True Cable Internet Modem

[jfchandler]

I certainly concur, Pib...

It's kind of strange... All these various operations are all part of True, but each one really operates differently... With True cable TV, they've always scheduled their service calls with me in advance, given me a morning or afternoon time window, and usually, though not always, showed up within that window, or at least the same day.

With True Online, at least in my recent service calls, they've repeatedly showed up with no warning, no scheduling and no advance notice... I call them and ask for a service call, and they say they'll put it in their system. And then that's the last I hear from them until sometime a day or two or three later, someone shows up knocking on my door... It's really a terrible way to operate.

Re last Weds., all I can say is that when I finally talked with True Online on the phone last Friday, the CSR gal said they had had some kind of broad outage on the prior Wednesday early evening.... She didn't specify how broad, and I didn't ask... But she certainly was suggesting that my Wednesday problem wasn't a local one but part of some broader deal.. Who knows...

[Pib]

Anyway, on this fine Sunday morning at 9:40am after it rained all night, having a new and "currently" rainproof True trunk line to the moobaan, and having excellent modem power levels, testing my True Ultra Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan using DSLReports.com and using the LA server I got a 1.826Mb Download, 1.296Mb Upload, and a 249ms Latency Time (Ping Time). These download/upload times are about 3 to 4 times faster than my TOT 6Mb plan I had until switching to True Ultra Cable.

And now on this fine Sunday night at at 8:45pm with my True Ultra Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan I'm still getting approx same DSLReports.com results reported above to their L.A. server, but testing to their Denver server, which is another 1000 miles or so away from Thailand, I get a 9.206Mb Download speed, 1.136Mb Upload speed, and a Latency Time of 140ms (did the test a couple of times and getting the approx same result each time).

Accurate Download Speed? Latency/Ping time accurate (maybe a little too fast)? Or download speed result and ping time being enhanced/skewed by possibly a hidden cache server along the path from Bangkok to Denver? I hope it's an accurate speedtest result....but I have my doubts due to the ping time....I just don't know. Take all speedtest program results with a BIG Grain of salt.

[woodyleonhard]

Accurate Download Speed? Latency/Ping time accurate (maybe a little too fast)? Or download speed result and ping time being enhanced/skewed by possibly a hidden cache server along the path from Bangkok to Denver? I hope it's an accurate speedtest result....but I have my doubts due to the ping time....I just don't know. Take all speedtest program results with a BIG Grain of salt.

We're seeing some anomalous speed results with DSLReports - and I'm not sure why. But you can be certain that ISP caching isn't the source of the problem. DSLReports generates unique download and upload files on every test, so a cache just won't work. (Pings are another story - they can be cached.)

On the other hand, Speedtest and all OOKLA testing sites (there are thousands) use the same upload and download files for each test. Thus, any system that caches will automatically give you skewed results. But as you note earlier in this thread, that doesn't mean caching is bad. Quite the contrary. It just disrupts the tests.

[jfchandler]

On the other hand, Speedtest and all OOKLA testing sites (there are thousands) use the same upload and download files for each test. Thus, any system that caches will automatically give you skewed results.

Ahh... as I had commented recently either earlier in this thread or the companion one on True cable internet, every time I see an OOKLA branded speed test site, including SpeedTest.net, I've learned to know its results for international speed tests will be absolutely bogus... But I never knew why... So I was right, and now I know the reason... thanks very much!

Pib, as for 140 ms pings to Denver, unless you've managed to change the laws of physics, you know that kind of number can't be accurate, when a best-case ping even to the West Coast is going to run, at best, 250 ms or so... and Denver is further from Thailand beyond that... Strange to see skewed results coming from DSL Reports, which in the past has been pretty reliable amidst of sea of crappy, false speed test sites.

[Kvwielink]

On the other hand, Speedtest and all OOKLA testing sites (there are thousands) use the same upload and download files for each test. Thus, any system that caches will automatically give you skewed results.

Ahh... as I had commented recently either earlier in this thread or the companion one on True cable internet, every time I see an OOKLA branded speed test site, including SpeedTest.net, I've learned to know its results for international speed tests will be absolutely bogus... But I never knew why... So I was right, and now I know the reason... thanks very much!

Pib, as for 140 ms pings to Denver, unless you've managed to change the laws of physics, you know that kind of number can't be accurate, when a best-case ping even to the West Coast is going to run, at best, 250 ms or so... and Denver is further from Thailand beyond that... Strange to see skewed results coming from DSL Reports, which in the past has been pretty reliable amidst of sea of crappy, false speed test sites.

