Sophon Cable Internet--Latest Reports

[gguy]

This was a popular topic several months ago.

Planning on switching to Sophon from 3BB next month.

Located in Center Condo near Tukcom.

What are the latest reports on Sophon Cable?

[honda99]

sophon are rubbish

[gguy]

sophon are rubbish

Is that cable Tv or internet or both?

Edited April 1, 2011 by gguy

[jcowle]

I have had Sophon Internet now for the past 6 months, very good indeed, fast and only two downs over the 6 month period.

Regards

JOHN

[bob4you]

I have has Sophon fiber Optics for over a year, consistant speed, modem went out twice they were here within 1/2 hour, tested and replaced it for free. My own wireless went out, they came and tested the problem, said I needed a new wireless (I had a spare), again no charge. Prompt, courteous and friendly English speaking techs. Go with them. I don't know why previous poster is apposed, maybe not the fiber optics system, or maybe a troll trolling for more business for BBB (It took them 2 months to respond to my request for service, then would not install until I paid the service rep who wanted money then said he would come back to do the install next week. LOL "no way Jose")

[RabC]

4 months with Sophon now and I only have good things to say about them.

[bazmlb]

This is what i get on 3bb

What do you guys on Sophon get, it would be interesting to see, I am sick of good speedtest results but crappy browsing on 3bb

[Phil Conners]

I'm tempted to agree that the speedtests are probably not a very good way to measure your actual internet speed/quality. Almost regardless of when I try and where I try to I get excellent measurements except when I use a VPN. Going through a VPN invalidates all the ISP's tricks with caching proxy servers and whatnot and give you a much more precise (and much lower) measurement.

Without VPN

I mean, a ping value of 36ms to the US East Coast just isn't physically possible.

With ExpatShield VPN

Surely some of the reason it's slower is the VPN server itself, but I don't think it's all of the story.

This is 3BB standard 8M/1M.

[bazmlb]

I'm tempted to agree that the speedtests are probably not a very good way to measure your actual internet speed/quality. Almost regardless of when I try and where I try to I get excellent measurements except when I use a VPN. Going through a VPN invalidates all the ISP's tricks with caching proxy servers and whatnot and give you a much more precise (and much lower) measurement.

Without VPN

I mean, a ping value of 36ms to the US East Coast just isn't physically possible.

With ExpatShield VPN

Surely some of the reason it's slower is the VPN server itself, but I don't think it's all of the story.

This is 3BB standard 8M/1M.

VPN's have to encrypt and unencrypt everything when it enters and leaves the tunnel, if the server is loaded heavily with a lot of tunnels this can make a big difference.

[manarak]

Easiest method is really to take a big file somewhere in europe or USA and time the download.

And if I may add, the upload speeds are really really poor.

Are there any plans with better upload speeds than that?

[SurfRider]

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Sophon's speed is consistently disappointing to servers outside of Thailand. In my opinion, it's adequate for very basic Internet use, considering the low cost. I had CAT for several years - it was three times more expensive, but had better speed outside Thailand, however it rarely lived up to it's 2 Mbps claim.

Below are three Sophon tests I just ran from Jomtien on their 4 Mbps service.

( Couldn't get the ThaiVisa image uploader to work, so I'll post text )

To: Bangkok:

Download 3.94 -- Upload .49

To: Hong Kong

Download 1.82 -- Upload .48

To: Los Angeles

Download 1.13 -- Upload .49

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[Phil Conners]

VPN's have to encrypt and unencrypt everything when it enters and leaves the tunnel, if the server is loaded heavily with a lot of tunnels this can make a big difference.

That might make a small difference but as I said, I don't think that is the whole story.

Ok, to make a real life test I created a 50M compressed tarball on my (own) server in USA and downloaded that. As I just created it it will not have been cached already so shows the real actual download. My server can push the full 100 mbps and often does so moving files between servers.

This is the graph downloading this tarball to my PC here in Thailand:

Notice the "flat top" around 137 kB/s - that is typical of profiling, i.e. the ISP limiting (throttling) your download speed, probably at 128 kB/s (per download stream). I think they may have some algorithm in place that can allow more such 128 kB/s slots when the available bandwidth allows for it, which is what you see when it suddenly doubles here and there.

The poor upload speeds probably reflect reality as they are unlikely the cache uploads.

[bazmlb]

Not so good from here on 5mb/512k

[avidflyer]

I've used Sophon BB for 3 months and it his only been down 1 time for a few hours. But it can be slow. I pay for 10mbs and get an average of about 1.5. Some times its at 5mbs, but sometimes at .5mbs. But I like it better than 3BB.

[fred110]

I've used Sophon BB for 3 months and it his only been down 1 time for a few hours. But it can be slow. I pay for 10mbs and get an average of about 1.5. Some times its at 5mbs, but sometimes at .5mbs. But I like it better than 3BB.

