My Tot Adsl Is Terrible - Do I Have Any Options?

[TheyCallmeScooter]

I recently moved into a new apartment on Sukhumvit which I absolutely love. Only problem is ToT have a "privilege contract" with the brand new building.

ToT is one of the worst companies I have ever seen in operation over a period spanning a decade of worldwide travel. I'm [supposedly] on their fastest plan available [ 8mb / 512kb ADSL ], and it's barely usable.

When it isn't totally unusable , the speeds alternate between horrid and disappointing at best.

D = Concerning. Most online applications will not perform well but should function in some capacity. Try testing to other servers to verify the result. You might need to contact your ISP for help.

MOS between 2.50 and 3.99 (Example - a ping around 300 ms with 3% packet loss)

F = Very poor. Real-time Internet application performance will suffer greatly on such a connection. Test to other servers to confirm the result, but definitely talk to your ISP about troubleshooting the issue.

MOS lower than 2.50 (Example - a ping above 500 ms with 20% packet loss)

I cannot get above a D for a pingtest to any server in the world.

I can't watch YouTube videos. Websites take forever to load. Dealing with ToT is an exercise in futility - their last communication when I complained about the 0.15Mb/s speed to US servers was "You're on our best plan. There is nothing we can do. You have no options. We do not guarantee speeds to servers outside Bangkok but we guarantee up to 8Mb/s to Bangkok servers."

I didn't bother explaining to them that a guarantee of "up to" made them sound a bit retarded as it's saying they guarantee between 0 and 8mb/s. Tight guarantee.

--------

A friend of mine in the building next door had same problem [ToT privilege contract] and after a few months of hassling True, he now has True 8mb/s speeds which are up to 4 and 5 to US / UK servers and B / C pingtests.

So I *suspect* it might be possible for me to get True. I really really want True. Price is not a serious concern [within reason - I saw some 100,000 bt/m leased line prices that kinda way out of my price range].

But interested in all possible solutions that can save or improve my joke situation. Even upgrades [if they exist] on my plan with ToT, a company which is the greatest fail in commerce I have ever seen. And my personal opinion is that it's disgraceful and shameful that such a terrible company should represent the wonderful Thailand..

[stolidfeline]

Nothing you can do will improve TOT's service. Forget it and pursue the TRUE option. There must be some way. TRUE are usually providing ADSL2+ up to 16Mbps now, and you do get that speed locally - and even to most parts of the world it is quite close to that speed.

If you are actually connecting via WIFI to your building's own router, then the problem is almost certainly poor setup of the router with no effective QOS system, and P2P users are taking all of the bandwidth. Again - nothing you can do about it.

Edited March 11, 2010 by stolidfeline

[Dodobird]

Hi,

I suggest that you check your optimum MTU setting.

To find the correct MTU setting, please check it out from this site

Hope the above can help you.

[khunjake]

It really doesn't matter who your ADSL provider or ISP is. The quality of your connection outside of Thailand is strictly a matter of how much International bandwidth is available from either one of them. You could have a killer 20MB connection but in reality, when you speed test servers outside of Thailand, you might get a whopping 200kbps.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

Thanks for the responses guys.

Nothing you can do will improve TOT's service. Forget it and pursue the TRUE option. There must be some way. TRUE are usually providing ADSL2+ up to 16Mbps now, and you do get that speed locally - and even to most parts of the world it is quite close to that speed.

That would be glorious. And yes, I agree there has to be *some* way - I just not sure how. I've spoken to True and they are semi-tricky to deal with also when I don't speak any Thai at all. They say Maybe, No, Maybe, I'm hoping to find someone who has a contact in True perhaps, or who is experienced in dealing with them and is happy to invoice me for their assistance in getting it setup.

I suggest that you check your optimum MTU setting.

To find the correct MTU setting, please check it out from this site

Hi, all that was over my head but this part below seemed easy enough so I did it:

This FAQ is for pointy headed people with no life...I strongly recommend you simply download DrTCP, set your MTU on your NIC(s) to 1492 as shown here, and do something better with your time.

I downloaded DrTCP, set MTU to 1492, clicked Save and...is that it? I also have 5 other Adapters in the Adapter Settings dropdown menu in DrTCP - do I enter 1492 in MTU for them all and restart my PC? I'm very confused reading the instructions - but that is because I am moran.

It really doesn't matter who your ADSL provider or ISP is. The quality of your connection outside of Thailand is strictly a matter of how much International bandwidth is available from either one of them. You could have a killer 20MB connection but in reality, when you speed test servers outside of Thailand, you might get a whopping 200kbps.

