Tot Extremely Bad Today

[hbert]

Is there anybody else who have problem with TOT ADSL (Cybergold) connection today..?

I live in East Pattaya (Soi Khaotalo) and I have had severe problems with my internet connection today.

I think I have been disconnected at least 10 times and when I have had a connection it has been nearly impossible to load most of the pages I visit.

Not even Yahoo or Google sometimes.

I have tried open DNS as well as automatic DNS settings but that does not seem to make any difference.

If this continues, I think CAT is my next internet provider....

[ruddick]

Is there anybody else who have problem with TOT ADSL (Cybergold) connection today..?

I live in East Pattaya (Soi Khaotalo) and I have had severe problems with my internet connection today.

I think I have been disconnected at least 10 times and when I have had a connection it has been nearly impossible to load most of the pages I visit.

Not even Yahoo or Google sometimes.

I have tried open DNS as well as automatic DNS settings but that does not seem to make any difference.

If this continues, I think CAT is my next internet provider....

I had the same problems yesterday with TOT ADSL (Cybergold) some sites would worked for a few minutes then connection lost. I was (yesterday) and still am today getting into some sites with no problem but can't get into others.

I tried calling TOT but got no answer from customer service. The problem with internet access is still going on, it is like someone is blocking certain sites.

[hbert]

Still have the same problem.

Some pages loads one minute but fails the next minute and it is not any XXX pages but normal pages like Thaivisa.com and Yahoo.com. If they are trying to block them it does not make sense.

One peculiar thing is that it seems like Skype telephone is working properly almost all the time...??

Today it have been so bad that I actually went to CAT here in Pattaya and enquired about their packages.

I will give it a day or two more then it is definetly over to CAT eventhough their pricing is quite much higher.

[Mosha]

Yesterday late pm the rang me, Not knowing who they were handed the phone to the missus. My wife said it was TOT and the want to know can you len internet. She gave me back the phone. The guy rambles on in Thai, with me going "Phoot Thai M'Dai". So eventually he got the mesage and just asked Internet OK Mai? I told him in my limited Thai that it had been ok in the morning and the day before. However both days from then on it was not ok. He thanked me and put the phone down. 5 minutes later the modem sprang into life but kept dieing. We went out to a wake, and when I came back it was ok. A few worries this morning but ok now. So they must have been aware of a problem.

[niller74]

Mine is completely down since this morning.

[hbert]

I got totally fed up on TOT today after a whole day of frustration (non loading pages and disconnections) so I went down to our local CAT office and ordered their package. The nice lady there could speak decent English and promised installation within 2 weeks. Quite a lot more expensive but I hope it saves my nerves in the long run.

[niller74]

My TOT connection just came back up after more that 48h disconnect.

[GarryP]

The speed at home (Bangkok) earlier this morning was the highest I have ever seen it. Is Bangkok taking up your bandwidth?

[toptuan]

After 24 hours of crappy TOT ADSL (constant disconnects, unable to view quite a few websites, cut-off even from ThaiVisa, etc.), the customer service rep at TOT (phone number 1100) informed me that TOT was having trouble nationwide with their ATM network (nothing to do with banking, just the same name for their network).

After 48 hours, things now seem back to normal. The worst was being cut off from ThaiVisa! However, I did miss doing some urgent business (clearing up a credit card fraud problem) with both my banks in the USA and SCB because of the inability to connect to both websites. Had to resort to SKYPE, which like the other user noted, worked perfectly. Strange.

If this happens again, goodbye TOT.

[Prasert]

until now, TOT still has an average 20% packet loss, measured over the last 48 hours.

But part of the problems maybe on CAT's network, as they have been performing a little less than usual today....

[niller74]

until now, TOT still has an average 20% packet loss, measured over the last 48 hours.

But part of the problems maybe on CAT's network, as they have been performing a little less than usual today....

I notice no change in CAT. It has been working fine over the past 48h.

[F1fanatic]

I live in Phuket and have a TOT connection. Over the past week or so it's been getting gradually worse.

I 'phoned TOT 2 days ago and (I think!) they said they had a problem with DNS, but would sort it out asap. (As a computer illiterate, it means nothing to me!)

It's got worse, this is the first time it's been working today.

