Should I Downgrade My True Adsl Package?

[The Coder]

I get the true 1mbit package that costs 910 baht a month. I only access international sites, not Thai ones. Downloading files from every single web site I have ever been on like patches is always dog slow day or night or morning and so is ftp and https. When watching the speed meter when i load http sites it never gets to the 1mbit mark. I ran a few bandwidth tests such as this one and max at 170kbps. So now I wonder what the benefit of the 1mbit package is or am I just throwing money away? I have tried to contact true by email, but they do not respond. I tried to call them, but they have a perpetual recording saying they are busy and to leave a number, but they do not call back. Anyone suppose the 512kbps or even the 256kbps package would yield the same performance? My plan is to give true a chance to remedy the problem and should they fail, ask to ratchet down my package to the optimal where I don't suffer performance loss (speed is mediocre already) and don't waste money.

Edited July 26, 2005 by The Coder

[autonomous_unit]

If you do downgrade, be sure to report the results!

I tried that bandwidth testing page and got a similar result of 170 when I selected ADSL and Asia region. I selected California and got 210!

Doing my own tests, I am getting sliding averages around 220-300 from the US right now in late afternoon. I have seen bursts much closer to 1 Mb/s on some public FTPs in the past week, but the hosts I usually work with are restricted at their end too. I can also get closer to 1 Mb/s if I have several things to get from different sites and can run them in parallel...

I keep the 1024/512 service because even right now I can get near 512 Kb/s upload speeds to the US. All the lower speed True offerings reduce the upload speed as well.

[The Coder]

I keep the 1024/512 service because even right now I can get  near 512 Kb/s upload speeds to the US.  All the lower speed True offerings reduce the upload speed as well.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, isn't that interesting. I too consistently get the full 512kbps upload speed. However, my upload needs are quite small and I do not believe it would be worth paying extra just for that. Will do as far as posting what the outcome is.

[Butterfly]

oops !!! I was going to upgrade from the Home 256 to Home 2048

Maybe I shouldn't

I am getting 190 Kbit

[griser]

Actually your decision to upgrade should be made based on what area of the world you are going to get files/pages from.

If your going to do a lot of traffic in thailand/asia area then yes... an upgrade would pay off. But if you plan on using the internet to connect to the rest of the world... Forget it. it isnt worth the extra money.

Thailands pipeline to the rest of the world is tooo small and too overcrowded at this point. Wait till they ix that problem before you think about an upgrade using international lines.

My two cents

Greg

Edited July 26, 2005 by griser

[kelv23]

447.7 kbps on cs loxinfo,subjective rating<b>not bad</b> maybe you should switch.....

[MikeWill]

I have the cheapest (256 Kb/s) True package and speed test shows as following:

220.6 kilobits per second.

Hopefully, this info helps.

[Insight]

IMHO it's not the size of your connection limiting your download speeds, it's that #@$#$ True proxy server. I could be wrong, but try transfering data using an alternative protocol than HTTP/HTTPS/FTP and report your speeds.

Of course, I could be wrong, but this is where I found most of my connectivity problems exist.

[hUsh]

I get the true 1mbit package that costs 910 baht a month. I only access international sites, not Thai ones. Downloading files from every single web site I have ever been on like patches is always dog slow day or night or morning and so is ftp and https. When watching the speed meter when i load http sites it never gets to the 1mbit mark. I ran a few bandwidth tests such as this one and max at 170kbps. So now I wonder what the benefit of the 1mbit package is or am I just throwing money away? I have tried to contact true by email, but they do not respond. I tried to call them, but they have a perpetual recording saying they are busy and to leave a number, but they do not call back. Anyone suppose the 512kbps or even the 256kbps package would yield the same performance? My plan is to give true a chance to remedy the problem and should they fail, ask to ratchet down my package to the optimal where I don't suffer performance loss (speed is mediocre already) and don't waste money.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I also have the same problem. I have the 2.5Mbps package from True but accdg. to speed test (just recently did) I only get 74.6kbps (freaking slow ) . I really want to downgrade to the lowest speed since I don't think it would make a difference. For the kind of speed im getting i dont think it's really worth the price (1,250B--pricey).I also emailed them today, but after reading your post I wouldn't be counting on a reply then. I'll probably go to one of their offices.

Or I'll just switch to Wi-fi in my apartment building, probably worth a try. Has anyone tried this?