Thought I'd give you guys an update as to my situation. After screwing up the first appointment for the installation of my cable internet, they called again (5 times by 5 different people all wanting to confirm the same thing, and only 2 spoke English, VERY annoying) and a new appointment was made for last Saturday. I told them to come in the morning, as I had to be out in the afternoon and I was not intending to let them in while I was not around. to their credit, they showed up only 10 minutes past the agreed time (11am). Of course the guy who had to pick up my passport copies and get my signature was completely unaware of the arrangement and showed up at 12 noon on his own schedule. Does anyone in the True corporation talk to another employee?

It took him about 1.5 hours to get the whole thing installed. He was not able to help me with the setup of my new wireless N router, but I told him I'd sort that out myself. That took me a few more hours of puzzling about the settings, but eventually I had everything up and running on Saturday night, and I should have 20MB down and 2MB up.

The results? Inconclusive. Speedtest does seem to indicate that my speeds are higher than they were on my ADSL connection, but they fluctuate widely. My down speeds to Singapore varied from close to the 20MB that I have been sold, to as low as 3MB, in a matter of minutes. Ping speeds are of course BS whichever server was chosen, but we know that already.

I'm not expecting 20MB download speeds internationally, so this would not be a big worry for me. What does worry me however, is that every half hour or so the internet seems to lose connection for 1 or 2 minutes. The browsers keep searching until they revert that the site cannot be found, outlook reports a loss of connection with the server, etc. After about 2 minutes, things come back online. Perhaps another half hour later, the same thing happens again. Note that the lights on the modem all continue to burn and there is no indication on the modem itself that anything is amiss.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with my internal network setup, or if it is related to the cable internet. I have to admit that I had some issues with the router while still on ADSL, but I cannot find anything wrong in the configuration. When internet is online, it does work. I have set the router to Dynamic IP, and on my TP-Link I had to also select "Get IP with Unicast DHCP (it is usually not required)". I copied these settings from the True page linked to by JFC earlier. I have NOT yet disabled the DHCP function of the cable modem itself. Should I? All my IP addresses are pre-assigned to the MAC addresses of the devices I use, so the lease of the IP does not expire and all devices always get the same IP address.

I'll continue to tinker away at the settings a bit and monitor for a while. I took JFC's advice and did not yet terminate my ADSL subscription so I can always plug that modem back in if sh*t hits the fan, but of course I hope I won't need that option. Any advice from you guys on how to improve my connection stability would be appreciated.

Oh, by the way, I read in an earlier post that the systems for TV and Cable internet should be separate and that therefore if one is down the other should still function. I have my doubts about that. Yesterday afternoon when I came home I noticed that the half the lights on the modem were out. When I turned on the TV, no UBC either. When I tried to call True about the internet connection, I got a voicemail after selecting a few options stating that high speed internet might be unavailable currently because of some problems they were having. I chose not to continue the call. After about an hour internet was back up, and so was True Visions. So I'm not too sure both systems are as separate as they claim it is.

[Pib]

Accurate Download Speed? Latency/Ping time accurate (maybe a little too fast)? Or download speed result and ping time being enhanced/skewed by possibly a hidden cache server along the path from Bangkok to Denver? I hope it's an accurate speedtest result....but I have my doubts due to the ping time....I just don't know. Take all speedtest program results with a BIG Grain of salt.

We're seeing some anomalous speed results with DSLReports - and I'm not sure why. But you can be certain that ISP caching isn't the source of the problem. DSLReports generates unique download and upload files on every test, so a cache just won't work. (Pings are another story - they can be cached.)

On the other hand, Speedtest and all OOKLA testing sites (there are thousands) use the same upload and download files for each test. Thus, any system that caches will automatically give you skewed results. But as you note earlier in this thread, that doesn't mean caching is bad. Quite the contrary. It just disrupts the tests.

On this fine Monday morning at 9:15am with my True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan, using DSLReports.com to run tests to the following servers I got:

- To L.A.......: 1.671Mb Down / 1.156Mb Up / 581ms Ping

- To Denver: 10.050Mb Down / 1.745Mb Up / 140ms Ping (exact same ping time as last night's testing...so I hit Ctrl-F5 to clear my browser cache and ran the test again)

- To Denver: 10.179Mb Down / 2.745Mb Up / 138ms Ping (2nd test this moring...almost the same ping as last night again...download speed almost the same...Upload speed too fast for my 2Mb upload package / ping seems way too low)

- To Parsippany NJ.: 0.841Mb Down / 0.459 Mb Up / 169ms Ping (Ping time to low to be reaching almost exactly half way around the world...low ping time like Denver ping time)

DSLReports does indeed seem to be providing some anomalous results. I'm beginning to think it's impossible to find a valid Speedtester program.