[Old Man River]

While I have been having loads of problems with TOT and am completely frustrated with them, I notice similar complaints against True in other threads on this forum. Maybe its not TOT or True, but another part of the system instead.

[beenbeez]

I live in Chiang Mai - TOT ADSL seems to work weekday mornings only and briefly on Sunday until about noon. All other times getting mail etc. is a real chore. Cut off my TOT connection on Thursday - tired of paying for such poor service. I have no doubt they are aware of the poor service - investment in new equipment or bandwith a problem ? CAT or TT&T (installation in 2 days in Chiang Mai) the next stop.

[Foggy Bottom]

beenbeez - let me know how you get on with that please - I am coming to the end of my tether with TOT even though they give me free double the bandwidth I pay for (I've had the engineers here and they've seen my servers and network setup and it was way ahead of anything they could understand or had been trained to install / configure / maintain.

DNS (Domain Name Server) technology seems to be a complete mystery to the Thais - Many times over the last 7 years, I've had to call them and ask if they've changed the static IP addresses for their DNS servers, because everytime they do, I lose all outside connections to the Internet and email past the local exchange's router, and usually even to that. Basically if your system (PC or network) is querying an incorrect DNS address, you'll get nothing back. Bangkok TOT seem to change their DNS IPs more often that a Pattaya mama-san changes the bar top ashtrays.

This month, sometime around 10th/11th, Chiangmai (again) had an outage on the CM-BKK fibre optic connection.

Everything was OK-ish before that, but since then there has been nothing but trouble, and like someone above posted, browsing and SMTP/POP3 (email) connections have been fine from roughly 2am to 2pm daily, then they collapse.

... I had a very bright TOT engineer here last Saturday and using various high-level WAN tools demonstrated to him that Bangkok had re-routed connections to Europe and the US East coast to the Eastbound Link from Thailand, instead of it's usual Westbound link - e.g. connections to UK were going Thai - Japan - US West - US East - Europe - UK, instead of the other (shorter) direction. He fully appreciated the implications and what it was doing. Whether or not he has the ability to get things put back is another story.

As a very heavy Internet user here since 1999, I hate to admit this, but Internet quality went downhill after Thaksin gave up running his company to be PM, and they completely fell apart after he sold out to Temasek. Returning Internet quality & management back to how it was before, is about the only reason I'd think about calling for his return as a free man.

Gaz

Edit to fix typo

Edited September 28, 2008 by Gaz Chiangmai

[AsiaCheese]

Having talked to a lot of people who use a wide range of ISPs (TOT, TT&T, Cat, Loxinfo) in the Pattaya area, it looks like ADSL performance is consistently inconsitent across the board...

The biggest difference seems to be price: someone in the condo building I live in (Jomtien) is paying twice of what I pay (ADSL @ Cat vs. my ADSL @ TOT); they should be getting at least twice my speed, but end up with less than I have...

Being able to connect to some websites but not others might be a problem with DNS (Domain Name Servers). That's where "Yahoo.com" (an URL) gets translated into something like "123.456.789.012" (an IP address), which is needed to get a connection to the server you requested data from. Local URLs (like ___.co.th) are resolved faster, because that information is on DNS servers located in Thailand, while ___.com may need a trip to a DNS server abroad (while still passing through local DNS servers first). I've been told that while Loxinfo's ADSL is more expensive, IP resolution for overseas URLs through their DNS servers is much faster -- dunno whether that's true...

Another problem that seems to be non-ISP specific in Thailand are massive delays. There's a test you can run at http://loki05.mpi-sws.mpg.de/bb/bb.php (Max Planck Institute, Germany). When I run it on my 1.5Mbit/0.5Mbit ADLS connection, its results are:

Our measurements found the following characteristics for your link (125.27.69.209.adsl.dynamic.totbb.net - 125.27.69.209)

* Downstream Bandwidth: 978 Kbps * Downstream Queue: 38 ms

* Upstream Bandwidth: 326 Kbps * Upstream Queue: 1568 ms

Notes:

* Your upstream queue is so large that packets can get delayed for more than a second. This can be a problem for real-time traffic such as VoIP or online games!