Can you do Torrent downloads with Sophon?

[SurfRider]

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"Can you do Torrent downloads with Sophon?"

Yes, according to their senior Tech person, they don't put any restrictions on Torrents. Speed varies widely, from as low as 30 kB up to 500 kB, but that aspect depends on the number of torrent seeders, not Sophon.

If you use uTorrent, you can optimize it for best speed results

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[tropo]

I've used Sophon BB for 3 months and it his only been down 1 time for a few hours. But it can be slow. I pay for 10mbs and get an average of about 1.5. Some times its at 5mbs, but sometimes at .5mbs. But I like it better than 3BB.

They have the standard plans which you're on and premier plans. I pay 1,690 per month for the 2Mb/1Mb premier service. I went with the premium service because it's 1Mb upload and the standard packages only offer 512. The Standard plans are not much higher in price that the basic 3BB or TOT services.

Not one person on this thread has even mentioned that Sophon Broadband IS CAT through fiber optic (television cables). The plans from Sophon are the same as the CAT plans and the same price. All CAT plans are available through Sophon. CAT have a brochure in their office advertising that their service is now available through various cable television companies depending on your area.

The reason for this is that CAT through adsl lines is not available in many areas. When I asked CAT about getting set up in my area (Cosy Beach), they just said "cannot". Not a word of interest about the possibility of getting it set up there.

My username is the same as a CAT username with "ctv" prefix.

I can call CAT customer service 24 hours, but they don't seem to be too happy to help out, but at least I can get an idea if there is a specific CAT problem in my area.

Now, here some important info for Sophon broadband users or potential customers. My service has been unstable for the time I've been connected with them (1 month). I phoned them up last week at about 8:45am. They had a team of 3 out to my place before 10am. They checked my TV cable and discovered that the signal was weak, which they said is often the case when they use old Sophon TV cables in houses and condos. They immediately ran a new dedicated fiber optic cable from their junction on a power poll near my place into my house and had it up and running before 11am. Now it is running great (as good as my old CAT adsl connection or better).

[gguy]

I've used Sophon BB for 3 months and it his only been down 1 time for a few hours. But it can be slow. I pay for 10mbs and get an average of about 1.5. Some times its at 5mbs, but sometimes at .5mbs. But I like it better than 3BB.

They have the standard plans which you're on and premier plans. I pay 1,690 per month for the 2Mb/1Mb premier service. I went with the premium service because it's 1Mb upload and the standard packages only offer 512. The Standard plans are not much higher in price that the basic 3BB or TOT services.

Not one person on this thread has even mentioned that Sophon Broadband IS CAT through fiber optic (television cables). The plans from Sophon are the same as the CAT plans and the same price. All CAT plans are available through Sophon. CAT have a brochure in their office advertising that their service is now available through various cable television companies depending on your area.

The reason for this is that CAT through adsl lines is not available in many areas. When I asked CAT about getting set up in my area (Cosy Beach), they just said "cannot". Not a word of interest about the possibility of getting it set up there.

My username is the same as a CAT username with "ctv" prefix.

I can call CAT customer service 24 hours, but they don't seem to be too happy to help out, but at least I can get an idea if there is a specific CAT problem in my area.

Now, here some important info for Sophon broadband users or potential customers. My service has been unstable for the time I've been connected with them (1 month). I phoned them up last week at about 8:45am. They had a team of 3 out to my place before 10am. They checked my TV cable and discovered that the signal was weak, which they said is often the case when they use old Sophon TV cables in houses and condos. They immediately ran a new dedicated fiber optic cable from their junction on a power poll near my place into my house and had it up and running before 11am. Now it is running great (as good as my old CAT adsl connection or better).

That is very interesting. It was my understanding the internet came through a new set of lines and had nothing to do with the TV cable. If you live in condo with Sophon TV, do they run a separate cable from the main condo connection to your individual condo? I do not think so. Sophon Cable has probably run a new cable to the condo but it probably running with your Sophon TV cable from the condo junction to your room. I am going to the cable company today and ask about how the cable is run in a condo.

[bob4you]

They did the same thing for me when I was having problems (ran a new line from the road) after numerous attempts to get my internet speed and signal up to what it should be. With new line not only did my internet speed improve but also the TV signal to the 3rd floor became usable for the 1st time. I had never complained but used the ground floor TV when I really wanted to watch (I was once told more than 1 TV you must pay for each). I seldom watch TV but my wife likes to watch Korean Soap operas. LOL she is from the Philippines.

[SurfRider]

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"do they run a separate cable from the main condo connection to your individual condo?"

