True Brutally Throttling International Bandwidth During Primetime?

[jfchandler]

I don't know that it's relevant to limited/slow international bandwidth speeds here for most people...

But here's the chart on True's terms and conditions document relating to hourly download limits for their regular and premium packages....

[joncl]

So you are saying I should not believe the results from my box in TX, USA as it is reporting 13-15mbs right now on the speedtest mini I am hosting, to my home here in BKK?

Why do you say these tests are fake? I would really like to know to get it sorted in my own mind.

My Mini speed test is here

[jfchandler]

Speedtest.net, for some reason, gives very inflated, inaccurate speed results for True customers (and maybe others) here in Thailand.

Try your connection on a different speedtest like DSLReports.com or others outside Thailand, and see if you can duplicate those results...for the same Thailand to USA connection.

I'm betting, you can't.

[Echelon]

today between 8pm-11pm big packetloss, very slow/zero international speeds today with true 8mb premium, central Bangkok...

[joncl]

Speedtest.net, for some reason, gives very inflated, inaccurate speed results for True customers (and maybe others) here in Thailand.

So I tried their corporate system at http://www.ookla.com/demo-lq.php and it shows the same as my mini speed test that I host as per the attached image below, without any inflated ping times so I see no reason they are not correct at all. The only problem is this app needed me to downgrade to WIN7 to work (I use linux as the norm)

[jfchandler]

Jon, I'm suggesting you try a DIFFERENT, unrelated speed test preferably outside of Thailand...

But, if you want to be deluded that you're really getting that speed, be my guest...

[joncl]

As I host one of the mini speedtests on my web site in the states, I would surely like to know if it is giving incorrect data, and as the Ookla corporate speed test / line quality checks as shown in the above link I gave confirms my mini speed test complete with the correct ping times I am not seeing why it would be fake. I have tried many services before we settled on the Ookla mini speed test (it is not mini in size by any means with over 90mb of compressed data) .

There are issues in BKK on true right now and this was confirmed to us over the weekend, but us being all of 40m from our outside DSLAM also in Sukhumvit on our 16mbs (true shows we can peak at 21mbs on their field test units) adsl we are not facing the issues you are in your part of Sukhumvit. Tests to our development site in Holland also show there are indeed some issues (sandvine is now active?) so the use of https and udp sure helps allot when compiling from remote.

Edit: note in the above image the tcp leg is blocked (I assume by true) thus the wrong ping times in a normal speedtest.net test, BUT not when udp is used as in that test.

Edited July 27, 2010 by joncl

[jfchandler]

Jon, believe what you want... but I don't see you verifying your results with some separate, independent testing site... That speaks for itself...

So let me give you and others here my example... 3 back to back tests on DSL Reports connecting to L.A., and three back to back tests on Speedtest.net supposedly connecting to L.A. Just now, midnight Tues BKK time.

You look at the results, and decide which ones likely are real and which ones clearly are being faked, presumably because Speedtest is likely measuring the last hop of the connection here in Thailand, instead of the full route. 32 ms pings to USA... sure....

Funny how the Speedtest results always seems to hit just exactly about 10 mbit on my 8 mbit connection. If you've ever monitored actual flow speeds on international connections, you'd know that in real life, especially on True, they bounce all over the place.

And just to be clear, the Speedtest download numbers ostensibly are in Mbits... whereas the DSLReports numbers are in Kbits....

See, it's really easy to find and post fake results... Good to have Speedtest.net for that purpose.

[joncl]

just to show I am not completely biased

Edited July 27, 2010 by joncl

[jfchandler]

So now you have Speedtest saying 15 Mbits and DSLReports saying 1300+ kbits... The later speed, I can believe...

[joncl]

Great but still does not answer what is wrong any of the Ookla test sites and true on the 16mb reporting, having said this my 4mb true shows the proper ping times to the US as do the other low speed adsl lines here, in the 450ms - 550 ms ranges.

Even the speed tests to stanford uni show better times than the one I posted above, so it is all subjective. try them from dsl reports there are hundreds they list, which you test against as well.

[jfchandler]

I'd suggest the difference between you thinking you're getting 15 Mbits and actually getting 1.3 Mbits, or something in that neighborhood, is a bit more than subjective...

Yes, of course, the speed results vary from site to site, server to server, time of day, etc etc.... But for a Thailand connection to the U.S., 400-600 Kbits is real, and at good times, perhaps up to 2-3 Mbits if one's lucky...

But I seriously doubt anyone living in Thailand and using any of the retail consumer-grade commercial DSL services here is getting anywhere close to 15 Mbits to the U.S. -- Speedtest.net test results notwithstanding.

However, and this is the key point, if outfits like True and others can make you THINK that's what you're getting by finding ways to generate bogus speed test results, then they're going to have happy, albeit deluded, customers.

