Need Web Hosting Server *In Thailand*: Recommendations?

[lsemprini]

I know it's almost a contradiction in terms, but I'm looking for a good hosting provider whose servers are located inside Thailand.

I need to host a very big file inside Thailand so that people inside Thailand can download it at a very high speed (like, something anywhere near what their ISP promised them!).

Almost all hosting providers that people recommend actually locate their servers in the US or China or Hong Kong, and that's useless for me because the main bottleneck is Thailand's ridiculous gateways to the outside world.

The file is around 380MB and I anticipate around 230GB/month typical data transfer (which many sites erroneously call "bandwidth") and perhaps 460GB/month during peak months. I would like a plan with 1GB of storage so I have room to put new versions of my file.

My requirements are absolutely basic: just normal HTTP download. No SSL, no certificates, no need for any kind of fancy control panel or any server-side scripting whatsoever. People will not be fetching any HTML files off this server at all. It will just be for this one big file. I just need an HTTP spigot in Thailand!

Can anyone recommend a good company? Ideally one you also use?

I have searched many Thai ISPs but it's so hard to tell which are legit. Also, the prices are so widely varying that some of them are clearly lying.

Here are some of the sites I have found, but I've no idea which are reliable/honest, and in most cases it's not 100% clear which of them actually have servers located in Thailand:

30000B/year for 50GB storage and "unlimited" data transfer VPS

http://www.siaminterhost.com/vps_hosting//#vpsp01

30000B/year for 5GB storage and 500GB/month data transfer

http://www.hostjustclick.com/

12000B/year for 1GB storage and "unlimited" data transfer VPS

http://www.jaideawhosting.com/vps-hosting/linux-vps/

10000B/year for 50GB storage and 500GB/month data transfer

http://www.pathosting.co.th/

8400B/year for 50GB storage and "unlimited" data transfer VPS

http://www.metrabyte.co.th/linux-vps.php

4890B/year for 1GB storage and "unlimited" data transfer

http://www.bangkokhosting.org/web_hosting_packages.php

1000B/year for 10GB storage and "unlimited" data transfer -- uh huh

http://www.10gb-host.com/

Here are some other Thai ISPs I found, but their plans do not have enough data transfer (yes, they're the honest ones!):

http://engtest.netdesignhost.com/hosting_m1.aspx

http://porar.com/hosting-linux.html

[RedCardinal]

Another option is Singapore which has direct peer with Thai backbone. You could then use AWS (Amazon Web Services) which would be very fast and quite cost effective.

Thai hosting tends to be extremely expensive, rather sub-standard, and unless you col-locate often prone to reselling services hosted in other countries.

Connections to Singapore are similar to in-country, and I've found hosts there to be more progressive than Thai hosts.

[Deke]

I have a couple of sites hosted with SuksonHost. They seem to be OK.

[Rider808]

Hawkhost who i just signed up with yesterday, have an option to select a datacenter in Singapore.

[Abduljabbar01]

Wouldn't recommend any web hosting provider. They really don't know how to deal with foreign customers or give a dam_n if you have some technical issue with your site.

You or one of your tech people will send a ticket to them and you'll wait, wait, wait and nothing will happen. This has been my experience.

I've also talked to one individual who is not from Thailand but from France who works for one company and has stated the same thing. Thai's don't give dam_n about customer service, they just want your money.

Now, Singapore is a good place to setup a webhosting company, and there are a few American companies that do have backbone connections to Asia. Such as Bluehost.com is one.

[Yme]

Wouldn't recommend any web hosting provider. They really don't know how to deal with foreign customers or give a dam_n if you have some technical issue with your site.

You or one of your tech people will send a ticket to them and you'll wait, wait, wait and nothing will happen. This has been my experience.

I've also talked to one individual who is not from Thailand but from France who works for one company and has stated the same thing. Thai's don't give dam_n about customer service, they just want your money.

