might have problems with resolving DNS on its own. Try to get rid of it via 'Connection properties" in your control panel and replace it with something begining with 203... I'd give you True Bangkok DNS servers but you probably have something closer - look in your installation manual or any dial up card settings.

[jonniebkk]

default gateway could be useful to know, but if it's DNS problem - what is 192.168.165.1? It looks like your local machine, and as such it might have problems with resolving DNS on its own. Try to get rid of it via 'Connection properties" in your control panel and replace it with something begining with 203... I'd give you True Bangkok DNS servers but you probably have something closer - look in your installation manual or any dial up card settings.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I should probably add that this Wireless Air Card (775) is from the USA and originally programed to run on the Cingular/ATT mobile phone network. It has been "opened" and was working fine for a couple months. Then just one day, the speed dropped to basically unusable...I didn't do anything.

I use the Cingular Communications Manager 5.0 sofeware that came with the card to connect to the local Thai DTAC network. There is a "public" profile that is, I take it, for use when connecting to non-Cingular, i.e., roaming, networks. That seemed to be working fine...but now not

[lomatopo]

That card has a quad band radio so not sure why you think its a problem now? Clearly you are connecting as you are getting an IP address. Again try a One-2-Call SIM, try your DTAC SIM in another phone/modem, try your modem/DTAC SIM in another PC, but I would try to add reliable public DNS servers first.

[Gary A]

I also have a Dtac SIM card. I really can't tell a lot of difference as far as speed between AIS and Dtac. I CAN tell you that with AIS, it is a LOT easier to buy a package and change the package if you want. It is automated and works great. With Dtac, I have to call 1678. It is supposed to be automated and maybe it is if you speak Thai. I have to punch another number for English and each time spoke to a guy who thinks he is fluent in English so he speaks very fast. I still don't understand how to buy a package. Whatever I have was NOT deducted from my credit balance but it is not too expensive using it that way. I'm using Dtac in my cheapie phone for voice calls and AIS in my E51 for the Internet.

[Guest Reimar]

Normally I don't want write anything here but about some bad experiences with AIS in this month may I let you know what I had for experiences.

Was bgetting an Phone Bill for more than THB 2,000.00. Normal my Bills are between 400-700 THB. But this one was including more than THB 1,800 for GPRS/EDGE.

As I was on the way to an customer and realized that I had forget the map, I connected my phone to the Laptop and downloaded the relevant Document which ahs an file size from 49,577 Bytes (49.6 kB) That was the only connection I had done with the phone and tha connection was last about 10 minutes.

In the bill AIS was like to charge me for more than 18 MBytes! Called the Service, they want to explain me that I had used the phone on several day for downloading.

That was just impossible because the phone is the whole time with me and never with someone else. And the download of that Map was the only connection I ever had done with that phone and that phone number.

It had need more than 10 calls, most from them to me, that they reduced the Bill to below THB 500, that was yesterday when they called me to tell me the reduction. I also ordered them for to disconnect my number from GPRS and EDGE service otherwise I wouldn't pay any future bill.

I had told them that I wouldn't pay any more bill and that they can start an court case against me if they like. Told tham also that I was with CS-L on the court and won the case and pointed them to TV, to my old post about the IP-Star Case while the Court Order against CS-L is public on the forum. I think they really looked at TV because as they yesterday called me, the Lady told that they don't want a long story like that!

Finally I get what I want! But this should be a warning not to use the mobile phone for to connect to the Internet without an clear package. And better doubble check before doing any connection or download.

By AIS surfing is 1 baht the minute but downloading is for 1 kB 0.1 Baht which means that 1 MByte cost Baht 100.00. And if someone don't believe, I can show the bill!!

Cheers.

[jonniebkk]

Hi all...thanks again for all the suggestions...but guess what...it's working fine again. I did nothing today...just fired up the PC and everything as usual (including the communications software) and connected to DTAC network and speeds are back to where they were about 5 days ago. I didn't do anything with the PC or connection setting properties. It must have been something to do with my local mobile base station/tower. In any case, I don't have to wait 5 minutes for pages to maybe load...it's great.

However, I will take up the suggestion to also have an AIS card in case this ever happens again...being basically w/o internet access 24/7 for 5 days was painful once I was use to it.

FYI: My settings are as follows per CMD:

Dhcp...Enabled

Autoconfig...Enabled

IP Address...10.122.97.183

Subnet Mask...255.255.255.255

Default Gateway...10.122.97.183

DHCP Server...192.168.165.1

203.155.33.2

[wangsuda]

I use DTAC for mobile internet. I use it through my phone (SonyEricsson W300i with EDGE class 10). I've never had a problem with DTAC's service. In fact, I've even been able to increse my speed by changing my DNS numbers. I do this through https://www.opendns.com/ Give it a try.

[jonniebkk]

I do this through https://www.opendns.com/ Give it a try.

Anybody else know or can recommend using this service? Would it help speeds for someone accessing internet from Thailand thru a Thai network? My system is now back working where it should be...I don't want to do anything that will screw it up again

[wangsuda]

I use it with DTAC and with TOT at school. I've never had a problem. It doesn't mess with your internal phone settings, only with the DNS settings on your computer. If you don't like the performance, you can always revert back to your original settings.

[jo2008]

Do you know if SIERRA wireless aircard 881U can be used with DTAC package? I am considering to buy this model and register DTAC package but not sure if this is appliable. Also, does DTAC has unlimited Edge or GPRS services? Thanks!

[RKASA]

Riemer 

I know what you mean I had pre paid gprs on my AIS account 200hours a month.  One month the bill came 12,000 + baht just for gprs and not one minute of the 200hours was deducted.  While that should be an easy mistake to correct right.  I spent the whole day in the office, at first they really wanted me to pay claiming they had sent a SMS message before charging the other way and I am like  "What! are you NUTS?" I don't get SMS messages on a GPRS modem, and why would I want that.  6 hours later I paid 1200 extra for my gprs that month and got the rest removed.  I was hot and hungry, I gave in easy. 

[monty]

Do you know if SIERRA wireless aircard 881U can be used with DTAC package? I am considering to buy this model and register DTAC package but not sure if this is appliable. Also, does DTAC has unlimited Edge or GPRS services? Thanks!

Yes, in fact this card is an excellent choice to use with Dtac, since they recently (last week) received their licenses to import and install HSDPA equipment, which they will deploy on the 850 MHz band and commercialize in Phuket, Bangkok and Chonburi provinces in the next few months, and roll out the rest of Thailand early next year.

Until that the card will do Edge on Dtac's 1800 MHz band perfectly good, with virtual nationwide coverage.

Dtac has unlimited packages I think costing around 1000 Baht/month.

Not 100% sure you can get it on their pre-paid cards, definitely on their post paid cards.

On prepaid I know you can get weekly unlimited for about 250 Baht, or (I think) 100 hours for 350 Baht.

[Gary A]

Dtac has changed their package. I don't know if it is for the better or not. I was splitting usage between AIS and Dtac. AIS got pretty bad so I canceled that package and now I am using only Dtac. The Dtac package is now 140 hours per month for 400 baht plus VAT. It will renew every month automatically.

Here is today's speed;

Last Result:

Download Speed: 222 kbps (27.8 KB/sec transfer rate)

Upload Speed: 41 kbps (5.1 KB/sec transfer rate)