There was another poster here on a similar thread who spent days arguing he was really getting16 Mbits to the U.S. And we went thru the entire same exercise same as tonight... And in the end, his last post was agreeing to check his Speedtest.net results against another outside Thailand site like DSL Reports...

That was his last post on the subject, and thus he never did post the resulted from the outside speedtest sites... Wonder why???

PS -- I say all of the above as a True DSL customer, and a reasonably satisfied one with their 8 Mbit premium plan... My service in central BKK rarely if ever goes out, except when an occasional tall truck pull outs the DSL line in my soi. And I get predictable, reasonably steady speeds to the U.S. in the 400-600 Kbits range at night...and 1.5-2.5 Mbits during the mornings here.. Maybe I'd do a bit better if I was paying extra for their 12 or 16 Mbit plans....

For the price I pay for the 8Mbit plan, that's OK... I'm fine with that reality. But believing regular DSL speeds to the U.S. at 7-8 times those tested speeds above is just delusional.

[joncl]

So what you are really saying is do not trust any Ookla based speed test which would include those here on Thaivisa - sorry but we have to agree to differ here. Even dsl reports shows a big difference between its java based and flash based tests, so I will stick with my mini speedtest. which are consistent.

Even if it is not showing the correct speeds it is a better indication of what is going on from here in Bangkok to our web site in Texas direct rather than testing via a non related 3rd party.

[jfchandler]

Nice example of wishful thinking....

I can't explain why their results are wrong and overinflated... but they clearly are.... Face the facts.

[negreanu]

I can't explain why their results are wrong and overinflated... but they clearly are.... Face the facts.

Oh dear the village idiot is on the loose again. Look we know your particular internet connection is crap and we know you are bitter and twisted about it and perhaps somewhat jealous of those that do have a good connection here in thailand. But let it go with all your conspiracy theories.....broken record.

[jfchandler]

You're very long on boasts and personal insults, as usual, and very short on facts and visible unbiased evidence.

[BangkokHank]

I am a new True High Speed Internet customer since this past Tuesday. The only reason I switched from dial-up to high speed was to do torrent downloads.

During my first day of use, torrent downloading was a bit slow, but later that night, it got up to a very fast rate, peaking out at just under 500 kB/s. I was very pleased.

Today I tried to repeat my success from yesterday - and torrents are now downloading at a rate SLOWER than my previous, old-fashioned dial-up.

I called True to find out what was going on and they had me go through that speed test - which showed that everything was as it should be. But if that were the case, how could one explain the painfully slow torrent download speeds I am getting? There's only one way to explain it: They are throttling my torrent downloads.

The question is: What can I do about it?

[jfchandler]

Hank, it's hard to suggest a clear answer to your question, but here is some info...

1. Re whatever speedtest True pointed you to, it probably was inaccurate. Read this and related threads, and choose an independent, well respected site outside Thailand to do your testing, preferably with a server located near where you are pulling your Torrents from. That will give you a better and more accurate sense of what your real bandwidth is...

2. There have been a lot of posts from other TV members that I've read over the past few days saying that there was some kind of major slowdown in torrents over the past weekend, but supposedly that things are better now.

3. There also was speculation posted by some of the active torrenters here that True may have lately begun using some kind of software on their system specifically designed to throttle/limit bandwidth for torrents on an ongoing basis... Since I don't do that kind of activity, I'm not that familiar with the claims, and can only repeat what others have reported here.

4. You didn't say what True package you have subscribed to... But here in BKK for me with True, 500 Kbits international download speed is around what I usually get from True during the evening hours on my supposed 8 Mbit plan.

5. If you go back to 500 kbits after today's slowdown, you might chalk it up to the periodic blips and gurgles that happen with internet service here. But if your sub-dialup performance persists, you might consider other options like testing a VPN to see if that makes any difference in your performance.

Mr. Boaster always gets 16 Mbits on his international connections (), so maybe he can offer some helpful advice as well... share the wealth...so to speak.

[BangkokHank]

JF,

Thanks for your comments.

I am using True's 4mb high speed internet (for 599 baht plus tax per month).

So, after a couple of days more experience, I would say that it is conclusive that True is throttling torrent downloads. Here's my proof:

Currently my torrents are downloading at a rate of one - that's right ONE kB/s! Incidentally, that's just a fraction of what I got with my dial-up connection.

At the same time, and I mean literally at the same time so there is no question of differing conditions accounting for the difference, when I download the same files directly (through, say, RapidShare), my download speed is 200-300 kB/s!

Another thing: On my first day of using my new high-speed internet service, I was able to download and run torrent files. Now it seems that True even blocks that because when I try to download a torrent file now, I get the error message "Not a valid torrent file". There is a way around that - by downloading the torrent files as text files and then converting them back to torrent files. Anyway, this just seems like additional proof that True does not want to allow torrent downloading which, as I mentioned, was the only reason I thought anyone would need high speed internet. Maybe I was being unrealistic in my expectations, but I think that I was mislead into signing a one year contract for something that I'm not going to be able to use.