Now, Singapore is a good place to setup a webhosting company, and there are a few American companies that do have backbone connections to Asia. Such as Bluehost.com is one.

I agree with Abduljabbar01. Dealing with any of the Thai hosts is a total nightmare. This is 3rd world Thailand, not a country with developed communications and technology. Many of the Thai hosts don't update their webserver software and I had one website destroyed by Thaihost2000 due to the outdated server software they were running that got so bad we couldn't even access the MySQL databases. Phone calls went straight to voice mail and none of the support tickets we submitted or voice mail messages - in Thai and English - were returned.

I also question why you need to have a 380 Mbyte file that needs to be downloaded. This is a massive file, bigger than entire novels, and I for one wouldn't bother downloading it no matter how enticing the preamble referring to it is.

[Tatsujin]

As a web development company here in Thailand, we've dealt with all of the major players here at one point or another on behalf of our customers. It's not what you want to hear but I wouldn't touch a Thai-based ISP with a very large, very long bargepole. Useless service, no or minimal support, servers that are badly configured and wide open to hacking, etc, the list goes on. If you have any kind of a problem, it'll take weeks to get fixed (if they can actually do it). We are now on week 20 with one client who's server here is just really badly configured cos they don't really know what they are doing, and they still can't get it working right. All in all, they are a total nightmare to deal with and I wouldn't use one by choice.

On a more positive note, I understand the reasons why you want to host within Thailand, but have you considered a Content Delivery Network and hosting outside Thailand? To me that would be one of the better choices.

[LandOfSmileys]

Is speed of getting the 380mb file to your targets the main concern, or reliability? I download updates and other things large and small, 200-300mb often enough. Many origin sites for the downloads support "resume" so when interrupt happens (often) I just continue where I left off. A few sites don't and that really bothers me as it makes it near impossible to get updates. So if you set up your situation with "resume" would that be sufficient? Or offering your 380 download in smaller pieces? Except the smaller pieces might be to much to deal with for most end users, as opposed to automatic resume function.

[lsemprini]

On a more positive note, I understand the reasons why you want to host within Thailand, but have you considered a Content Delivery Network and hosting outside Thailand? To me that would be one of the better choices.

Yes, I looked at CDNs before looking at Thai ISPs, but so far I wasn't able to find any CDN with a POP in Thailand, except for:

- CDNetworks, whose minimal package costs $500 a month, and

- Akamai, who wouldn't even respond to my query, probably for the same price reason

I would be most grateful if anyone could recommend an affordable CDN with a POP in Thailand.

I have found some with a POP in Hong Kong, but bandwidth from Hong Kong to Thailand doesn't seem so great.

[lsemprini]

Is speed of getting the 380mb file to your targets the main concern, or reliability?

Definitely speed.

The clients who will be downloading this big file will be doing so with my HTTP client that has auto-resume. So reliability is handled for them.

The goal is simply to make the big download as quick as possible.

Does anyone have benchmarks of download speeds of big files from various points on Thai networks to providers in Singapore?

I'm curious if there is a hit going out of country to Singapore.

[dave111223]

You have considered just hosting the files yourself (assuming you are in Thailand). It's quite easy to setup a webserver especially if all want to do is host some big files on it (no need to install any Mysql, PHP, Cpanel etc..)

[rossco4434]

Hi,

I've created some CDN software called Rhinofile. Used to be www.rhinofile.com . I've actually dropped the website for moment due to a new half-thai-aus baby.

My suggestion is to find a CPANEL host somewhere in Thailand (or singapore as suggested). Cpanel software manages the hosting so that the hosting company doesn't need to put any time into managing the system. Cpanel provide the updates so you only have to manage the hosting.

It should be relatively secure as it will auto-update. You also get the benefit on a consistent platform and cpanel guys really know their stuff. Almost all hosting companies use cpanel on their systems. Furthermore if you have Vmware in your office, I can set you up on my software which pushes files from your LAN onto an CPANEL CDN host. It's currently on sourceforge and is free.