Yup, I understand this. But it's apparent that ToT is a joke and that True has reasonable > fast international bandwidth. As I don't read Thai, the amount of websites in the world that are located on Bangkok servers that I wish to access would be between 0 and 3 I suspect. I need the Internet for the world, not for Bangkok servers. 0.15mb/s > 1mb/s with F pingtest rating isn't usable, let alone acceptable. And I think it's shameful that the national service provider's HIGHEST ADSL plan is terrible at best and unusable at worst.

Edited March 11, 2010 by TheyCallmeScooter

[Stefanix]

So how does your speedtest to BKK look like? Just to check if your line and local connectivity is OK.

I have a ToT 8M/1M package and I am quite happy with it. I do get 5-6 MBbps on speedtests to US.

International connectivity of ToT has improved a lot, but it seems there is some local congestion in their backbone.

If ToT can not fix the problem and you can't get TRUE, why dont you let your friend subscribe to a second TRUE ADSL line and connect over WLAN?

[TheyCallmeScooter]

So how does your speedtest to BKK look like? Just to check if your line and local connectivity is OK.

I have a ToT 8M/1M package and I am quite happy with it. I do get 5-6 MBbps on speedtests to US.

If ToT can not fix the problem and you can't get TRUE, why dont you let your friend subscribe to a second TRUE ADSL line and connect over WLAN?

Speedtest to BKK is around 7 or 8mb/s

5-6mb/s to US would be totally acceptable obviously. Do you think the 8M/1M plan is *that* different from the 8M/512kb plan that it allows the...INTERNET...to be used? I guess nothing would surprise me with ToT, who are saying over and over I have their absolute best plan available for central Bangkok.

When I say my friend is next door, I mean his large apartment complex is next to my large apartment complex...and we're on opposite sides of our buildings, so maybe a couple hundred metres away as the crow flies. I don't think WLAN is an option that far away, right?

[Stefanix]

I have to admit that I have the new package just since yesterday evening. I made several speedtests since then and was always satisfied. Because of this thread I tested again just now and got quite bad results as below:

Seems to be a bad time now. But using a reliable server in Germany without overload I get now 60-80 KBps, earlier it was 160-180 KBps for a single threaded download.

Using a multithreaded download manager, I get right now, as an example, about 600 KBps downloading in 10 sections from Indiana State University. That's about 5-6 Mbps.

That's why I would not count too much on those speedtests. Surf and download speed is OK for me, even at this busy time right now.

[Stefanix]

I forgot to do London for your comparison. Here it is:

The Ping is pretty bad, but the speed acceptable. But its already a bit later, I guess busy hour is over.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

The Ping is pretty bad, but the speed acceptable.

It's certainly off-peak now at 1:30am, and my net is still abysmal. Just barely usable for browsing and I have to refresh pages a lot just to get them to load. I think it's due to the below. I'm not sure I understand why the two ToT 8M plans differ with ping times? but I'm gonna see if I can't upgrade to this 8m/1m plan tomorrow...

Edited March 11, 2010 by TheyCallmeScooter

[Stefanix]

1) Forget those ping grades. 300-400 ms is normal for US / Europe. This would be still "concerning" or "acceptable" according to pingtest.

2) Those pingtest servers are highly loaded. Maybe one reason for your too high packet loss of 5%? Do your own ping test from the command prompt.

I just tried University of Chicago. Pretty good ping time and no packet loss.

--- www.uchicago.edu ping statistics ---

122 packets transmitted, 121 received, 0% packet loss, time 121064ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 312.722/325.242/1321.463/95.453 ms, pipe 2

Try yourself: On Windows "ping -t www.uchicago.edu". The printout above is from Linux, Windows looks a bit different.

3) If you have such poor web browsing experience, even during off-peak hours, there is certainly something wrong.

Do ping tests (from the command prompt) to your default gateway.

It should be something around 15 ms (over WLAN in my case) and no packet loss. See below.

--- 113.53.36.1 ping statistics ---

158 packets transmitted, 158 received, 0% packet loss, time 157260ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 14.168/15.906/99.243/6.734 ms

You can find your gateway if you log into your router/modem.

[Dodobird]

So how does your speedtest to BKK look like? Just to check if your line and local connectivity is OK.

I have a ToT 8M/1M package and I am quite happy with it. I do get 5-6 MBbps on speedtests to US.

If ToT can not fix the problem and you can't get TRUE, why dont you let your friend subscribe to a second TRUE ADSL line and connect over WLAN?

Speedtest to BKK is around 7 or 8mb/s

5-6mb/s to US would be totally acceptable obviously. Do you think the 8M/1M plan is *that* different from the 8M/512kb plan that it allows the...INTERNET...to be used? I guess nothing would surprise me with ToT, who are saying over and over I have their absolute best plan available for central Bangkok.