I guess it's time again to start exploring alternative solutions, such as that VPN that you suggested. Thanks.

[marquess]

JF,

Thanks for your comments.

I am using True's 4mb high speed internet (for 599 baht plus tax per month).

So, after a couple of days more experience, I would say that it is conclusive that True is throttling torrent downloads. Here's my proof:

Currently my torrents are downloading at a rate of one - that's right ONE kB/s! Incidentally, that's just a fraction of what I got with my dial-up connection.

At the same time, and I mean literally at the same time so there is no question of differing conditions accounting for the difference, when I download the same files directly (through, say, RapidShare), my download speed is 200-300 kB/s!

Another thing: On my first day of using my new high-speed internet service, I was able to download and run torrent files. Now it seems that True even blocks that because when I try to download a torrent file now, I get the error message "Not a valid torrent file". There is a way around that - by downloading the torrent files as text files and then converting them back to torrent files. Anyway, this just seems like additional proof that True does not want to allow torrent downloading which, as I mentioned, was the only reason I thought anyone would need high speed internet. Maybe I was being unrealistic in my expectations, but I think that I was mislead into signing a one year contract for something that I'm not going to be able to use.

I guess it's time again to start exploring alternative solutions, such as that VPN that you suggested. Thanks.

This may well be true, but is seems to be up and down for example yesterday around 11 am Bangkok time, I was getting 607kps on my 4mb connexion!

[Digitalbanana]

I guess it's time again to start exploring alternative solutions, such as that VPN that you suggested. Thanks.

This I presume is the answer. I am not sure if there has been a thread on the percentage of Thai Visa VPN's users in Thailand, but I assume it will become more popular in time to come as in the west where privacy is more of an issue than speed throttling.

[BangkokHank]

This may well be true, but is seems to be up and down for example yesterday around 11 am Bangkok time, I was getting 607kps on my 4mb connexion!

But downloading WHAT? Probably not torrent files?

[marquess]

This may well be true, but is seems to be up and down for example yesterday around 11 am Bangkok time, I was getting 607kps on my 4mb connexion!

But downloading WHAT? Probably not torrent files?

Yes torrent files, 300. It was a TorrentBox torrent.

[wintermute]

So, after a couple of days more experience, I would say that it is conclusive that True is throttling torrent downloads. Here's my proof:

True is definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, using Sandvine to throttle torrents. I did a series of network monitoring tests that all pointed to throttling. The stuff happening with the torrents here is 100% identical to the ISP anti-torrent protocols you see with some isps in Canada and the U.S. Once you tunnel with VPN the speeds increase but I think True has put a cap on encrypted traffic too so even though you can download at a broadband speed it won't be anywhere near as good as advertised.

I've talked to True a number of times (with Thai) and they have not been very forthcoming about their new limitations. I'm not sure if the low level IT staff are even aware of it.

Another factor to consider is that True may be throttling by region or "sector" based on bandwidth use.

Edited July 30, 2010 by wintermute

[Supernova]

Try downloading a well-seeded torrent. If there's any throttling going on, it will show.

[Hawk]

I am using TTT premier and the speed has gone from about 2.8megs down to 0.7 megs over the past 4 days.

And for two weeks the connection keep disappearing, but that seems to have been fixed after I phoned them about 60+ times.

Now the speed has slowed down dramatically.

Need help as to what to do about this.

[jfchandler]

I don't disbelieve your comment below.. But, what makes you know or believe that that is the case, in terms of their limiting encrypted traffic... Thanks...

but I think True has put a cap on encrypted traffic too so even though you can download at a broadband speed it won't be anywhere near as good as advertised.

[noafdcap]

I'm in Chiang Mai with True 5mb connection. The last 2 weeks I've had terrible torrent speeds, and this morning all the streaming video protocols are blocked (StreamTorrent, PPStream, SopCast, etc.)

Seems like True or the Gov't doesn't want outside entertainment available.

[noafdcap]

No doubt about it, True is blocking myp2p.eu. I can see the web page fine with a non-true connection, but it will not connect on my True HiSpeed.

I'm in Chiang Mai with True 5mb connection. The last 2 weeks I've had terrible torrent speeds, and this morning all the streaming video protocols are blocked (StreamTorrent, PPStream, SopCast, etc.)

Seems like True or the Gov't doesn't want outside entertainment available.

[jfchandler]

Yes, I get that same behavior with the web site you mentioned... but not with ST itself.

And then, there was a separate thread lately about a bunch of web sites being blocked because of the Red riots but remaining blocked even now, including TVU and Ustream and Justin.TV... And those remain blocked for Thailand IPs, as far as I know.