Help! Tot Ip Star Disaster

[Andrew Hicks]

I live in a small village in Surin and my TOT IPStar satellite internet is my only link to the outside world. It is a key to being able to survive here.

It has always been very poor... I even wrote about it in my book. But now it's got worse... Hotmail often will not open and I cannot attach pictures or post them to my blog.

I am paying 2,200 baht pcm for a speed of 512/256 and am getting about 84/97 on Thaivisa's speed test.

As my Thai is not up to these technical issues that I do not understand anyway I have to get my wife to do the phoning and apart from the fact that this all affects my ability to live here with her, it is becoming an issue between us.

Many times I have been into the TOT office in Surin but nobody admits to speaking English and I get nowhere except very frustrated. The ommunication problem means I can achieve nothing without more insight into the problem.

Can I please ask you...

... why is my satellite connection so bad?

... can it be related to the tuning/installation of my box or other equipment?

... should I pay for my outstanding account and can this be used as alever to get some attention?

... any other thoughts?

My apologies as this issue has probably been trawled over many times but my internet crashes when I surf around.

In haste, ignorance and desperation from an internet cafe.

[monty]

Andrew,

I'm afraid there is nothing much you can do!

Most people have completely given up on TOT iPSTAR, and even Csloxinfo's 512/256 iPSTAR package at over 4000 Baht/month is very unstable, altough faster then yours.

I would try to find out if you have GPRS Edge coverage in your area, and if you have good signal strength. Try both AIS and Dtac. With an Edge capable mobile phone you'll see an E appear somewhere on your display when Edge is available. When only the slow GPRS is available a G will appear.

Edge along with good signal strength will probably outperform the results you get now, and will be quite a bit more stable.

Additionally when one provider turns bad you can just swap sim cards with another provider.

I have a monthly package with AIS (50 hours for 214 Baht) and always have a Dtac sim card handy as back-up (no package, 1 Baht/minute).

Both above is with pre-paid sim cards. Bigger packages are available.

I've just tested with my AIS One2Call sim and got following results:

And Thaivisa:

Good luck, just get rid of the iPSTAR, it ain't worth the hassle!

[Andrew Hicks]

Andrew,

I'm afraid there is nothing much you can do!

Most people have completely given up on TOT iPSTAR, and even Csloxinfo's 512/256 iPSTAR package at over 4000 Baht/month is very unstable, altough faster then yours.

I would try to find out if you have GPRS Edge coverage in your area, and if you have good signal strength. Try both AIS and Dtac. With an Edge capable mobile phone you'll see an E appear somewhere on your display when Edge is available. When only the slow GPRS is available a G will appear.

Edge along with good signal strength will probably outperform the results you get now, and will be quite a bit more stable.

Additionally when one provider turns bad you can just swap sim cards with another provider.

I have a monthly package with AIS (50 hours for 214 Baht) and always have a Dtac sim card handy as back-up (no package, 1 Baht/minute).

Both above is with pre-paid sim cards. Bigger packages are available.

I've just tested with my AIS One2Call sim and got following results:

Thanks Monty.

Someone else recommended CDMA. What's that? (Cadbury's Dairy Milk what?)

So it's simply inevitable that I get these low speeds because that's normal then, is it? Nothing more I can do?

Any other thoughts anyone?

I'm still in the internet cafe!

Andrew

And Thaivisa:

Good luck, just get rid of the iPSTAR, it ain't worth the hassle!

[Pushit]

Andrew,

I'm afraid there is nothing much you can do!

Most people have completely given up on TOT iPSTAR, and even Csloxinfo's 512/256 iPSTAR package at over 4000 Baht/month is very unstable, altough faster then yours.

I would try to find out if you have GPRS Edge coverage in your area, and if you have good signal strength. Try both AIS and Dtac. With an Edge capable mobile phone you'll see an E appear somewhere on your display when Edge is available. When only the slow GPRS is available a G will appear.

Edge along with good signal strength will probably outperform the results you get now, and will be quite a bit more stable.

Additionally when one provider turns bad you can just swap sim cards with another provider.

I have a monthly package with AIS (50 hours for 214 Baht) and always have a Dtac sim card handy as back-up (no package, 1 Baht/minute).

Both above is with pre-paid sim cards. Bigger packages are available.