When I say my friend is next door, I mean his large apartment complex is next to my large apartment complex...and we're on opposite sides of our buildings, so maybe a couple hundred metres away as the crow flies. I don't think WLAN is an option that far away, right?

Hi,

Please check the following and post it here -

1) Line Attenuation (Up/Down) [db] =

2) SN Margin (Up/Down) [db] =

Edited March 12, 2010 by Dodobird

[TheyCallmeScooter]

1) Forget those ping grades. 300-400 ms is normal for US / Europe. This would be still "concerning" or "acceptable" according to pingtest.

2) Those pingtest servers are highly loaded. Maybe one reason for your too high packet loss of 5%? Do your own ping test from the command prompt.

I just tried University of Chicago. Pretty good ping time and no packet loss.

--- www.uchicago.edu ping statistics ---

122 packets transmitted, 121 received, 0% packet loss, time 121064ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 312.722/325.242/1321.463/95.453 ms, pipe 2

Try yourself: On Windows "ping -t www.uchicago.edu". The printout above is from Linux, Windows looks a bit different.

3) If you have such poor web browsing experience, even during off-peak hours, there is certainly something wrong.

Do ping tests (from the command prompt) to your default gateway.

It should be something around 15 ms (over WLAN in my case) and no packet loss. See below.

--- 113.53.36.1 ping statistics ---

158 packets transmitted, 158 received, 0% packet loss, time 157260ms

rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 14.168/15.906/99.243/6.734 ms

You can find your gateway if you log into your router/modem.

I really appreciate your advice but almost all of that is over my head unfortunately.

I opened the command prompt and entered in "ping -t www.uchicago.edu" but it's been pinging indefinitely for hundreds, maybe thousands of pings, doesn't seem to be going anywhere...

I need to hire a specialist I suspect to play around with it - any recommendations for a network specialist in Bangkok?

[**Dodobird, sorry your msg is over my head also FML**]

Edited March 12, 2010 by TheyCallmeScooter

[Stefanix]

Sorry, forgot to tell you that you can stop all the pinging with "Ctrl-C" and then the summary will be shown.

About 330 ms looks quite OK! I had 325 in the middle of the night. Now it would be interesting to see how may lost packets you have. Should be less than 1% or 1% max. The put some load on this link and check the packet loss again.

How is your setup? Modem/Router? WLAN or Ethernet cable?

[Pib]

I have to admit that I have the new package just since yesterday evening. I made several speedtests since then and was always satisfied. Because of this thread I tested again just now and got quite bad results as below:

Seems to be a bad time now. But using a reliable server in Germany without overload I get now 60-80 KBps, earlier it was 160-180 KBps for a single threaded download.

Using a multithreaded download manager, I get right now, as an example, about 600 KBps downloading in 10 sections from Indiana State University. That's about 5-6 Mbps.

That's why I would not count too much on those speedtests. Surf and download speed is OK for me, even at this busy time right now.

Just for some comparision, here are my speedtest.net results from Bangkok to New York, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt at approx 3:30pm/12 March/Friday Bangkok time. I use the JI-NET BizConnext 2M/512KB package. The JI-NET package is suppose to provide a contention/user ratio of 10-20 to 1 compared to the TOT probable 50 to 1 ratio.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

Sorry, forgot to tell you that you can stop all the pinging with "Ctrl-C" and then the summary will be shown.

About 330 ms looks quite OK! I had 325 in the middle of the night. Now it would be interesting to see how may lost packets you have. Should be less than 1% or 1% max. The put some load on this link and check the packet loss again.

How is your setup? Modem/Router? WLAN or Ethernet cable?

Ah lolz, I feel like a moran. I sat there staring at it for 20 min before I realised it wasn't going to end any time soon

My internet has been disconnected about 20-30 times in the last 4 hours...just for a few minutes each time but it's painfully frustrating obviously. Something must be seriously wrong with the way ToT set it up. It's just a standard ToT issued TP-LINK 54M Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router - I'm connected with an Ethernet cable.

Edited March 12, 2010 by TheyCallmeScooter

[Pib]

When it disconnects is the light on the modem which shows a DSLAM connection Off or On (or made a quick flashing for On). Take a look at the status of the lights when you have a connection and the status when you don't. If you determine your modem is losing the internet connection then it's probably a TOT server/DSLAM connection problem. But it could be modem setting.

