Maxnet Ip In Rayong? 3mb At 590 Baht

[Richb2004v2]

I noticed recently advertising boards in Rayong and close to Map Ta Phut for a broadband internet provider. I think it was called Maxnet and seemed to be offering 3mb connection for 590 baht. That seems like a good service. I wondered if anyone was using it and if it is likely that in the future this service might reach Ban Chang?

[Jimjim]

I've always heard in Bangkok maxnet is the best internet provider but I don't know about the provinces.

[welo]

I know my post comes a bit late, but maybe it still helps.

The 3MBit offer at 590 Baht is the so-called 'Indy' package which will give you good speed (3MBit is pretty nice) to websites located within Thailand (or maybe South East Asia), but will perform poor for connections going to US or Europe.

This is a common problem in Thailand since international bandwith is expensive and providers in Thailand usually overbook the link to the international gateway. In other (more non-technical) words the 'line' that will connect you to websites located outside of Thailand is a lot 'smaller' than that to local websites. So wheras the speed within Thailand will come very close to the promised 3 MBit you will most likely have only a fraction of that internationally. How fast (or slow) exactly depends on various factors like time of day and region and is hard to foretell, but might at many times be as slow as 0.5 MBit - just to give you an idea.

This is a speed test I did today from my TOT 2MBit line: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL]

Don't make the mistake to get a bigger package (like 5 MBit), the international bandwith will hardly improve. Better you go with one of the 'Premium' packages. Maxnet uses different network routing for those users and your international bandwith will be considerably faster. The 2MBit Premium package (at 1090 Baht) will give you better international speed than the 3MBit 'Indy' package. That said ifyou only want to use email and browse the web even the Indy package might work for you. The good thing about maxnet is that they actually can offer you something better with their 'Premium' package and you might be able to upgrade if the slow 'Indy' speeds drive you nuts. Just be sure you arrange beforehand that you can switch from 3MBit Indy to 2MBit Premium since you will start with a 1-year contract. Checkout the price table here: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL].

Btw what I heard about the qualities of providers (especially in regards to international bandwith) is:

* CAT is best but hard to get in most areas (CAT is *not* TOT, CAT runs the National Internat Exchange and other services used by TOT and other providers, and CAT even used to show up on some of the TOT bills since TOT was founded as a affiliated company of CAT, well don't nail me on that). They run a dedicated line to your house (they don't offer phone services) and are said to give good international speed since they operate their own international gateway in Thailand. CHeckout their prices here: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL]. But you will have to contact them whether they already have a line in your area.

* true is pretty good where available (Bangkok only I think)

* TTnT/Maxnet is good because they differentiate between Indy and Premium which gives you better value (for a bit more money).

* TOT has nothing like a 'Premium' package so when your international speed sucks you are usually stuck with it.

* There are other providers that will operate on either a TTnt or a TOT phone line, but from the 2-3 stories I heard it seems they are mostly small and prognosis about expected speeds are difficult.

There used to be a good website at internet-thailand.com with good informationo on that topic and a forum. The information I have I mostly picked up there. The guy running the website knew a big deal about internet in thailand and has been here for a couple of years when ADSL was not available yet. But he obviously sold the domain (or did not renew it), now there's only commercials. Don't bother go there. Anybody knows the guy that was running the website and why he closed it down?

welo

P.S. sorry, I planned to post a couple of links but the forum rules don't allow (me?) to do that.

[Richb2004v2]

I know my post comes a bit late, but maybe it still helps.

The 3MBit offer at 590 Baht is the so-called 'Indy' package which will give you good speed (3MBit is pretty nice) to websites located within Thailand (or maybe South East Asia), but will perform poor for connections going to US or Europe.

This is a common problem in Thailand since international bandwith is expensive and providers in Thailand usually overbook the link to the international gateway. In other (more non-technical) words the 'line' that will connect you to websites located outside of Thailand is a lot 'smaller' than that to local websites. So wheras the speed within Thailand will come very close to the promised 3 MBit you will most likely have only a fraction of that internationally. How fast (or slow) exactly depends on various factors like time of day and region and is hard to foretell, but might at many times be as slow as 0.5 MBit - just to give you an idea.

