Recommendation For Internet Service Please

[lotus eater]

I will move to Chiang Mai next month. Perhaps a resident has local-user-recent information which can recommend or warn against a particular service. I will be living fairly centrally - nr wat umong - and would be ok with a service with actual speeds above 1mg.

Without prior advice I would simply walk into a TT&T office and ask for the service. But isn't there a True service in CM, supposedly very fast....Sorry but I'm not an expert in the terminology or any aspect of this.

[cmsally]

True Cable is available in the city but not sure about Wat Umong.

My True cable 1mb is comparable to my TT&T 2mb even though the speed of TT&T is around 1.6-2mb

Price very similar. 970Bt for true and 1070 for TT&T

[JimShortz]

The simple answer is that the quality of connection by each company varies according to precisely where you are... ask people LOCALLY before making your choice.

[mgjackson69]

Yes, sir....it just seems like quality/coverage is so spotty that it is impossible to say, "XYZ has the best service in Thailand".

Ask locally for sure...I notice the OP did mention Chiang Mai.

Regardless of the service, a backup plan is always good...for my case, I have TT&T ADSL, then GPRS/EDGE as a second option.

[nokia]

TOT Hi-speed Internet PostPaid

256/128 500 baht

512/256 700 baht

1,024/512 1,000 baht

Is the contract for 1 yr or longer? As i stay in CM for a few months' each time, what options do i have for Broadband Internet as i find dial-up rather slow?

Any advice is appreciated! Cheers!

[Artey]

I live off soi Wat Umong, True cable is not available here (or at least not to my apartment building).

Which left me with 2 other options, TT&T or TOT. There were no free TT&T lines in my area, so i had to go with TOT.

I started with normal TOT 2mb (the residential one, goldcyber) for 1090b/month. That was fine at first, but got slower and slower, and packet loss was becoming more of a problem. So i upgraded to 1mb business grade (totgoldbiz, 1500b/m) and the packet loss improved greatly, but u still dont get anywhere near 1mb for itnernational links.

Usually in the mornings its fine, but gradually slowes down around lunch time.

The only difference between the cyber and biz plans is just prioritisation, the business plans gets higher priotity then the residential ones (thus less packet loss), but dont bother lookin at the speeds they offer, as for international traffic u wont get anywhere near the speeds they advertise.

Good luck.

[Greenside]

There are plenty of recent threads on this but it varies so much by location even within central CM (and then day to day and hour to hour) that it's impossible to give any meaningful advice other than ask locally before you rent or buy. Don't ask the vendor or agent as they all seem to have magic ADSL connections that download gigabytes of torrents in mere minutes and allow you watch full HD TV streams 24 hours a day with never a lost frame.

If I could listen to the BBC news reliably every day I'd be a happy person (well, the news is incredibly depressing at the moment but you get the idea).

[Niloc]

I have a short wave radio, a very good one (Roberts from the UK) and the BBC radio is far superior to BBC TV.

I have not tried it in Chiang Mai, only Pai and it works great up here. I will take it down to CM the next time we go and try it out.

Colin

[lotus eater]

I live off soi Wat Umong, True cable is not available here (or at least not to my apartment building).

Which left me with 2 other options, TT&T or TOT. There were no free TT&T lines in my area, so i had to go with TOT.

I started with normal TOT 2mb (the residential one, goldcyber) for 1090b/month. That was fine at first, but got slower and slower, and packet loss was becoming more of a problem. So i upgraded to 1mb business grade (totgoldbiz, 1500b/m) and the packet loss improved greatly, but u still dont get anywhere near 1mb for itnernational links.

Usually in the mornings its fine, but gradually slowes down around lunch time.

The only difference between the cyber and biz plans is just prioritisation, the business plans gets higher priotity then the residential ones (thus less packet loss), but dont bother lookin at the speeds they offer, as for international traffic u wont get anywhere near the speeds they advertise.

Good luck.

Given the consensus that local advice is the most reliable, I was glad to have your info and comments. (My prospective place is just a few hundred yards from wat Umong.) I suppose it's easy to double-check with True. Ditto TT&T - and if TT&T is possible is it preferable to TOT?

Anyone else living in the area?

[SomchaiCNX]

Just stay away from TOT if you can.

I have problems with them for 3 years now. Since the start.(I have no other option)

The guy who installed it sold his own modems instead of those from the TOT (we found out later when we had a problem with it. He installed a temporary code that kicked me of after just 2 weeks (idiot).

Does not matter wich option you take.

You will not receive any decent service from them and they hook up to many user on one line (up to 56).

Upgrades do not help the service and the speed stays bad.