Maybe Microsoft Online Services speedtester gives more accurate results, which so far in my occassional use over several months has not given me any download, upload, or ping time results to challenge...although my download times to the U.S. and Europe are usually slow (on True or my previous TOT 6Mb DSL plan)...but could very well be accurate and I just don't like seeing results like that....sometimes it's hard to accept a result you just don't like. Go to this Link and about half way down the page is links to run tests to Singapore, the U.S. (an L.A. server I think), and Europe (Ireland). I ran tests to all three locations at around 9:30am this fine Monday morning and got the following results:

To U.S. (L.A): 1.58Mb Down / 1.84Mb Up / Ping 293ms (ping time is the Roundtrip Time value on the results test)

To: Europe: 0.421Mb Down / 2.14Mb Up / Ping 243ms

To: Singapore: 6.35Mb Down / 2.06Mb Up / Ping 42ms

Note about MS Online tests during the day/night: my experience has shown download times to the U.S. and Europe vary quite a bit between the day and night (Thailand time) depending on the peak/workday time in the U.S./Europe. U.S. download speeds can drop down to the 600Kb ballpark and Europe download speed go up over 1Mb. Singapore download speeds remain more consistent throughout the 24 hour period based on my limited testing.

Edited July 25, 2011 by Pib

[Pib]

It took him about 1.5 hours to get the whole thing installed. He was not able to help me with the setup of my new wireless N router, but I told him I'd sort that out myself. That took me a few more hours of puzzling about the settings, but eventually I had everything up and running on Saturday night, and I should have 20MB down and 2MB up.

The results? Inconclusive. Speedtest does seem to indicate that my speeds are higher than they were on my ADSL connection, but they fluctuate widely. My down speeds to Singapore varied from close to the 20MB that I have been sold, to as low as 3MB, in a matter of minutes. Ping speeds are of course BS whichever server was chosen, but we know that already.

I'm not expecting 20MB download speeds internationally, so this would not be a big worry for me. What does worry me however, is that every half hour or so the internet seems to lose connection for 1 or 2 minutes. The browsers keep searching until they revert that the site cannot be found, outlook reports a loss of connection with the server, etc. After about 2 minutes, things come back online. Perhaps another half hour later, the same thing happens again. Note that the lights on the modem all continue to burn and there is no indication on the modem itself that anything is amiss.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with my internal network setup, or if it is related to the cable internet. I have to admit that I had some issues with the router while still on ADSL, but I cannot find anything wrong in the configuration.

Kwwielink,

Good to see another True Cable Internet user who will hopefully gives us more good crossfeed. Since I have the cable 20Mb/2Mb plan also, I'm partically interested in speeds you get. If you are using Speedtest.net, your download speed results will probably be on the VERY high side with definitely bogus ping times to almost everywhere on Earth...ping times down in the 15ms ballpark which is like the server is just across town even through you are testing to the U.S./Europe...with the hidden cache server making it look like the far away server is just across town.

If you get the chance, how about giving us results to the U.S., Europe, and Singapore using the Microsoft Online Services speedtester at this Link...the three testing sites are about half way down the web page link. And don't be surpised if your speeds to the U.S. and Europe are s....l.....o.....w. I've always got slow results whether on my previous TOT DSL 6Mb plan or this True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan. Would also be interested in what the DSLReports.com speedtester gives you to L.A. and Denver (both locations gave my very different results with the Denver site giving a much higher speed). In my above/recent posts I've posted some MS Online and DSLReports results for my 20Mb/2Mb plan. Regarding Speedtest.net I did notice that last night speed results seemed all over the map & slow to most any site/server, including those within Thailand. Even the Ookla speedtesters at TOT and 3BB were giving erractic/slow results....but my True Cable Internet was browsing just fine & fast so I figured it may have just been Sunday night heavy internet usage within Thailand.

Your post indicates to me that you have a "separate" N router. If you want to try to narrow down if your router setup is causing the disconnect then try running on a direct ethernet connection (Hard wired) between your True modem and your computer. At least that takes the router out of the setup. Now, if you are still having disconnects it could still be a wireless driver problem with your computer or the new True cable plan. And since you mentioned you also had issues with the router under your DSL plan then that further suggests your should try a computer to the modem ethernet/hard wired connection. Your wireless problem could be either your router setup "or" your computer "wireless" setup. But going to a hardwire connection should take any possible computer "wireless" chip/driver issue out of the picture and definitely take your router out of the possible problem picture.