I've just tested with my AIS One2Call sim and got following results:

Thanks Monty.

Someone else recommended CDMA. What's that? (Cadbury's Dairy Milk what?)

So it's simply inevitable that I get these low speeds because that's normal then, is it? Nothing more I can do?

Any other thoughts anyone?

I'm still in the internet cafe!

Andrew

And Thaivisa:

Good luck, just get rid of the iPSTAR, it ain't worth the hassle!

CDMA is the service offered by the Hutch mobile network,could be faster than GPRS/EDGE

[Mosha]

Andrew is TOT ADSL available in your location? I live in the sticks, but at least I have ADSL. I was on IpStar, and switched. Saved money doing that too.

[monty]

The ipSTAR system in itself, apart from high latency, is not bad at all.

It's the operators making a mess out of it.

Basically with your 2200 Baht/month you are on the same sharing ratio as the home use TOT ADSL packages.

Everybody is already complaining about the very slow speeds/service outages on TOT's ADSL, if you add to that the technical drawbacks and extra problems introduced by the satellite system, nothing much usable is left over!

CDMA (Code division multiple access) is another mobile phone network, used both bay CAT and Hutch. Bit like GSM but different technology.

Your area is exclusively CAT, so you would have to try and find the closest CAT office to find out if they have service in your area.

Speeds can be quite good, up to 1Mbps, but mostly between 300 and 600 kbps.

Initial investment is quite high, think it's about 13,000 Baht for the modem and 800 Baht/month for unlimited service.

CAT allows you to buy the thing, try it at your home and if it doesn't work, bring back the same day and they will refund you!

Same as with all mobile data systems, good signal strength is important to get proper speeds.

[monty]

CDMA is the service offered by the Hutch mobile network,could be faster than GPRS/EDGE

Only in Bangkok, some other central provinces and the Eastern seaboard.

CAT runs the CDMA network in the remaining 51 provinces.

CAT runs CDMA EV-DO which achieves quite proper speeds, Hutch only seems to run CDMA 1X which tops out at 150 something Kbps and hence tends to be slower the EDGE, although more stable (one of the advantages of the CDMA system is that it is well suited for data transmissions).

[Gary A]

All I can say is that I suffered for four years with the Shitstar pathetic service. I might add that I had both vendors and that they were equally bad. I now use Dtac EDGE and the speed is at least as good. AIS EDGE has been very bad lately and I have dropped their package.

[RKASA]

IpStar works fine but ToT keeps upping the share ratio mine worked great for 6 months and now gets worse every month.  The share ratio is 10 trimes what it should be so they can double everyones adsl speed and sell 1mb packages for 490 a month, and really we pay for it.  I am getting around 20k today. 1600 a month.  Its just abuse on their part because they can. System works and international is wide open right now so why 20k?  Thats where ToT put it.

forgot to add the only way Sat connection with ToT will get fixed is by hiring a lawyer bacause there is nothing wrong with IpStar and if adsl Bangkok can get more then 256k mine should be working fine, because that is the same place we connect. I am still looking for an option that works around here so I can dump ToT.

Edited August 8, 2008 by RKASA

[AA1]

Andrew is TOT ADSL available in your location? I live in the sticks, but at least I have ADSL. I was on IpStar, and switched. Saved money doing that too.

Forgive me!

ADSL relies on having a phone line?

I should be so lucky!

[monty]

Andrew is TOT ADSL available in your location? I live in the sticks, but at least I have ADSL. I was on IpStar, and switched. Saved money doing that too.

Forgive me!

ADSL relies on having a phone line?

I should be so lucky!

Indeed you need a phoneline for ADSL

And be within a few miles from the telephone exchange (DSLAM) since ADSL signals deteriorate over distance.

[Andrew Hicks]

IpStar works fine but ToT keeps upping the share ratio mine worked great for 6 months and now gets worse every month.  The share ratio is 10 trimes what it should be so they can double everyones adsl speed and sell 1mb packages for 490 a month, and really we pay for it.  I am getting around 20k today. 1600 a month.  Its just abuse on their part because they can. System works and international is wide open right now so why 20k?  Thats where ToT put it.

forgot to add the only way Sat connection with ToT will get fixed is by hiring a lawyer bacause there is nothing wrong with IpStar and if adsl Bangkok can get more then 256k mine should be working fine, because that is the same place we connect. I am still looking for an option that works around here so I can dump ToT.