The "upstream queue" of 1.5 seconds is consistent; I've never seen a lower figure when performing the test. Talking on Skype isn't much of a problem (albeit: the quality tends to be quite low), but trying to do a video call is hopeless -- jittery at best, on a good day... But that's much like comparing mobile call quality within Thailand with that somewhere in Europe -- presumably for much the same reason: wringing out too much from too little bandwidth...

I suspect that generally speaking, the "piping" is very much on the minimal side. It's like living in a large building/village, where there's enough water/water pressure as long as not too many people are taking showers at the same time. But beware of real hot & sticky days... It's not much different in other countries -- all ISPs are "sharing pipes" between customers, but in most countries, the pressure of competition seems to be a bit more intense than in Thailand, making ISPs allocate "larger pipes" so that there's less noticable effects of heavy loads.

[gjoo888]

My TOT adsl has been pretty bad lately, either dropping quite often or difficult to log on. I have found that if you have the free TOT dial-up you can easily connect or reconnect by connecting through your dial-up service, and it ALWAYS then reconnects my adsl. Sometimes it takes a minute or two and then I disconnect the dial-up and am able to use my adsl line. Works everytime, at least for me. Just keep you adsl modem/router on, connect through the dial-up service and wait for your adsl to re-connect, then disconnect the dial-up. It's a pain in the ***, but it works.

[gjoo888]

My TOT adsl has been pretty bad lately, either dropping quite often or difficult to log on. I have found that if you have the free TOT dial-up you can easily connect or reconnect by connecting through your dial-up service, and it ALWAYS then reconnects my adsl. Sometimes it takes a minute or two and then I disconnect the dial-up and am able to use my adsl line. Works everytime, at least for me. Just keep you adsl modem/router on, connect through the dial-up service and wait for your adsl to re-connect, then disconnect the dial-up. It's a pain in the ***, but it works.

[FrankFrink]

Hi

TOT's service is more than ridiculous these days. From my 2MB Bangkok connection I regularly get around 5% of this (or actually much less, especially on downloading files where I was getting around 4kb/sec...)

In the middle of the night speeds can be better. This suggests that it comes down to the backbone infrastructure just not being good enough. I am unfamiliar with what technology, investment or infrastructure is needed to make a country such as Thailand able to offer speeds to international Internet closer to say that of Singapore. A lot of money invested seems to be the way to start - but equipment, lease lines, widen the bandwidth. However, it looks like despite ever increasing Internet/Web users in Thailand due to the permanent promotions and cut price deals, that there is almost ZERO re-investment in technology, training or infrastructure.

If these investments were made surely it is a matter of time only for Thailand to improve in their woeful Internet speeds? Add to this that the concern here among technicians is only that 'Thai Internet speed is as advertised' - meaning they view 'Internet' effectively as countrywide 'Intranet' in reality... progressive thinking at its best. Therefore when I can't access email, can't access web sites from outside Thailand, can't move files around, can't work effectively with any part of the world except Thailand I am getting some 'local' flavour of Internet and nothing like what is being 'sold' to me.

In the meantime we need better service in Bangkok. Does anybody have any ideas on a decent service, even if that means paying for 4MB and in fact getting 1MB? I'd be more than happy with 25% of my contracted service as opposed to the less than 5% I get right now.

Any ideas appreciated!

AMH

[makloey]

Being able to connect to some websites but not others might be a problem with DNS (Domain Name Servers). That's where "Yahoo.com" (an URL) gets translated into something like "123.456.789.012" (an IP address), which is needed to get a connection to the server you requested data from. Local URLs (like ___.co.th) are resolved faster, because that information is on DNS servers located in Thailand, while ___.com may need a trip to a DNS server abroad (while still passing through local DNS servers first). I've been told that while Loxinfo's ADSL is more expensive, IP resolution for overseas URLs through their DNS servers is much faster -- dunno whether that's true...

That's totally bullshit. The DNS lookups should be cached on the DNS servers in Thailand for quite a time and for popular sites like yahoo.com it will virtually never expire.

What's more likely is that the DNS servers are run by incompetent/lazy people. You might get better results with http://opendns.com. 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.

The symptoms of some websites working while others not might also indicate misconfiguration somewhere along the path of routers between you and websites to fuc_k up MTU negotiation. Try going into your routers webinterface, turn off MTU autonegotiation and lower it. This is not optimal and will throw away quite a few percent of you speed, but it is often nececarry in Thailand.