Turning off the DHCP function in the True modem should not be required. The DHCP funciton will automatically allot a LAN IP addess to your N router and then the DHCP setting in your N router will automatically allot LAN IP addresses to your computers/client devices. I highly recomend you don't mess with any cable modem settings at this point....with all the installs True has done I expect they have the corrrect modem setting for solid, basic operation....plus, basic modem settings are pretty straight forward....very little need to change anything even with a separate router except maybe DNS servers if you want to try Google DNS, etc....but the True DNS servers have been working just fine for me....just as the TOT DNS servers did when I had their 6Mb DSL plan.

[jfchandler]

Kv, you seem to have a lot of potential issues in play. So as a start, Pib's advice is good.... disconnect your own router and just have a direct connection between your True cable modem and your main PC...and see if the drop out problems either continue or end... That's a start toward narrowing down your problem....

Also, once you've connected your modem and PC direct to each other, go into your cable modem settings by using your web browser to the address:

http://192.168.100.1

and choose the "signal" tab or anything similar to see what kind of upstream and downstream power levels you're getting, along with your signal to noise ratio (SNR). See how those values compare to the optimal ones we've posted earlier in this thread.

What model of cable modem did you get from True? If you're on the 20 Mbps plan, it's likely you ended up with the same model as Pib, who also has the 20 Mb plan...

Lastly, I think you misunderstood some of my comments earlier in the thread.... It's not True's cable internet and cable TV systems that are separate. It's True's DSL internet and cable internet systems that are separate...

The cable internet signal and your True cable TV signal both come into your home via the same cable line... If True has a cabling problem somewhere upstream from you, it's very possible that could affect both your cable TV and cable internet service. Supposedly, the tolerances on the cable TV are a bit broader, while those for the cable internet are more narrow, meaning the cable internet is more likely to suffer problems if True's having line problems.

On the other hand, the DSL service comes into your home via the telephone line, not the cable line for cable internet. At some point, far far upstream with True, they may have some connection. So if True were to lose its international bandwidth for some reason, I suspect both their DSL and cable internet services would go down for that... But the two True delivery systems to your home are separate...

So in the past week, when my cable internet went out for 3 hours for some kind of problem True was having, my backup True DSL service continued to work just fine... And I was happy to see it work that way, as I had intended in deciding to restore my DSL as a backup plan.

BTW, on my True cable modem, in the configs page, the DHCP server is checked as being enabled....and it works fine together with my own N router.

Edited July 25, 2011 by jfchandler

[jfchandler]

Re speed test results... I believe this is the case....

If someone is getting clearly bogus ping results to international (Europe or USA) destinations with numbers in the low dozens of milli-seconds, that automatically means the accompanying speed results that that site is displaying for you are equally not valid... because they're not measuring the real speed to the distant location at hand.

If any speed test site is showing you ping rates of 10 to 20 ms or so, what it's actually measuring is time and speed between you and some location in Thailand.... Anything truly reaching to the U.S. for a download test would have a ping of at least 250 ms....

[Kvwielink]

It took him about 1.5 hours to get the whole thing installed. He was not able to help me with the setup of my new wireless N router, but I told him I'd sort that out myself. That took me a few more hours of puzzling about the settings, but eventually I had everything up and running on Saturday night, and I should have 20MB down and 2MB up.

The results? Inconclusive. Speedtest does seem to indicate that my speeds are higher than they were on my ADSL connection, but they fluctuate widely. My down speeds to Singapore varied from close to the 20MB that I have been sold, to as low as 3MB, in a matter of minutes. Ping speeds are of course BS whichever server was chosen, but we know that already.

I'm not expecting 20MB download speeds internationally, so this would not be a big worry for me. What does worry me however, is that every half hour or so the internet seems to lose connection for 1 or 2 minutes. The browsers keep searching until they revert that the site cannot be found, outlook reports a loss of connection with the server, etc. After about 2 minutes, things come back online. Perhaps another half hour later, the same thing happens again. Note that the lights on the modem all continue to burn and there is no indication on the modem itself that anything is amiss.

I'm not sure if this is a problem with my internal network setup, or if it is related to the cable internet. I have to admit that I had some issues with the router while still on ADSL, but I cannot find anything wrong in the configuration.

Kwwielink,

Good to see another True Cable Internet user who will hopefully gives us more good crossfeed. Since I have the cable 20Mb/2Mb plan also, I'm partically interested in speeds you get. If you are using Speedtest.net, your download speed results will probably be on the VERY high side with definitely bogus ping times to almost everywhere on Earth...ping times down in the 15ms ballpark which is like the server is just across town even through you are testing to the U.S./Europe...with the hidden cache server making it look like the far away server is just across town.