The other option is to find a CDN provider who offers a Thai point of presence. Most CDN companies rely large data centres to get their cost down and I don't imagine Thailand is known for that sort of thing.

Regards,

Ross Richards (rhinofile)

[PattaniMan]

As a web development company here in Thailand, we've dealt with all of the major players here at one point or another on behalf of our customers. It's not what you want to hear but I wouldn't touch a Thai-based ISP with a very large, very long bargepole. Useless service, no or minimal support, servers that are badly configured and wide open to hacking, etc, the list goes on. If you have any kind of a problem, it'll take weeks to get fixed (if they can actually do it). We are now on week 20 with one client who's server here is just really badly configured cos they don't really know what they are doing, and they still can't get it working right. All in all, they are a total nightmare to deal with and I wouldn't use one by choice.

Sounds like you've had some bad experiences!

I've been recommending 24 Web Host to my local clients for the last few years and have never had a problem.

They're based in Nonthaburi and are always fast and reliable.

Obviously they're not the best option for clients who are targeting an overseas market (I recommend MT for that), but for straightforward domestic needs they are fine.

[Tatsujin]

Sounds like you've had some bad experiences!

I've been recommending 24 Web Host to my local clients for the last few years and have never had a problem.

They're based in Nonthaburi and are always fast and reliable.

Obviously they're not the best option for clients who are targeting an overseas market (I recommend MT for that), but for straightforward domestic needs they are fine.

Well, it wasn't just my bad experiences, it was every single client we have ever worked with who has ever tried to use a Thai ISP. Not one has been very good but I'll look into 24 Web Host.

[Phil Conners]

As someone who has made a living in the hosting industry for a decade, I think I can say with some authority that running Cpanel is not in itself any guarantee for a well managed server. Yes, it automates certain updates and as long as there are no problems things will go well, but as with any server operation, if you have a problem with the server, the more "clever" software you have installed, the more complicated the problem usually is to fix.

As for the OP, I don't really think you will notice much difference hosting locally vs. overseas, not if it is just a matter of static file downloads. The first downloader will load the file into a Thai caching proxy anyway and with minimal activity the rest of the downloaders will just fetch the copy out of the cache.

Just try some speedtests against Bangkok, Singapore and US. For simple file downloads I don't notice any noticeable download speed differences. Ping of course goes up, but it goes up dramatically even going to Singapore - i.e. from somewhere in the 50'es from Pattaya to Bangkok to 150-200 from Pattaya to Singapore. USA for comparison is usually in the 250-350 range. These are all miliseconds, i.e. maximum delay is a fraction of a second.

For gaming this makes a difference, but for file downloads it doesn't make much difference, particularly not considering setting up a server here isn't that much more expensive than in the US, but the hosting prices by those who have servers here would make you believe their servers were made of gold.

Feel free to PM me if you need more details.

[dave111223]

I think I can say with some authority that running Cpanel is not in itself any guarantee for a well managed server.

This may be true; but i think that a host *not* running Cpanel almost always guarantees crap hosting.

My biggest pet peeve is with big hosting companies that are too cheap to buy Cpanel, so instead use those own crap management system, then have the nerve to charge outrageously high fees, such as charging you an annual fee for each database (1and1 springs to mind). These kind of places also regularly lose data, and their TOS basically says "F you we can do what we like".

[Phil Conners]

I think I can say with some authority that running Cpanel is not in itself any guarantee for a well managed server.

This may be true; but i think that a host *not* running Cpanel almost always guarantees crap hosting.

My biggest pet peeve is with big hosting companies that are too cheap to buy Cpanel, so instead use those own crap management system, then have the nerve to charge outrageously high fees, such as charging you an annual fee for each database (1and1 springs to mind). These kind of places also regularly lose data, and their TOS basically says "F you we can do what we like".

That is also true. Parallels used to have a very decent (and expensive) control panel with Plesk up until and including Plesk 9, but they completely messed that up with Plesk 10, and I think they lost considerable market share. Just check their support forum for all the complaints. Cpanel is indeed the way to go.