Over a year ago when I was with TOT (I had the 2MB/512KB Goldcyber package) I had problems similar to what you are experiencing. It was "not" the TOT modem nor the TOT physical line/DSLAM. It was something at the server level at TOT. How do I know this? Well, I switched to a JI-NET 2MB/512KB package but before I did I got a 3 day test period where I could log onto the JI-NET server by just entering the JI-NET User ID/password in the TOT modem....and I could switch back to my TOT Goldcyber package just by re-entering my TOT User ID/password in the modem. Now keep in mind I using the same TOT modem, same TOT phone line, and connecting to the same TOT DSLAM; the only difference was I was either on the TOT internet server or the JI-NET internet server. It was like night and day. TOT could be super slow...I would switch over to JI-NET and be going fast again. I could be disconnect from the internet while logged in under TOT; but then connect no problem when logging on under JI-NET. JI-NET is super reliable but their top speed is 2MB/512MB.

Unless you get lucky with your modem settings, you probably need to be calling TOT for assistance.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

Unless you get lucky with your modem settings, you probably need to be calling TOT for assistance.

Well that's not a very nice thing to say!

I'm not sure I can survive any more ToT 'assistance'.

But yea, I'm getting d/c'ed with the modem lights twinkling off for a min or two before coming online again. I wish I'd started counting the d/c's, but I'm pretty sure I'm over 25 now in the last 6 hrs. FML

[kc1jack]

[Pib]

Unless you get lucky with your modem settings, you probably need to be calling TOT for assistance.

Well that's not a very nice thing to say!

I'm not sure I can survive any more ToT 'assistance'.

But yea, I'm getting d/c'ed with the modem lights twinkling off for a min or two before coming online again. I wish I'd started counting the d/c's, but I'm pretty sure I'm over 25 now in the last 6 hrs. FML

My general experience with most any customer assistance, be it for internet service, online banking, etc., is the 1st level customer assistance pretty much walk down a checklist of things to check...and most of the time anyone that has just a little bit of tech savy has already tried what is on their checklist. 1st level of customer assistance can indeed be very frustrating sometimes. But unless you play the checklist game with them they'll never refer you to their 2nd level of support, which are normally tech savy folks and/or supervisors.

Good luck...and with the protest going on for the next X-days it may be hard to get a TOT technician to come check out your line/modem/phone line. Now if your connection starts working a lot better tonight or early tomorrow morning, due to fewer users, I would guess it's your setup on the TOT server or a issue at the TOT line connection office. But I know to you it's just a problem you wanted fixed now!...I would feel (and have felt) the same way with TOT.

Edited March 12, 2010 by Pib

[Stefanix]

How can we help you? I am curious to know what's the problem.

WLAN can be excluded, you use a cable.

As Pib said, would be interesting to know to know if its a line problem, or further in the internet backbone.

The internet connection runs on 2 layers, the lower one is the ADSL layer. It takes care of the transferring digital data over your analogue phone line. This layer is not affected by busy hours and mass traffic of other users, its just your line and no one else is on it (except the NSA). The ADSL connection depends only on your modem, the quality of the phone line (wires) and the terminating equipment in the ToT office ("DSLAM"). If this layer is on, usually lamp "ADSL" is lit on your modem. It's off is the line is down, and blinking shortly off, if data is transmitted (might depend on the modem model).

Furthermore, if this layer is up, the connection speed is displayed in the status menu, when you log in to your modem/router.

If this layer goes down often (ADSL lamp off, no connection speed shown in the menu), then there is a line or modem problem.

Some adjustments might help:

1) Check your telephone cabling

2) Try another ADSL splitter

3) Adjust modem settings (helped in my case)

If ADSL layer is OK, there are could be something on the PPP, the actual internet running on the ADSL layer, wrong.

In this case only ToT could help. This second layer is usually shown as "PPP" or "Internet" on your modem/router.

BTW, I just did another long ping test to University of Chiacago (chose them because they have been listed having a 10GB line): Below 1% lost packages. (it showed 0%, a few packets lost).

Your 2% is not perfect, but this by itself can not cause a very poor browsing experience. Of course this is without load.

Another problem could be simply that your modem/router has a HW problem. I remember now having similar symptoms (disconnections) and TT&T (in Krabi) were searching long, before they replaced the modem and everything was fine. Its worth a try (if you have a spare one).

[Pib]

Stefanix, You definitely know your ADSL/internet. Yea, that PPP light is the one I was referring to, as to check if it was Off (i.e., lost the IP connection) or On (or maybe blinking every few seconds which also means On...you're making that 2nd layer ADSL connection).