If you get the chance, how about giving us results to the U.S., Europe, and Singapore using the Microsoft Online Services speedtester at this Link...the three testing sites are about half way down the web page link. And don't be surpised if your speeds to the U.S. and Europe are s....l.....o.....w. I've always got slow results whether on my previous TOT DSL 6Mb plan or this True Cable 20Mb/2Mb plan. Would also be interested in what the DSLReports.com speedtester gives you to L.A. and Denver (both locations gave my very different results with the Denver site giving a much higher speed). In my above/recent posts I've posted some MS Online and DSLReports results for my 20Mb/2Mb plan. Regarding Speedtest.net I did notice that last night speed results seemed all over the map & slow to most any site/server, including those within Thailand. Even the Ookla speedtesters at TOT and 3BB were giving erractic/slow results....but my True Cable Internet was browsing just fine & fast so I figured it may have just been Sunday night heavy internet usage within Thailand.

Your post indicates to me that you have a "separate" N router. If you want to try to narrow down if your router setup is causing the disconnect then try running on a direct ethernet connection (Hard wired) between your True modem and your computer. At least that takes the router out of the setup. Now, if you are still having disconnects it could still be a wireless driver problem with your computer or the new True cable plan. And since you mentioned you also had issues with the router under your DSL plan then that further suggests your should try a computer to the modem ethernet/hard wired connection. Your wireless problem could be either your router setup "or" your computer "wireless" setup. But going to a hardwire connection should take any possible computer "wireless" chip/driver issue out of the picture and definitely take your router out of the possible problem picture.

Turning off the DHCP function in the True modem should not be required. The DHCP funciton will automatically allot a LAN IP addess to your N router and then the DHCP setting in your N router will automatically allot LAN IP addresses to your computers/client devices. I highly recomend you don't mess with any cable modem settings at this point....with all the installs True has done I expect they have the corrrect modem setting for solid, basic operation....plus, basic modem settings are pretty straight forward....very little need to change anything even with a separate router except maybe DNS servers if you want to try Google DNS, etc....but the True DNS servers have been working just fine for me....just as the TOT DNS servers did when I had their 6Mb DSL plan.

Hi Pib, did the speed tests as requested. All taken between 9pm and 9.30pm Bangkok time:

Microsoft US:

Speed test:

Download: 450536 B/s

Upload: 2128200 B/s

Quality of service: 20%

Capacity test:

Download: 20176200 B/s

Upload: 2075248 B/s

Quality of service: 98%

Microsoft Europe:

Speed test:

Download: 2711664 B/s

Upload: 2132888 B/s

Quality of service: 40%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured

Microsoft Singapore:

Speed test:

Download: 5031920 B/s

Upload: 2077864 B/s

Quality of service: 68%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured.

DSLReports to LA:

Download: 1897 Kb/s

Upload: 1023 Kb/s

Latency 495ms

DSLReports to Denver:

Download: 12450 Kb/s

Upload 1720 Kb/s

Latency: 143ms

Not sure what all these results tell me, but somehow I get the impression that the connection is not as stable as it could be. What are your thoughts and how does it compare to your speedtests?

So far my connection hasn't dropped since I logged on about an hour ago. Perhaps it was a glitch? I'll keep an eye on it. I've been given a Motorola modem, not sure which model but I suspect it's a surfboard. DHCP is currently set to enabled, as I assumed it needed to assign an IP to my router.

[Kvwielink]

Kv, you seem to have a lot of potential issues in play. So as a start, Pib's advice is good.... disconnect your own router and just have a direct connection between your True cable modem and your main PC...and see if the drop out problems either continue or end... That's a start toward narrowing down your problem....

Also, once you've connected your modem and PC direct to each other, go into your cable modem settings by using your web browser to the address:

http://192.168.100.1

and choose the "signal" tab or anything similar to see what kind of upstream and downstream power levels you're getting, along with your signal to noise ratio (SNR). See how those values compare to the optimal ones we've posted earlier in this thread.

What model of cable modem did you get from True? If you're on the 20 Mbps plan, it's likely you ended up with the same model as Pib, who also has the 20 Mb plan...

Lastly, I think you misunderstood some of my comments earlier in the thread.... It's not True's cable internet and cable TV systems that are separate. It's True's DSL internet and cable internet systems that are separate...

The cable internet signal and your True cable TV signal both come into your home via the same cable line... If True has a cabling problem somewhere upstream from you, it's very possible that could affect both your cable TV and cable internet service. Supposedly, the tolerances on the cable TV are a bit broader, while those for the cable internet are more narrow, meaning the cable internet is more likely to suffer problems if True's having line problems.