[lsemprini]

Hello,

Thank you all for very useful responses.

Here is an update on what I've figured out in case anyone else is in the same boat as me.

----- THAILAND VS US

I personally do notice an enormous difference in HTTP download speeds of big files depending on whether the files are hosted in the US or cached inside Thailand (and yes I verified that the US servers in question are able to spew data at much higher speed to US clients). Perhaps the difference in our results may be related to poor infrastructure behind my crappy upcountry connection: for those of you lucky enough to have somewhat less broken internet in BKK, there may be little or no difference. That's a useful thing to consider for my clients who will be downloading the file.

Also, while Phil Conners's suggestion is possible, I really doubt that the transparent web caches (caching proxies) used by Thai ISPs would cache my 380MB file since it is so large and (in the larger scheme of things for an ISP) it is inconsequential in terms of how often the files get requested (only 20-40 times a day, only 7.5-15GB/day savings). When I tested the bandwidth of various servers, I was always sure to rename the file each time to avoid accidentally measuring locally cached bandwidth, but occasionally I did try the same URL twice and I never saw any improvement in the second or subsequent download.

----- CDNs

I investigated various CDNs and the short answer is that if the CDN has edge servers in Thailand, it is way, way too expensive compared with hosting. For example, after wasting my time getting routed past front-line sales droids in India and having to repeat my query more than 4 times to layers of salespeople who never read what I write, I eventually determined that Akamai has excellent coverage in Thailand (servers in 3 major ISPs and 18 datacenters) but various salespeople quoted me between USD$245/mo and USD$600/mo for a package able to deliver 300-500GB/month data transfer. CDNetworks also measures excellent bandwidth in Thailand but their lowest price package was $500/mo. All the super-easy-to-use smaller CDNs I investigated (such as MaxCDN) did not have edge servers in Thailand (closest was Hong Kong).

----- WHO I CHOSE

Given all the glowing reviews of Thai ISPs in this thread, and the fact that a few of the more honest Thai ISPs I contacted got back to me and said they cannot handle my data transfer needs anyway (despite what their website said), I decided not to go local even though I do believe it would yield the highest average transfer rates for clients in Thailand.

It looks like I will go for Amazon AWS S3 hosting (many thanks for the pointer RedCardinal) with two copies of my big file hosted in Singapore and the US. A large part of the reason for this is people's glowing review of S3's reliability, plus how quick and easy it was to set up and test without paying, without having to talk to some annoying salesman on the phone, and without having to deal with annoying Thai bank transfers backed by dubious money-back guarantees (or no guarantee).

Amazon essentially charges US $0.19 per GB of transfer per month (plus storage costs which are inconsequential for my application) and it is pay-as-you-go. For 500GB/month data transfer (the same figure I used when pricing the Thai companies), this works out to US$1,140 or 34,200B/year. So if my traffic is as expected, Amazon would be more expensive than any of the Thai options, but not by much. Hopefully the extra cash will justify hairs not being ripped out of my head.

Thanks again for all your help!

[Tatsujin]

It might be a little late if you've already signed up for something, but if you want to PM me, I can upload your file to our hosting servers in the USA and you can try a direct comparison of download speeds.

[Guest]

Just thinking of some workarounds. Depends if the downloads are done by an application or by humans with their browsers.

Is the file a zip/tar collection of files or a single big file eg. Video?

- If collection, would it be possible to extract the files and use something like rsync to download only the changed files?

Could you use for example Dropbox to share your files? They have 2GB limit for free, not sure about the bandwidth limits. Also this option would work better with if the files are separated.

[Tatsujin]

Another alternative is YouSendIt or WeTransfer along those same lines.

[Khun Jean]

Bittorent is perfect for it. Have a few servers with a bittorent client on it and your customers can download from multiple sources. If one goes down, no problem.

No worries if one of the service providers screws things up.