This is a speed test I did today from my TOT 2MBit line: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL]

Don't make the mistake to get a bigger package (like 5 MBit), the international bandwith will hardly improve. Better you go with one of the 'Premium' packages. Maxnet uses different network routing for those users and your international bandwith will be considerably faster. The 2MBit Premium package (at 1090 Baht) will give you better international speed than the 3MBit 'Indy' package. That said ifyou only want to use email and browse the web even the Indy package might work for you. The good thing about maxnet is that they actually can offer you something better with their 'Premium' package and you might be able to upgrade if the slow 'Indy' speeds drive you nuts. Just be sure you arrange beforehand that you can switch from 3MBit Indy to 2MBit Premium since you will start with a 1-year contract. Checkout the price table here: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL].

Btw what I heard about the qualities of providers (especially in regards to international bandwith) is:

* CAT is best but hard to get in most areas (CAT is *not* TOT, CAT runs the National Internat Exchange and other services used by TOT and other providers, and CAT even used to show up on some of the TOT bills since TOT was founded as a affiliated company of CAT, well don't nail me on that). They run a dedicated line to your house (they don't offer phone services) and are said to give good international speed since they operate their own international gateway in Thailand. CHeckout their prices here: [sorry, not allowed to post an URL]. But you will have to contact them whether they already have a line in your area.

* true is pretty good where available (Bangkok only I think)

* TTnT/Maxnet is good because they differentiate between Indy and Premium which gives you better value (for a bit more money).

* TOT has nothing like a 'Premium' package so when your international speed sucks you are usually stuck with it.

* There are other providers that will operate on either a TTnt or a TOT phone line, but from the 2-3 stories I heard it seems they are mostly small and prognosis about expected speeds are difficult.

There used to be a good website at internet-thailand.com with good informationo on that topic and a forum. The information I have I mostly picked up there. The guy running the website knew a big deal about internet in thailand and has been here for a couple of years when ADSL was not available yet. But he obviously sold the domain (or did not renew it), now there's only commercials. Don't bother go there. Anybody knows the guy that was running the website and why he closed it down?

welo

P.S. sorry, I planned to post a couple of links but the forum rules don't allow (me?) to do that.

Thanks for that very useful information.

[QED]

I know Welo is only trying to help, but he is a little misinformed about maxnet. The difference between Premier and Indy is the number of people who share the same line. I can't remeber the exact numbers but I think something like 10 people share a Premier Line, whereas 50 share an Indy line. There is no different network routing for premier or Indy, it's just common sense that with more people on the same line you are going to get slower speeds sometimes.

All ISP's suffer from this international bottleneck, and paying for a fancy name service does not bypass it unfortunately.

I used to live in Pattaya and was paying 1090 for the 2mb premier, my neighbour was paying 590 for the 3mb Indy, and his connection was ALWAYS faster than mine. We did live in a small moo baan out of town though, I am sure you would have a different experience in the middle of Bangkok when all 50 Indy users are trying to download simultaneously.

I am now in Ban Chang (between Phayoon and Nam Rin - thanks for the recommendations BTW), and again am in a small moo baan in a quiet area. I am going to try to get the Indy 3mb installed (they have a sign only a few hundred meters down the road, so I am hoping they will be able to do it).

Will update here after I speak to them tomorrow, and after installation ref speeds etc.

Edit// Quick addendum and apology to Welo; Maxnet do now say on their website that international speeds may be limited on Indy, but only for voip and torrents (which I don't use). In reality, if you read all the forums all the tech guys who know far more than me say there is no difference, many of them downgrading again after upgrading and finding no noticable difference.