On the other hand, the DSL service comes into your home via the telephone line, not the cable line for cable internet. At some point, far far upstream with True, they may have some connection. So if True were to lose its international bandwidth for some reason, I suspect both their DSL and cable internet services would go down for that... But the two True delivery systems to your home are separate...

So in the past week, when my cable internet went out for 3 hours for some kind of problem True was having, my backup True DSL service continued to work just fine... And I was happy to see it work that way, as I had intended in deciding to restore my DSL as a backup plan.

BTW, on my True cable modem, in the configs page, the DHCP server is checked as being enabled....and it works fine together with my own N router.

Hi JFC, sorry for the misunderstanding. Must've misread with my sleepy head this morning. Tonight no connection dropouts so far. If it starts again, I'll hook up directly to the modem and check the noise and upstream/downstream levels, as well as whether the router is the issue or not. I'll leave the DHCP enabled for now. Seems to work.

Thanks again for the help. I'll upload some more experiences after a few more days of use. Fingers crossed....

[jfchandler]

I've been given a Motorola modem, not sure which model but I suspect it's a surfboard.

Here's what the True-issue Motorola Surfboard SB5101 modem looks like....

True seems to issue these for their 10 and 20 Mbps plans...though they also appear to offer a Cisco model for those plans as well.

[Pib]

Hi Pib, did the speed tests as requested. All taken between 9pm and 9.30pm Bangkok time:

Microsoft US:

Speed test:

Download: 450536 B/s

Upload: 2128200 B/s

Quality of service: 20%

Capacity test:

Download: 20176200 B/s

Upload: 2075248 B/s

Quality of service: 98%

Microsoft Europe:

Speed test:

Download: 2711664 B/s

Upload: 2132888 B/s

Quality of service: 40%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured

Microsoft Singapore:

Speed test:

Download: 5031920 B/s

Upload: 2077864 B/s

Quality of service: 68%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured.

DSLReports to LA:

Download: 1897 Kb/s

Upload: 1023 Kb/s

Latency 495ms

DSLReports to Denver:

Download: 12450 Kb/s

Upload 1720 Kb/s

Latency: 143ms

Not sure what all these results tell me, but somehow I get the impression that the connection is not as stable as it could be. What are your thoughts and how does it compare to your speedtests?

So far my connection hasn't dropped since I logged on about an hour ago. Perhaps it was a glitch? I'll keep an eye on it. I've been given a Motorola modem, not sure which model but I suspect it's a surfboard. DHCP is currently set to enabled, as I assumed it needed to assign an IP to my router.

Your speedtest results are very similar to mine....thanks for the info...it helps confirm your cable 20Mb/2Mb plan is operating like mine speedwise. Expect you may be wondering why different speedtest programs gave widely different results to similar parts of the world. Well, it's a combination of things. Many speedtest programs can be easily fooled/skewed and give great looking results. Speedtest.net is "easily" fooled/skewed by hidden cache servers which basically result in you downloading cached identical file copies from nearby/in-Thailand/regional severs versus the server you "think" you are testing to....a server that may be on the other side of the Earth. Other speedtest programs like Microsoft Online Services and generally DSLReports don't seem to be fooled by hidden cache servers....I say generally for DSLReports because, just as you got, I got a much, much higher speed to Denver (maybe too high) versus L.A., which may indicate the Denver DSLReports server is somehow being fooled. Numerous/many hops between Thailand and far away servers....it's not uncommon to experience around 30 hops to a web site/server in the U.S. or Europe, where if you were in the U.S. connecting to a U.S. web site/server you would not even experience half as many hops....each hop is just another speed bump/delay in data transmission. Also, there is not unlimited bandwidth between Thailand and the rest of the world....Thai ISP's seem to be stingy on providing/buying enough international bandwidth.

I wouldn't say "the connection is not as stable as it could be" due to above speedtest results...the results are all over the map due to the factors I mentioned above. Also, you might want to try above speedtest programs with your DSL connections....you'll probably get results which are far below the DSL plan's max speed and all over the map, but those results are indeed probably giving you some true results....results you may not like seeing. But in the real world, generally a 500K to 1Mb connection can still give a pretty snappy browsing/email experience....but things like streaming video will suck.