Thanks for all the info on this thread Thaivisa geezers! Immensely useful.

Given that I have been getting a fraction of the speed I'm contracted for, should I pay my outstanding account when I tell TOT to take my disc away?

Any experiences on this point?

Is there a TOT contact point where I can negotiate by email in English on all this? (I'd still like them to make it work properly but the thrust of what I've read, it'll just get worse.)

Thanks again.

[cloudhopper]

I too had nothing but grief with IPSTAR (Loxinfo). If you can get a decent cell signal at your location it's quite likely you can use CAT CDMA which cost about 12k for the USB modem plus a monthly fee of around 800 B (seems to vary). Anyway the resulting service is a great improvement over even the landline TOT ADSL here (also out in the sticks).

[frankman]

Try Maxnet as ISP.

[RKASA]

If it were to start working like it did before last Dec. I would be happy even at this high price, would even pay more for 512k if they would let it work,  but I don't see it happening and other options are not looking good.  It will upset my wife for awhile but I think the only real option is to sell the farm and move.  If I do that it might be Chang Mai, but more like Seattle would be better at this point.  I am not spending more money on more equipment that only seems to work a few months like gprs did and ToT IpStar and on and on.  Starting to see a pattern here.

[toptuan]

Is there a TOT contact point where I can negotiate by email in English on all this? (I'd still like them to make it work properly but the thrust of what I've read, it'll just get worse.)

Go to the TOT office, sit down in front of the clerk who handles internet accounts. Tell them you want to negotiate your final bill. Hold up your finger in a "wait a moment" gesture. Call 1100 on your mobile phone. Negotiate in English with the Bangkok TOT customer service office. When finished, hand your phone over the to clerk for Bangkok Customer Service to explain to them the final arrangements. Worked for me.

By the way, Andrew, Hotmail is soooooo 20th century!

[RKASA]

By that I am sure you mean you were able to close the account they didn't fix anything right.   Seems option B is the only thing they know how to do. 

[Andrew Hicks]

Is there a TOT contact point where I can negotiate by email in English on all this? (I'd still like them to make it work properly but the thrust of what I've read, it'll just get worse.)

Go to the TOT office, sit down in front of the clerk who handles internet accounts. Tell them you want to negotiate your final bill. Hold up your finger in a "wait a moment" gesture. Call 1100 on your mobile phone. Negotiate in English with the Bangkok TOT customer service office. When finished, hand your phone over the to clerk for Bangkok Customer Service to explain to them the final arrangements. Worked for me.

By the way, Andrew, Hotmail is soooooo 20th century!

So they cancelled you bill then?

Which finger do you use for a 'wait a moment' gesture? (I'm worried I might be locked up.)

You must speak fluent technical Thai then?... not a soul in Surin TOT office speaks any English except a nice accounts clerk they sometimes drag out at my insistence.

How do you persuade your wife to interpret for you when she's already threatening divorce for useing her as a batterig ram against important people behind desks?

Is Hotmail really twentieth century? I'm quite flattered.

I lived in West Africa in the seventies and looking back it functioned really quite efficiently. I remember for example a car salesman who actually wanted to sell me a car.

'Still Desperate in Sangkha'

[RKASA]

I went into a ToT office today and set it out clear, and It may have worked I am running a download at 180kbs and TV site opened in 8 sec. Have not seen anything like it in three months.  I sure hope it stays like this at this time anyway I am a happy person again.  If its still working like this on friday I am going to buy that girl flowers. lots of em 

The great thing is web pages are opening again, without reload reload.  Please!  don't wake me.

[RKASA]

I went into a ToT office today and set it out clear, and It may have worked I am running a download at 180kbs and TV site opened in 8 sec. Have not seen anything like it in three months.  I sure hope it stays like this at this time anyway I am a happy person again.  If its still working like this on friday I am going to buy that girl flowers. lots of em 

The great thing is web pages are opening again, without reload reload.  Please!  don't wake me.

I think it was working by mistake last nite because they fixed that this morming its back to the normal mess, so much for hoping

[Pakboong]

I dumped my IPStar just last months after almost 4 years of suffering with it. What I have now is more stable and a lot cheaper. But, there are no great IPs in Thailand. All a matter of relative comprimise.