Edited July 26, 2005 by hUsh

[autonomous_unit]

IMHO it's not the size of your connection limiting your download speeds, it's that #@$#$ True proxy server. I could be wrong, but try transfering data using an alternative protocol than HTTP/HTTPS/FTP and report your speeds.

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The speeds I reported above were using SSH to hosts in the US.

[Firefan]

I am impressed! I have the cheapest package w. True also (256/128 for 599B) in my condo - and I was thinking that the building telephone line+distance to connection point outside building must make a huge difference (just look at those phone lines hanging around!). I will check speed when back from travelling. Cheers!

I have the cheapest (256 Kb/s) True package and speed test shows as following:

220.6 kilobits per second.

Hopefully, this info helps.

[Blackcoda110]

as we speak, the local links for true are down...

[The Coder]

A tech did come and look at my connection. He did some bandwidth tests and when they were sub-par matter of factly stated "international bandwidth not guaranteed". He explained true does not provide sufficient bandwidth to meet customer demand. I in vain tried to make the point that in that case there should at least be *sometimes* when there are few users on that I can get full speed. And I simply never, ever do no matter what; weekdays, weekends, 3am, 3pm, ... I suspect they have some sort of international speed limiters that kick in and the techs probably do not even know about them.

I was recommended that true is offering a brand new guaranteed bandwidth package. The 1024/512kbps no guarantees package I have is 899 baht a month. The new guaranteed bandwidth package is 1500 baht for 256/128kbps!!! That just sounds a bit dodgy to sign up for one fourth the speed at a substantially higher price. My conclusion is the 1+ megabit true packages are a waste of money for the average user who will not realize any difference over the cheaper packages.

[monty]

Hi Coder,

What the tech told you seems to concur with my experiences over the last couple of months.

This is what I posted in the Maxnet initiated thread a couple of days ago:

I'm now pretty much convinced that you only get what you pay for, regardless of ISP.

The Communications Authority of Thailand, as the sole provider of international bandwidth, charges pretty high fees for their services (roughly 25000 Baht/month/1024kbps).

Hence any ISP offering cheap access will have to use a very high contention ratio just to pay the CAT bill! We cannot expect a private business to sponsor our access from their (or their shareholders) pockets.

So, after having tried a few adsl packages, it seems that the sweet spot seems to be at the 1500 BAht for 256 or 2500 for 512 access price.

I guess yes, the maxnet4life 256/128 will be a lot better/reliable then the maxnet4home 512/256.

I have no complaints from the maxnet4life 512 so far!

The whole thread did not go on about how much speed you get for what price, but mainly how the Thai ISP's, True included, market their stuff!

Knowing what the silly monopolistic CAT charges them I perfectly can accept the speeds I get.

At 900/month for 1Mbps, True needs a contention ratio of 28:1 to pay CAT alone. If they figure in the expenses and their profit we're much closer at 60:1...

If only one of those 60 is doing a big download at night(maybe a 700mb divx movie), and one other has a P2P client running downloading heaps of whatever you'll be happy to test at 300kbps!!!!

At 1500 Baht/month for 256/128 they can bring down the contention ratio to 9:1 and still make the same profit! At 9:1 you get very close to being able to gurantee speed...

Know if they would just make public their contention ratios, we would at least know what to expect for our money!

But thats probably wishfull thinking

[Blackcoda110]

Do not downgrade, a technician told me to wait till next year before they start dividing the international bandwidths and increasing them so that there won't be any traffic and that the speeds are guaranteed.

[TizMe]

I get the true 1mbit package that costs 910 baht a month. I only access international sites, not Thai ones. Downloading files from every single web site I have ever been on like patches is always dog slow day or night or morning and so is ftp and https. When watching the speed meter when i load http sites it never gets to the 1mbit mark. I ran a few bandwidth tests such as this one and max at 170kbps. So now I wonder what the benefit of the 1mbit package is or am I just throwing money away? I have tried to contact true by email, but they do not respond. I tried to call them, but they have a perpetual recording saying they are busy and to leave a number, but they do not call back. Anyone suppose the 512kbps or even the 256kbps package would yield the same performance? My plan is to give true a chance to remedy the problem and should they fail, ask to ratchet down my package to the optimal where I don't suffer performance loss (speed is mediocre already) and don't waste money.

I just signed up for TOT ADSL 512/256

Speed

328.9 kilobits per second

Communications 328.9 kilobits per second

Storage 40.1 kilobytes per second

1MB file download 25.5 seconds

Subjective rating Not bad