Also, definitely be sure to try the hard wire connection between your computer and modem if dropping the IP address continues. Wireless connections/wireless router/computer wifi driver or setup issues can easily make you think you have a ISP connection problem, when in fact all of your problem is occurring "after the modem output (i.e., your router and/or computer in wireless mode is causing the problem). Heck, with my main Toshiba laptop the wireless connection to the router would periodically (too frequently) drop the IP connection to the internet/modem, although I still maintained the basic wifi connection between the Wifi router and my laptop....but the IP address to the internet would be dropped and therefore no internet. But the whole problem over the times it flared up over the years was a new driver for my laptop's Wifi chip automatically loading but not being compatible with my Wifi chip, OR, whenever my laptop BlueTooth drivers would not load it would cause the same problem. Now the Wifi chip and Bluetooth chips in my laptop are completely different chips (actually small little circuits boards), but unless both the Wifi chip and Bluetooth chip separate drivers loaded properly I will have wireless problems....on the Wifi to router side I will have problems where the IP address will intermittent drop...and.on the Bluetooth side it just acts very strange. But when both drivers are the correct drivers and load properly I have rock solid connections on Wifi and Bluetooth. My last problem was over six months ago when after one of those major windows updates the Bluetooth driver would not properly load...well, the Bluetooth function would not work and the Wifi problem of my internet IP address dropping came back. Finally, got this Bluetooth issue fixed and now the Wifi and Bluetooth connections are rock solid.

While it's easily to want to blame a Wifi router for an internet connection problem, the problem could easily be your computer Wifi-related drivers. But when you do a hardwire connection to your modem or router the Wifi related connection issue is generally taken out of the possible problem. Just wanted to stress this again as I see so many post on ThaiVisa where people are having Wifi internet connection problems, blaming it on the ISP connection, etc., but the problem in a good portion of the cases is probably their computer and/or wireless router setup/drivers.

Edited July 26, 2011 by Pib

[Kvwielink]

Hi Pib, did the speed tests as requested. All taken between 9pm and 9.30pm Bangkok time:

Microsoft US:

Speed test:

Download: 450536 B/s

Upload: 2128200 B/s

Quality of service: 20%

Capacity test:

Download: 20176200 B/s

Upload: 2075248 B/s

Quality of service: 98%

Microsoft Europe:

Speed test:

Download: 2711664 B/s

Upload: 2132888 B/s

Quality of service: 40%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured

Microsoft Singapore:

Speed test:

Download: 5031920 B/s

Upload: 2077864 B/s

Quality of service: 68%

Capacity test:

Could not be measured.

DSLReports to LA:

Download: 1897 Kb/s

Upload: 1023 Kb/s

Latency 495ms

DSLReports to Denver:

Download: 12450 Kb/s

Upload 1720 Kb/s

Latency: 143ms

Not sure what all these results tell me, but somehow I get the impression that the connection is not as stable as it could be. What are your thoughts and how does it compare to your speedtests?

So far my connection hasn't dropped since I logged on about an hour ago. Perhaps it was a glitch? I'll keep an eye on it. I've been given a Motorola modem, not sure which model but I suspect it's a surfboard. DHCP is currently set to enabled, as I assumed it needed to assign an IP to my router.

Your speedtest results are very similar to mine....thanks for the info...it helps confirm your cable 20Mb/2Mb plan is operating like mine speedwise. Expect you may be wondering why different speedtest programs gave widely different results to similar parts of the world. Well, it's a combination of things. Many speedtest programs can be easily fooled/skewed and give great looking results. Speedtest.net is "easily" fooled/skewed by hidden cache servers which basically result in you downloading cached identical file copies from nearby/in-Thailand/regional severs versus the server you "think" you are testing to....a server that may be on the other side of the Earth. Other speedtest programs like Microsoft Online Services and generally DSLReports don't seem to be fooled by hidden cache servers....I say generally for DSLReports because, just as you got, I got a much, much higher speed to Denver (maybe too high) versus L.A., which may indicate the Denver DSLReports server is somehow being fooled. Numerous/many hops between Thailand and far away servers....it's not uncommon to experience around 30 hops to a web site/server in the U.S. or Europe, where if you were in the U.S. connecting to a U.S. web site/server you would not even experience half as many hops....each hop is just another speed bump/delay in data transmission. Also, there is not unlimited bandwidth between Thailand and the rest of the world....Thai ISP's seem to be stingy on providing/buying enough international bandwidth.

I wouldn't say "the connection is not as stable as it could be" due to above speedtest results...the results are all over the map due to the factors I mentioned above. Also, you might want to try above speedtest programs with your DSL connections....you'll probably get results which are far below the DSL plan's max speed and all over the map, but those results are indeed probably giving you some true results....results you may not like seeing. But in the real world, generally a 500K to 1Mb connection can still give a pretty snappy browsing/email experience....but things like streaming video will suck.