I live in a large condo building - the fiber cable terminates on the 10th floor. From there they installed devices that merge the Internet signal with the TV signal, so both signals go to the condo units on the same coax cable. It is split inside the condo unit with a standard TV cable splitter. From there, one cable goes to the Cable Modem and the other to the TV.

They initially had a weak signal and did something to upgrade the cable from the head-end to the condo unit. It took them about two hours to get everything working properly.

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[gguy]

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"do they run a separate cable from the main condo connection to your individual condo?"

I live in a large condo building - the fiber cable terminates on the 10th floor. From there they installed devices that merge the Internet signal with the TV signal, so both signals go to the condo units on the same coax cable. It is split inside the condo unit with a standard TV cable splitter. From there, one cable goes to the Cable Modem and the other to the TV.

They initially had a weak signal and did something to upgrade the cable from the head-end to the condo unit. It took them about two hours to get everything working properly.

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I got the same impression after talking to the salespeople. However, in my building I think the fiber cable stops at the cable TV junction in the lobby and internet is added to the TV cable to the room. Sophon told me that had 14 happy customers in my building. The tech said he checks signal strength in each installation.

The premium package has 5 users and all other packages have 30 users. I think the same is true for most other ISPs.

CAT will not deliver to a bldg that has a CAT subcontractor like Sophon.

[pattaya_girl]

How much is Sophon Internet please ???

[bazmlb]

How much is Sophon Internet please ???

I did ask them and it was around 5,000 for 6 months paid in advance, they didn't do a monthly bill when i inquired.

[SurfRider]

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"Sophon told me that had 14 happy customers in my building."

They told me the same thing BEFORE I signed the contract. Later, I learned that was an exaggeration.

Many people who signed up for the lower tier services were unhappy with the speed and later upgraded to 10 Mbps-- which they tell me DOES NOT actually deliver 10 Mbps. They also had a difficult time upgrading, since Sophon did not want to cancel the original contract. They ask for one year's fees up-front and once they have the money, they don't want to make any changes.

When you present Sophon with the technical evidence of poor speed that most of their customers don't bother to accumulate-- they make excuses: "too many people on-line", "the problem is with CAT - there's nothing we can do"

The Premium service mentioned earlier would probably be OK, since it's basically CAT's Premium-- which I had for 6 years, but it's considerably more expensive.

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[SurfRider]

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"How much is Sophon Internet please ??"

When I signed up in January, the 4 Mbps was 9030 Baht for one year up-front. That included a free modem and 750 Baht for installation. If you stay with them for a second year, you can subtract the 750 Baht installation. If you go with their monthly plan, they charge an additional 2500 Baht for the modem.

If anyone wants the phone and name of their sales-tech guy, PM me. His English on the phone is so-so.

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[SurfRider]

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One thing anyone considering Sophon should know - they don't provide a Router, which the DSL providers do.

This means that you DON'T have a hardware firewall and your assigned IP address is exposed to the Internet. That can be very dangerous unless you use a software firewall, which I personally would not trust.

Sophon will sell you a Wireless Router for 2500 Baht, or you could find a much cheaper one at TukCom. I bought a Belkin basic router at IT-City for around 1100 Baht - not wireless, and a bit non-standard to configure if you use static internal IP addresses for your computers.

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[pattaya_girl]

Well I might stick with my TOT internet for the moment, i pay 856 bt per Month and am allowed 300 baht worth of telephone calls in with that deal. I have had no problems with them for the two years I have had it, and its never gone off for more than over 2 hours...... but the sophon is handy to know for future reference. Thank you.

[manarak]

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This means that you DON'T have a hardware firewall and your assigned IP address is exposed to the Internet. That can be very dangerous unless you use a software firewall, which I personally would not trust.

err... your assigned IP address is normally shown on the internet, regardless if you use a firewall or not, otherwise the packets can't find you.

[bazmlb]

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This means that you DON'T have a hardware firewall and your assigned IP address is exposed to the Internet. That can be very dangerous unless you use a software firewall, which I personally would not trust.

err... your assigned IP address is normally shown on the internet, regardless if you use a firewall or not, otherwise the packets can't find you.

No it isnt, its blocked by the router, PC's behind a router get a non routeable IP address, the router does translation from the public IP address to this and all ports inbound are blocked unless you make a entry for NAT to route packets to you.

[SurfRider]

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"err... your assigned IP address is normally shown on the internet, regardless if you use a firewall or not, otherwise the packets can't find you"

What bazmlb posted is correct - in essence, this explains it:

"Because the internal addresses are all disguised behind one publicly-accessible address, it is impossible for external hosts to initiate a connection to a particular internal host without special configuration on the firewall to forward connections to a particular port."

For anyone needing a full explanation of Network Address Translation (NAT) and the advantage of having a hardware firewall, this explains it:

http://en.wikipedia....ess_translation

http://en.wikipedia....28networking%29

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