They block all possible accounts (my former loxinfo accounts) or servers (for your sites) with others, so you have to use their SMTP (who is on a blacklist for the last 3 weeks) so your emails bounce back. Because these idiots do not have the right people to prevent it or to remove them from the blacklist)

Your only help is the service TOT centre 1100 because the local CNX ADSL department changes phone every couple months and doesn't even pick-up the phone or in case of a local problem just takes the horn of the phone. (I visited them when they did it)

If they would be a private company and not part of the state mafia they would be out of business for a long time allready.

[lotus eater]

Two posts warn to differing degrees about TOT. But is True and TT&T are simply not available do I have a feasible alternative to TOT? Is there a mobile phone connexion service that functions well and has reasonable monthly rates for unlimited use? Is a mobile service somehow usable with more than one laptop in the house - wifi using somehow my apple airport express gadget?

[ollylama]

i'm moving house and signed up for TOT again (had to - no other option). now the price is like 560 a month. then i saw a billboard that says it's 490 a month. at this rate it'll be free in a year.

what worried me was that when i set it up the guy at tot said i share the line with 200 people. now that simply is not possible. the worst ratio i ever had was 50/1 with now-defunct hinet. then tot was 20 to 1. he must have been wrong, or at least i hope so. time will tell.

my experience with tot at my old house (nimmanhaemin) was really bad. great for torrents but regular web throughput was abysmal. and the line disconnected often.

there was a rumor that true was going to install wimax in chiang mai soon. and 3g too. i'll dream on about that...

[Ajarn]

Just stay away from TOT if you can.

I have problems with them for 3 years now. Since the start.(I have no other option)

The guy who installed it sold his own modems instead of those from the TOT (we found out later when we had a problem with it. He installed a temporary code that kicked me of after just 2 weeks (idiot).

Does not matter wich option you take.

You will not receive any decent service from them and they hook up to many user on one line (up to 56).

Upgrades do not help the service and the speed stays bad.

They block all possible accounts (my former loxinfo accounts) or servers (for your sites) with others, so you have to use their SMTP (who is on a blacklist for the last 3 weeks) so your emails bounce back. Because these idiots do not have the right people to prevent it or to remove them from the blacklist)

Your only help is the service TOT centre 1100 because the local CNX ADSL department changes phone every couple months and doesn't even pick-up the phone or in case of a local problem just takes the horn of the phone. (I visited them when they did it)

If they would be a private company and not part of the state mafia they would be out of business for a long time allready.

Ditto for my TOT connection...

[Steve2UK]

If I could listen to the BBC news reliably every day I'd be a happy person (well, the news is incredibly depressing at the moment but you get the idea).

Greenside, if you have a reasonable ADSL service (?) then you should be able to listen to all the BBC Radio national stations online.

[DavidOxon]

Hi there . . . .

I'm reading this sat in my car outside someone elses house

because still after day 9 of repeated calls to TOT they still haven't

bothered to fix my connection - every time I (my wife!) calls

they offer a different reason why it's not working, and the promised

engineer visits (wed, thurs, fri) never materialised. I pay for the

2mb service, but it seems to be the same speed as those that pay

for 500b or 1mb. I am frustrated and verry pizzed off about it!

They now say it's my land line and the engineer will (won't) come

on Monday! Those of you who depend on your connection financially

will understand how bad this makes you feel!

TOT? no way!

David

[gpdjohn]

When I moved here I tried to get TT&T, not available in my area.

TOT informed me that it would be 5 months before a new line would open.

No True either....

I went with CAT.

Business line with only 5 others, don't ask me to explain it, but it is expensive.

Expensive but good ( and fast speeds all day, all night )

Except for the price, I have been quite pleased.

[DavidOxon]

erm . . . what sort of price?

Question . . . If I subsicribe additionally to TT&T, will I get a new line/connection/anything, or will they just piggyback the

TOT line/system?

Thanks . . .

David

Edited September 21, 2008 by DavidOxon

[gpdjohn]

erm . . . what sort of price?

Question . . . If I subsicribe additionally to TT&T, will I get a new line/connection/anything, or will they just piggyback the

TOT line/system?

Thanks . . .

David

I had the same problem with TOT and that was just to get a install date. The lies started to catch up to 'em so I told them to pound sand. Lie, lie, lie, lie..all I got from TOT.

Hold on to your seat ok..

I pay just under 15K every 4 months ( only billed in 90 day incriments )

But unlike TOT, when I talked to CAT, they promised to install within 3 days, which they did, didn't need another phone line, installed thier own and anytime I have had problems ( once ) the tech informed me that my connection would be working within 15 minutes, and ya know what...it was.

So far, so good. ( and it's been over 10 months I've had 'em. )

[lotus eater]

So TOT is no good - though the business package may be tolerable.

If TT&T and True are not available, CAT has been mentioned here - but at a high price. Is there any other - perhaps mobile - option that will provide good quality service at prices cheaper that CAT?