Also, definitely be sure to try the hard wire connection between your computer and modem if dropping the IP address continues. Wireless connections/wireless router/computer wifi driver or setup issues can easily make you think you have a ISP connection problem, when in fact all of your problem is occurring "after the modem output (i.e., your router and/or computer in wireless mode is causing the problem). Heck, with my main Toshiba laptop the wireless connection to the router would periodically (too frequently) drop the IP connection to the internet/modem, although I still maintained the basic wifi connection between the Wifi router and my laptop....but the IP address to the internet would be dropped and therefore no internet. But the whole problem over the times it flared up over the years was a new driver for my laptop's Wifi chip automatically loading but not being compatible with my Wifi chip, OR, whenever my laptop BlueTooth drivers would not load it would cause the same problem. Now the Wifi chip and Bluetooth chips in my laptop are completely different chips (actually small little circuits boards), but unless both the Wifi chip and Bluetooth chip separate drivers loaded properly I will have wireless problems....on the Wifi to router side I will have problems where the IP address will intermittent drop...and.on the Bluetooth side it just acts very strange. But when both drivers are the correct drivers and load properly I have rock solid connections on Wifi and Bluetooth. My last problem was over six months ago when after one of those major windows updates the Bluetooth driver would not properly load...well, the Bluetooth function would not work and the Wifi problem of my internet IP address dropping came back. Finally, got this Bluetooth issue fixed and now the Wifi and Bluetooth connections are rock solid.

While it's easily to want to blame a Wifi router for an internet connection problem, the problem could easily be your computer Wifi-related drivers. But when you do a hardwire connection to your modem or router the Wifi related connection issue is generally taken out of the possible problem. Just wanted to stress this again as I see so many post on ThaiVisa where people are having Wifi internet connection problems, blaming it on the ISP connection, etc., but the problem in a good portion of the cases is probably their computer and/or wireless router setup/drivers.

Hi Pib,

Thanks for confirming that your speeds are similar to mine. Good to know. The reason I was suspecting the ISP and not my network is that I had the same problem on all 3 machines connected: a Dell Latitude D630, a Lenovo Thinkpad (X200 I think) and a home built desktop workstation using a network adapter of the same brand as the router (TP-LINK). It could still be a router issue of course, but I haven't changed any settings and so far the problem has not resurfaced. For now I'm labeling it a one off problem.

I do still need to figure out though why my new N router is only transferring files to my Western Digital TV Live Hub with speeds of max 1.5MB/S, but that IS an internal issue .

[Kvwielink]

I've been given a Motorola modem, not sure which model but I suspect it's a surfboard.

Here's what the True-issue Motorola Surfboard SB5101 modem looks like....

True seems to issue these for their 10 and 20 Mbps plans...though they also appear to offer a Cisco model for those plans as well.

Yup, that's the one...

[Pib]

The Wifi Cable modem/router provided by True is the Cicso EPC 2325 (or at least that's what they gave me). If you get the regular/non-Wifi router/modem like jfchandler has then it's free; if getting the Wifi router/modem then it costs 1000 baht.

Here's the Link to the Cisco web page where you can download the manual.

In the router/modem setup menu a couple of tabs are not activated but I don't think they are really important as they appear they would only probably info only. The "Setup" tab pretty much lets you change a bunch of settings....more than enough settings to get in trouble (like I got in trouble with my VOIP adapter...but I fixed that setting issue). Download the manual to see all the settings you can change/fine tune/mess up. Good luck.

Update to my above post.

A few minutes ago I went into modem/router menu settings to check on my Transmit and Receive Power Levels, which I've been doing pretty much daily, and while clicking around I found out the menu/tab selections previously not activated are now activated, such as the Signal, Status, Log, and Provisioning menus. Before I could only get into the Setup, System, and Advanced menus.

Maybe TrueOnline force-fed an update to the cable modem/router which activated all the menus...kinda like how TrueVisions sometimes force-feeds channel updates to your TrueVisions set-top box.

But now I can get detailed info in all the menus/tabs. The newly activated tabs only contain "info" type data; no where to change settings as that is done in the Setup menu which has always been available.

Where before if I wanted to get "detailed" info on my Incoming/Outgoing Signal I could only get DownStream and UpStream "power levels" in the System menu....no SNR info, etc.. But now in the Signal menu I get detailed info as shown below. For me, I like having a modem/router where I can get into all the menus and mess-up the setting if I I want to.

In closing, after having my 20Mb/2Mb cable interent plan for around 50 days now, it's been rock solid / up 100% of the time / VOIP works no problem / gives 20Mb in-Thailand speed /gives very good speed to international sites / streaming video does not pause / my browsing speed makes me feel like I'm back in the States on the RoadRunner cable internet I had before moving to Thailand. Now, I need to knock on wood after saying these good things about the True cable. Your experience may vary.