Edited June 12, 2009 by QED

[tvaddict]

I'm not really a very techie person and feel sure others know more than me about this--

indeed one point seems to be the difference between connection speeds when connecting outside the country compared to inside

however, what I will say is that TOT have a special promotion on -

I was in their office last month and saw it advertised and so upgraded to 3Mb connection speed at 690B per month

If you use the Thai Visa 'Speed Test' it clocks up at around 3Mb every time

to get this upgrade they simply did something to my old modem at the office and I waited a few hours for the new speed at home- that's all

as far as I know the Maxnet people have to install their own lines to your home- you have to pay for this and consider lines running across your walls so the TOT promo is worth it I feel.

You get a year at that price - and then if you keep it you start paying the full price ( about double)

however, by then there will probably be some other promotion on to move to !

They offer other speeds too- 2MB , 3Mb, 4Mb, and higher ( I didn't look much at the top ones )

[cpofc]

This is often a subject for discussion with my thai mates and neighbours. My 'propellor head' thai mate reckons the same as above - You wont get 3Mbit when browsing outside of Thailand. I can't confirm this yet though. My immediate neighbour just went on the Maxnet last week so I will give him the 3rd Degree when I talk to him next and ask him what he reckons.

I have been with TRUE HI SPEED since they first rolled it out about 4-5 years ago. I elected the 1 DOWN - 512 Up @ an all up price of 950 Bht per month, I can also get TURE HOME WiFi, and if you organise a TRUE Move package you can get free Wif Fi Time with True too. As much as we all love to bag our ISPs I would be lying if I said TRUE have not been good, solid, reliable performer. They had their teething problems at the start but 'Up Time' where I live, over the past couple of years would have to be over 95% at least!

Yes, it does 'bog down' sometimes, in peak hours etc but overall I give it the thumbs up. I have downloaded the 'odd' movie etc from the Torrent Sites too and have achieved download speeds at over 300Kb on occasions.

I have been working with the internet, designing, running and managing websites and domain hosting for over 12 years now and I would love to have a faster and cheaper service, but at the same time I will always opt for reliability. True provides that.

[QED]

as far as I know the Maxnet people have to install their own lines to your home- you have to pay for this and consider lines running across your walls so the TOT promo is worth it I feel.

No, Maxnet comes down the TOT line, if you don't have TOT you have to get it installed before you can have Maxnet (Iknow - confused me too). You then have 2 bills, TOT is about 110 bt p/m (assuming you don't use the phone).

TOT seems to get the worst reviews of the lot when it comes to internet in Thailand, so I will stick with Maxnet. I am waiting for their marketing people to call me back to see if I can get it, luckily there is already a TOT line in the house. I did have to speak to 4 different operators to explain that I didn't have an account number, and I wanted a new contract, but got there in the end.

That's the one negative thing I would say about Maxnet, their customer service stinks. All they will ever do when you call is take your number and say someone will call you back, which they rarely do until a few days later when the problem has rectified itself. Drove me crazy on the rare occassion I did have problems, they speak very little english and have no technical ability whatsoever. Other than that though they have been excellent, and I have tried most ISP's in Thailand.

Back to the OP, I will update here when I have some further news re availability.

[tvaddict]

I think it all depends on local contracts.

Where I live, we have been told that TOT will not allow Maxnet to use their line hence why they would need to install their own. At least one of my neighbours has already done so. He has new a new Maxnet line installed to his house, seperate to the TOT line.

[QED]

Finally got it installed, took a while mind. Went for the 3mb indy at 590 p/m. Just ran a test at speedtest.net - BKK 2.62 down, 0.36 up, which I was quite happy with. Then ran a test to San Francisco (about the furthest away you can get I reckon), and was a bit concerned at 1.22 down and 0.05 up!

These tests were run at about 6.20pm on Friday - possibly one of the busiest times.

I will give it a go for a few weeks and see how I get on. I may upgrade to Premier which I had before and was giving much quicker int'l speeds if it doesn't improve, however just for browsing the speed is hardly noticable.

So to answer the OP, yes you can get it in BC (I am right down by the beach), but I will reserve judgement as to the quality.

[longball53098]

I will be very surprised if you get an international connection at more than 2mb down on any speed test to any country during anytime of day. Even 2 mb would surprise me

But please surprise me!