[TheyCallmeScooter]

My general experience with most any customer assistance, be it for internet service, online banking, etc., is the 1st level customer assistance pretty much walk down a checklist of things to check...and most of the time anyone that has just a little bit of tech savy has already tried what is on their checklist. 1st level of customer assistance can indeed be very frustrating sometimes. But unless you play the checklist game with them they'll never refer you to their 2nd level of support, which are normally tech savy folks and/or supervisors.

This is a fairly solid point - I'm aware of these sorts of things when calm, but I usually resort to tentative seething frustration early...potentially risking exploding into fury when, after 20 min of painstakingly attempting to coax CS to pass you up the chain, I then hear a wonderful line such as "Are you connected to the internet?" or "Can you tell me if all your modem lights are blinking".

How can we help you? I am curious to know what's the problem.

Actually, I was mostly hoping for a magical response along the lines of "Yes, you can get True, I know the right person to call - you'll need to pay him / her xxx baht and I'll available for consultancy at yyy rate."

Failing that, a recommendation for a talented network specialist here in Bangkok to tick all the boxes mentioned in this thread and basically assist me to do all the things I'm incapable of [read: almost everything] would be greatly appreciated.

I can't lie...although I *have* been fairly distracted...even if I was able to really focus I suspect 90% or more of all kindly offered advice would go way over my head. I'm sure I sound like my sister when she takes her hatchback in for a service, but I really just want it all to...Work. And not all that preoccupied with the process [primarily because I don't expect to learn enough about this sort of thing in the time-frame required to assist myself - and also because I intend on never trapping myself in such a position ever again, which would make the skills (for me) redundant].

Edited March 12, 2010 by TheyCallmeScooter

[Stefanix]

Hi Scooter, I dont know any network specialist. I wanted already suggest to come over and have a look. Would not call myself a specialist, maybe not able to solve your problem, but at least pinpoint the source.

I am just quite busy during weekdays and need permission to leave the family on weekends. And on this weekend its maybe better to avoid the inner city (I live in Prawet, close to the airport).

Anyway, maybe I'll find some time later, if your problem still persists then. My rate would be one beer.

[TheyCallmeScooter]

Hi Stefanix, I agree about this weekend being a good one for relaxing at home

I thank you sincerely for your help so far and your offer to help further. Although I would have some strong reservations regarding price but we could nut that out over a beer or two I'm sure.

I'm a gonna go all-out Monday morning on this and not stop until I've caught the scent of a hopeful plan...or until I physically collapse in exhausted failure. Either way, I shall be bringing the matter to a head! At least I hope...

[Stefanix]

One final observation / hint, before I back off in DSL matters for this weekend:

I just logged in with another ToT account, one having the old 3M/512k service. My line speed was still 8M/1M, because this is kind of hardwired. But service was significantly degraded. Download speed (single thread) was 10-15 K (makes 80-120 kbps) compared to 40-50 K with my new "Best Fit" account. Furthermore the ping times to a server in Germany went up from abt. 400ms to 650ms!

It's not only the line speed as displayed on your modem, there is a certain quality of service (QoS) with your account connected.

I observed that I get an IP address of 113.x.x.x assigned using the new "Best Fit" package. When I log in with the old account, I get 125.x.x.x.

It seems that the traffic of the more expensive packages is separated from the rest.

Scooter: would be interesting to see from which address range your IP address is. Try "checkip.org". It displays "Your IP:..."

Is it possible that only the 8M/1M packages get higher QoS? If you have no other choice than to stay with ToT, I would upgrade from 8M/512k to 8M/1M. Maybe this does the trick. But if you have total service interruptions, there must be another problem, of course.

[thaibkk]

TOT just sucks ... no option here as the moo baan also have privilege contract with TOT

but i saw 3BB making publicity... so i guess on the same line as my crappy noise TOT line...

FYI : I got an F for pingtest...

Edited March 14, 2010 by thaibkk

[Dodobird]

TOT just sucks ... no option here as the moo baan also have privilege contract with TOT

but i saw 3BB making publicity... so i guess on the same line as my crappy noise TOT line...

FYI : I got an F for pingtest...

Have you try connecting your modem directly to the telephone socket without the telephone and filter?

[HAL9000]

Another problem could be simply that your modem/router has a HW problem. I remember now having similar symptoms (disconnections) and TT&T (in Krabi) were searching long, before they replaced the modem and everything was fine. Its worth a try (if you have a spare one).

I've got TT&T Maxnet (now 3BB I guess).

The modem they gave me has died, but I have delayed asking for a replacement because I don't know if they will charge to replace it.

Anyone know about this?

[Stefanix]

No charge for us. (In Krabi by TT&T, about 1.5 years ago)

Isn't the modem kind of rented and belongs to the subscription? Even they don't take it back after the minimum subscription period is over, I think they would repair / replace it for free.