Fast Internet

[calavera]

hi!

as i wrote under another topic title, i am planning to go to thailand and live there with my thai girlfriend. probably we will go to ko samui.

i am going to trade stocks to create an income.

my question is now, does anybody have experiences with several internet provider?

i need a very fast one that should be available most of the time and if problems emerge, that they will be solved very fast by the company.

could you recommend some provider?

do you know how much a flat rate is about?

what was your experience, how long it took from ordering untill you could finally go online?

thank you very much and have a nice day!

sven

[spacefruit]

As they say, good luck with that.

Whoever is in charge of bandwitdth in/out of Thailand wont buy enough, so there is a bottleneck that limits most trafic to 300-500kps, no matter if you have a 2m deal. (Often, very often, much less).

ISP's here are staffed by perfectly charming people some of whom have enourmous patience, and will guide you through several hours of checking your settings, waiting on the phone and being extremely helpful, assuring you that they will help find the fault in your setup. All this while sitting in the same room as the downed server that is the real problem. (I have seen this).

I have also seen a foreigner told in english to go home and check his settings again, while in thai telling me that the server is down and wont be fixed untill the next day.

True this is not experience from Koh Samui, so you will be alright there I am sure. (See how long I have been in Thailand?)

Welcome to Thailand

[Pib]

I have had two internet providers since being in Thailand: first one was TOT using their 2MB Goldcyber package--very variable international web site speed...that is, speed varied from OK-fine to S....L....O.....W.......I left them after about 2 months of continuing excuses. 2nd/current internet provider is JI-NET using their 2MB BixConnect package--very stable/fast international web site speed...download speed for international web sites range from 1000kbps to 1800kbps. I live in Bangkok.

What ever service you sign up with be durn sure to ask about their User Ratio which is how many people they have on each DSL circuit. TOT's was approx 50 to 1; JI-NET's is 10 to 1 (a lower number is better....that is, less people hooking their water hose up to the same water outlet which keeps your water pressure higher/faster). You will pay more for JI-NET service than TOT service, but it's worth it to me to have steady/fast download/upload speed, especially for web sites outside of Thailand like you will be using. The internet provider service providers available to you will depend on what company provides your phone line; so, your choice is probably going to be limited by that factor.

But if you been use to "truly" high speed internet, say around 6mbps (6MB) or higher, you can pretty much say good bye to those days when you arrive Thailand since the fastest speed is "generally" 2000kbps (2MB) ADSL for "intra"-Thailand web site access, but significantly lower access speed for "international/outside" Thailand web site download speed. And there is very little cable internet access in Thailand, which still does not help too much with the international speed due Thailand's bottleneck/choke point/limitation for international web sites/bandwidth.

[Koo82]

I use Maxnet and didn't try other providers. I called them on 1103 (using hand phone) and they sent people to my house within 2, 3 days. Depending on what area that you can have it faster or not. I remember I could use the internet within a week or 2. I paid 790 Baht +7% VAT which is 845 Baht net per month for 3M but since I know they give every new customer 2M, I down speeded to 2M. I save 200 Baht a month. The speed doesn't seem to be slower much.

In their website I can test speed. It's 1652 kbps now for 2 people using wireless. They don't accept payment at their office so I pay online with their website by credit card.

The problem is they must rent the phone line from TOT so I must go to TOT to pay the phone bill each month 100 Baht + 7% VAT.

The line was cut sometimes. When I call them, they sent people to check either the same day or the following day for free.

[Pib]

I use Maxnet and didn't try other providers. I called them on 1103 (using hand phone) and they sent people to my house within 2, 3 days. Depending on what area that you can have it faster or not. I remember I could use the internet within a week or 2. I paid 790 Baht +7% VAT which is 845 Baht net per month for 3M but since I know they give every new customer 2M, I down speeded to 2M. I save 200 Baht a month. The speed doesn't seem to be slower much.

In their website I can test speed. It's 1652 kbps now for 2 people using wireless. They don't accept payment at their office so I pay online with their website by credit card.

The problem is they must rent the phone line from TOT so I must go to TOT to pay the phone bill each month 100 Baht + 7% VAT.

The line was cut sometimes. When I call them, they sent people to check either the same day or the following day for free.

Do you get that 1652 kbps speed to sites/speedtests "outside" of Thailand, like to the U.S. or Europe? If so, is it a consistent speed 7 days a week/24 hours per day; on just on good days? I always get almost 1800kbps for "inside/intra-"Thailand web sites/speedtests, but the great majority of my internet web site access need is to the U.S.

Getting something close to the 2MB speed is generally no problem for "inside/intra-"Thailand web site/speedtests.

Cheers.

[OxfordWill]

sorry to be slightly rude but YOU MUST BE KIDDING. Unless youre trading stocks which NEVER require you to suddenly make a change... because the reliability on ko samui for internet is not there. Pay an american provider for a roaming satellite and buy a mini dish, and itll cost heavy but the only way to improve your chances.

[dotcom]

You can have fast internet or you can live on Samui but I think you can't have both at once.

[OxfordWill]

amen dotcom.

[Koo82]

Do you get that 1652 kbps speed to sites/speedtests "outside" of Thailand, like to the U.S. or Europe? If so, is it a consistent speed 7 days a week/24 hours per day; on just on good days? I always get almost 1800kbps for "inside/intra-"Thailand web sites/speedtests, but the great majority of my internet web site access need is to the U.S.

Getting something close to the 2MB speed is generally no problem for "inside/intra-"Thailand web site/speedtests.

That 1652 is for download test yesterday when I posted.

Sometimes it's fast. Sometimes it's slow. Sometimes I had no internet around 4pm to 6pm. But basically I can use any time in a day without big problem.

Sorry I don't know more than that. I'm no expert I use it at home in Thailand only.